FighterControl

Morning all,
Later I am going to do a full list of the b-2s that have visited FFD (be it test deployment /ex /RIAT/IAT/or real world ops ,)
I will post in this thread later with said list.
So that if and when they come back in future this can be easy ref for fellow FC'ers .
All the best
Max
Edit ,may even be worth having it as a sticky at the top?

Here we go,
July 19th 1997
IAT
89-0127/WM "Spirit of Kanasas"
March 10 1999
82-1067 "Spirit of Arizona " GP mission into FFD
July 23rd 99 82-1069/WM"Spirit of Alaska" IAT static
July 28th-29th 02
92-0700/WM "Spirit of Florida"
89-0128/WM"Spirit of Nebraska"
July 2003 RIAT
92-0700/WM "Spirit of Florida"
July '04
93-1086/WM"Spirit of Kittyhawk" as DEATH 63
March '06
93-1085 "ZETA 11"
90-0090"ZEATA 12" (FFD test deployment )
August 12'08- Aug 17'08
82-1067 "REAPER11"
89-0128 "REAPER 12"
RIAT July 2012
82-1086 "DEATH11"
June 2014 -crews stayed week long duration at FFD for a GP ex
82-1069 "Spirit of Indiana" c/s DEATH11/SPIRIT 11
93-1088 "Spirit of Louisiana" ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^ - these were generic c/s used by the crews whilst on ops from FFD
2015
7/6/15
82-1069/WM "Spirit of New York" -arrived as PATH11 but due to tech issues did not leave as planed with sister ship evently left on 9/6/15 as "SPIRIT 11"
88-0329/WM "Spirit of Missouri" - arrived as PATH12 and departed without its lead as SALAM 11 same moring
8/6/15
82-1069/WM "Spirit of Indiana" arrived as PANTS 11 and departed same day as COLON 11
90-0040/WM "Spirit of Alaska" arrived as PANTS12 and departed same day as COLON 12
All the best
Max

Missing 89-0127 'Spirit of Kansas' visit to RIAT 1997 on July 19th of that year.

Hi,
Thankyou for that,will add ASAP
All the best
Max

Max, already posted here http://www.raf-fairford.co.uk/b-2-stealth-bomber-visits and here viewtopic.php?f=45&t=115326

Spirit of Kansas won't be coming back :-(

I note you start with IAT july 1999 if that's the case there was a visit by a B2 on a global power mission that landed mid week on a hot refuel and crew change on its way back stateside it was the first ever visit I witnessed it but cant locate my logbook, but still have pics I took from up a tree as it taxied by I must dig them out and see what the serial
no was, hardly anyone present on that day.

Aren't these actually just "B-2"s (not "B-2A"s)?

Nope ,I think you will find USAF state they are B-2A Spirits,so by that think I'm right
Edit,thanks for link Mushbuster,just was thinking be useful to have a list purely on FC
And iv updated the list to include IAT 97 first landing of B-2A on UK soil
All the best
Max
Edit :Baz1, I would love to know the serials so if you could find them in your logbook that would be awsoume,also won't mind seeing the pics you mention
Edit: Storms in Africa,why won't Spirit of Kansas come back?was it the one that crashed on Guam?any info known appricated
Anyhow ,I thought they repaired that recently ??

It's great to have a 'Time line' of these aircraft but, what does the future hold for RAF Fairford apart from RIAT. It's been proposed that, the USAF are to pull out of the UK from Mildenhall, Lakenheathe , Alconbury and move to Germany. general site info and an on going NOTAM shows £££'s are being spent on upgrading RAF Fairford Security. I live local the Base and its like an addiction to know any Movements. being Europe's biggest runway, why isn't the field being used on a more regular basis...!

skywatch1

Max,

"Spirit of Kansas" was the one that crashed at Anderson AFB 23/02/2008 - fortunately without loss of life.

