Stealth Bomber Unveiled Amid Pomp, Huzzahs

Northrop Corp. pulled open its doors and towed the B-2 stealth bomber out of a top-secret hangar at a formal ceremony in Palmdale on Tuesday, finally taking the wraps off an eerie-looking aircraft intended to fly undetected by radar.

The bomber, flanked by attack dogs, drew wild cheers from about 2,000 Air Force officers, industry executives and factory workers who attended the invitation-only event.

The aircraft rollout, a publicity event that has become a tradition in the industry, was closely controlled at the secret production facility, which is surrounded by barbed wire fences and monitored by an elaborate security system. In addition, Northrop had more than 200 armed guards at the plant Tuesday.

Lacks Conventional Fuselage

As it emerged from the dark shadow of its hangar into the bright sunlight of the Mojave Desert, the aircraft at once struck observers as significantly smaller than they had expected. The bomber is just a thin wedge of black and gray, a so-called “flying wing” that lacks a conventional fuselage or tail.

The Air Force allowed visitors only a direct frontal view of the bomber, obscuring the still secret system used to control the aircraft in flight and the venting system for the jet exhaust ducts. The aircraft is expected to fly for the first time within the next two months.

“Jack Northrop, we salute you,” said Northrop Chairman Thomas V. Jones, referring to the company’s late founder and chief proponent of the flying wing design. Under Air Force orders, the original flying wing prototypes developed by Jack Northrop in the 1940s were destroyed amid allegations of political coercion.

Even if it once sought to destroy the concept, the Air Force embraced it unequivocally Tuesday. Forty-one Air Force generals attended the event, a show of rank seldom seen in public events.

“This achievement culminates nearly 10 years of research and development at the cutting edge of stealth technologies and innovation in aircraft design,” said Air Force Secretary Edward C. Aldridge Jr. “The manufacturing technologies pioneered by the Northrop team will revolutionize America’s aerospace industries and significantly enhance our industrial base.”

But critics of the bomber program have asserted that its very capability will destabilize the balance of power between the United States and the Soviet Union, which Aldridge acknowledged Tuesday has no such capability.

The Air Force said the B-2 will be capable of bombing mobile nuclear missile launchers in the Soviet Union, putting at risk a weapon that the Soviets depend upon to deter U.S. attacks. Arms control experts worry that such a threat could lead the Soviets to have a hair trigger in a crisis.

Aldridge asserted, however, that the B-2 will be a “stabilizing influence in time of crisis and an essential component of our strategic nuclear forces as we progress down the path of nuclear arms reductions.”

The other key problem facing the bomber program is the looming financial crisis at the Pentagon, which has a handful of multibillion-dollar weapons programs approaching production and not enough money to produce all that it wants.

Aldridge declined in a brief news conference Tuesday to say which programs are candidates to be cut or delayed. Air Force officials have said the B-2 is a high priority, but they make that statement about virtually all weapons programs.

The bomber is scheduled to become operational in 1991 and the final bomber would not be delivered until the mid-1990s. But tight budgets could delay production and add to the cost.

The Air Force has acknowledged that the B-2 program cost has increased beyond the official $36.6-billion figure released several years ago, but it has not disclosed a new official cost figure. Aldridge said it will be submitted in the federal budget in January.

Congressional reports put the cost at about $68 billion, or roughly $500 million per aircraft, making the B-2 the most costly mass-produced plane in history. The Air Force plans to buy 132 of the aircraft.

In addition, the Air Force has spent $66 million to build a special test facility at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave. It also built at an undisclosed cost the Palmdale production facility, which it leases to Northrop. Similar facilities are estimated to be worth more than $100 million. The B-2 will be based at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, where the Air Force is building B-2 hangars at a cost of $144 million.

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.) has said that even the Air Force is concerned that Northrop “does not have an effective cost-management program” for holding down B-2 costs. Aspin has sought over the past year to increase competitive pressure on Northrop in an effort to hold down the cost.

Permitted to Say Little

Northrop is permitted to say little about the bomber program, even though the plane has now appeared publicly. The company recently said it will build the bomber with a revolutionary computerized manufacturing system, but it is unclear how much money that will save.

With a length of 69 feet and a wingspan of 172 feet, the bomber is designed to fly at subsonic speeds undetected by enemy radar and deliver up to 16 nuclear bombs. It is powered by four General Electric engines and carries a radar system produced by Hughes Aircraft in El Segundo.

The aircraft appeared to some observers Tuesday to be slightly asymmetrical, especially in the positioning of its engine inlets. Bill Sweetman, who has written a book on stealth aircraft, speculated that the asymmetry may play a role in its ability to elude radar.

In addition to helping avoid detection by radar, the flying wing design is said to be aerodynamically efficient.

“The B-2 is a superb example of the inherent technological advantage of a free society,” said Gen. Larry Welch, Air Force chief of staff. “It will ensure that any adversary must face . . . the penetrating bomber with large payloads of nuclear weapons, delivered with devastating accuracy on any target anywhere.”

The bomber will carry a crew of two, but has provisions for a third pilot if that becomes necessary, Aldridge said. It was unclear why the Air Force foresees a potential need for an additional crew member, since everything about the B-2 is supposed to be a final design rather than a prototype.

Northrop employs 1,600 workers at the Palmdale assembly plant. An additional 600 subcontractors and Air Force officials work at the plant. Engineering and parts production is located at a Northrop plant in Pico Rivera. In total, Northrop has 12,600 employees in its B-2 division, down about 1,400 from a year ago.

Outside the Northrop gates Tuesday, the roll-out ceremony drew a crowd of several dozen spectators who hoped to catch a glimpse of the bomber.

Stanley Zemanek, a retired plumber from El Monte, waited for three hours to see the bomber. Complaining that he was turned away at the Northrop plant gate by security guards, he said: “I think the Russians have already got as much as they need.”

Although the Air Force permitted only 500 guests, not including the Northrop employees at the rollout, the event was privately broadcast to more than a dozen military and industrial sites across the country.

A military band from March Air Force Base was seated nearest the bomber and played a special composition as the bomber was towed out.