World most expensive warbird crashes - sets a new precident

[RickH]

Um, Phil, we're talking about the B-2 here. It was built at Northrop and used a completely different approach to the stealth problem than Lockheed did with the F-117.

The Flying Wing's stealth properties were recognized back in 1947 or 48 when a YB-49 was used to test its anti radar properties against a coastal radar station. The station reported that they couldn't "see" the Wing until it was very nearly on top of them. The signifigance of the report was either lost on the recipients or ignored because of the political controversy surrounding the Flying Wing program.

[warbird1]

Since the U.S. has always had a significant lead over Russia in both computing and metallurgy, it is doubtful that Russia would benefit a whole lot from a downed F117.

I don't agree with this statement. Even though the design of the F-117 is perhaps 1st generation, a lot of the materials and make up of it is still classified and used on current USAF aircraft. One of the most sensitive parts of the -117 still, is the exhaust area or "platypus tail". How exactly that diffuses the hot exhaust air and reduces the infrared signature is still a highly sought after intelligence item. If the -117 is not very important technilogically any more, then why don't they park them at D.M. in the boneyard with all of the other USAF aircraft? Why are they putting them on the 2nd most highly classified USAF base in the world, out in the middle of the Nellis range? Surely, you're familiar with NTSB crash investigators. You can learn a tremendous amount of information by looking at the remains of an aviation accident. Well, the Russians can learn a tremendous amount by looking at the remains of the F-117. Whether they use deductive reasoning, or simply eliminate theories about this or that relating to stealth, it is still a huge loss to us.