Video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNnM_8WahcQ

The other one you must be thinking of was "Spirit of Washington" 88-0332 that had an engine fire at Anderson in February 2010. It did not return to service until 16 December 2013.

See http://swampland.time.com/2014/01/02/wh ... 2-bombers/

Hope that this helps.

Bob

Thanks very much for above Bob,much appricated :)glad to hear the crews walked away safely remember reading about both incidents in afm.
Yes that will be the other one I'm thinking of
All the best
Max

skywatch1 wrote:It's great to have a 'Time line' of these aircraft but, what does the future hold for RAF Fairford apart from RIAT. It's been proposed that, the USAF are to pull out of the UK from Mildenhall, Lakenheathe , Alconbury and move to Germany. general site info and an on going NOTAM shows £££'s are being spent on upgrading RAF Fairford Security. I live local the Base and its like an addiction to know any Movements. being Europe's biggest runway, why isn't the field being used on a more regular basis...!

skywatch1

Skywatch1, there has been no mention by USAF of closing Lakenheath, nor pulling out of the UK. The future basing of USAF F-35As at Lakenheath and consolidation of future intel/communications operations at RAF Croughton which is allowing the closure of Molesworth and Alconbury have been announced as has the intent to pull out of Mildenhall. There has been no announcement on all the Mildenhall based missions and we have heard nothing further about a UK basing location for the USAF RC135s. Meanwhile there is some minor fence repairs being carried out at the runway ends and what looks like normal building works (I too live quite close). The base is there for bomber operations and unless there is a contingency that may require it to be used (as it was in 2003, 1999 and 1991) I would not expect to see anything outside of the U2 flights, occasional bomber or Special Forces exercises. On the runway, Fairford's runway is far from Europe's biggest with at least 6 others in the UK being longer including Brize Norton just up the road, not sure where that myth came from but it has persisted for decades.

If you look on google maps, keeping the same scale of course, Fairford runway (including over runs) is longer than the one at Brize.

I stand to be corrected though if this is not the case in reality.

Fairford is 3045x61m
Brize is 3050x56m

On the other hand, Heathrow's 27R/09L is 3902x50m. And even that's not the longest runway in Europe by a fair distance!

I guess that's not including over runs then?

Overruns are never included in runway length

Not wanting to distract from the great work Max has done to compile his inventory of B-2 visits, it's worth giving Fairford's runway some context.

As the actress said to the bishop, it's not all about length. Fairford has one of the strongest runways in Europe, I think only Elvington and Lajes were in the same category when I looked a few years ago. It's taxiways are also some of the widest in the Europe that makes them perfect for a couple of American aircraft with small set of wheels near their wingtips or wingtip skids. Finally, the airfield's lighting configuration is also physically installed so these big eight engined aircraft can use the airfield without bumping over lights as they taxi or rip them out the ground when they take off. I remember as well that if needed Fairford's runway could easily be extended into the overruns if the needed ever occurred, the land from the SAC era runway lengths hasn't gone anywhere. I bet Waddington is wishing they had that option!

page_verify wrote:Fairford has one of the strongest runways in Europe, I think only Elvington and Lajes were in the same category when I looked a few years ago.

To expand on this point...

Brize Norton's runway has a PCN of 81/F/B/W/T. That is to say...

81: it has a load carrying capacity of 81
F: it is of a flexible design (i.e. asphalt)
B: it is of medium strength
W: it can support tyres of any pressure
T: this was all worked out by technical evaluation.

Fairford's runway is PCN 105/R/A/W/T:

Load carrying capacity of 105, rigid design (concrete), high strength, tyres of any pressure, technical evaluation.

Heathrow, oddly, sites somewhere in the middle, at 83/F/A/W/T!

Lajes, however, is not even close... 74/F/C/W/T.

Ah ok, my apologies - I seemed to remember when I last looked that the Lajes runway was essentially just a strip of volcanic rock with markings painted on it hence it's strength but that's obviously changed.