B-2 Accident Info Released

[SIG600]

satpak77,

I disagree with you. While I don't know if there was a computer glitch or something of that nature, I am sure that the pilots and all on-board realized they were fu*ked when the nose pitched up that high on the take off roll. And, I would have to disagree with visual perception not playing a big part on take-off and landing. While I am just a helo bubba, my buddies fly the 747 and they have to fly that giant all the way to the ground.

How is Alaska, and do we know each other?

The 747 is not a fly-by wire aircraft. Every flight control surface moves completely different to what you would think when control inputs are given. You tell the computer what to do, it manipulates the controls to make it happen. It's what allows me to be in complete control of the Hornet at > 35 AOA, fully stalled, and still point the nose where I want. The caveat to this is that if the info going to the magic boxes is erroneous, then so are the outputs to the control surfaces. Garbage in, garbage out. As far as that B-2 was concerned, it was doing everything right, with the f_cked up info going to the computers.

 

[mudkow60]

Well shoot me if there is not an override feature (as when the Airbus plowed into the trees in France), but even in the Dolphin, you can overpower or kick off the computer when it goes tits up. All I am saying is that it would appear, early in the take off, at the point of rotation, that something was going very wrong.

 

[MountainFreak]

Pure speculation here, but flying wing designs are inherently unstable. There is a pretty good chance that the B-2 requires operating flight control computers to fly at all. I believe the F-16 is similar in that respect.

Anyway, this report raises even more questions in my mind. For example, isn't the pitot heat automatically turned on, like in many modern aircraft, especially those with FCC's?
And doesn't the plane have reduntants ADC's? Did they all fail in the same manner? Maybe a B-2 insider can give us the unclassified info.

 

[Colonel Savage]

It appears that after the initial over rotation the pilot manages to reduce the pitch attitude (2+00 sec) and regain some control (w/some ocilations 2+10 sec), but then seems to lose directional control and yaw with a slight roll to the left (2+13 sec). At 2+15 sec the wingtip strikes and the ejection sequence begins, followed by the crash.

It appears to me to be the loss of yaw and roll control and subsequent wing tip strike is what causes the accident, so the question becomes what caused the loss of yaw and roll control.

One theory that comes to mind is that engines, when subjected to extremely high angles of attack, can become starved of inlet air due to disturbed or blocked air flow. The B-2, being designed as a bomber, and having the engine inlets placed several feet aft of the leading edge, could have been subjected to this effect.

 

[Huggyu2]

Not to divulge anything, but...

YGBFSM.


And the price tag is about $2.2B, not $1.4B

 

[MJG]

Wow! I had no idea the actual accident was caught on video. Pretty wild to see.

 

[scoreboardII]

Good for the pilots getting out, they almost waited to long.

Now, I sure hope my USAF submits the bill directly to the manufacture for 2.2B.

 

[SIG600]

Good for the pilots getting out, they almost waited to long.

They were probably waiting for the computer to let them eject.

That whole joke about pulling the handle and HAL just saying, "try harder."