A B-2 Spirit strategic bomber was damaged in a fire following an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, United States.
The incident took place on December 10, 2022. After experiencing an in-flight malfunction, the stealth bomber requested an emergency landing at the air base, the 509th Bomb Wing public affairs wrote in a statement to AeroTime.
“There was a fire associated with the aircraft after landing, and the base fire department extinguished the fire,” the statement read.
No injuries were reported. The aircraft was damaged. An investigation into the incident was opened.
With its characteristic hawk’s-beak profile, the Northrop Grumman B-2 is one of the three strategic bombers operated by the United States Air Force, along with the supersonic Rockwell B-1 Lancer and the venerable Boeing B-52 Stratofortress.
It is particularly precious to the USAF, as due to budget constraints, only 21 of the 132 planned aircraft were built.
Whiteman Air Force Base is the main air base of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber, where 19 aircraft are being flown by the US Air Force 509th and 131st Bomb Wings.
On December 2, 2022, Northrop Grumman unveiled the successor to the B-2 Spirit: the B-21 Raider. Due to replacing both the B-2 and the B-1 Lancer, it reuses some of the B-2’s general characteristics with a sleek flying wing design. A hundred copies of the upcoming B-21 are expected to be eventually ordered, which is more than the fleets of B-1s and B-2s combined.