What Does The Inside Of A B2 Bomber Look Like?

The B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber is one of the most secretive and advanced aircraft in the world. It has been flying since July 1989, yet very few people have ever seen it up close, and even fewer have had a chance to peek inside. Only a few glimpses of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber’s cockpit have been shared with the public, and it turns out it’s just as fantastic as one would expect from such a futuristic aircraft.

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Looking at the outside, the B-2 already feels like witnessing something from a movie or a video game, especially with its bat-wing design and sharp and edgy corners. But    the inside tells its own story. The aircraft features just two seats in the cockpit — not some huge command center like you might imagine. It’s compact, minimal, and completely mission-focused. After all, the B-2 Bomber is built around stealth, efficiency, and long-distance flying.

Despite being massive on the outside, at 20.9 meters long, the cockpit of the B-2 Spirit seems surprisingly small in comparison with the highly packed tech. That said, there’s a 6-foot space right behind the seats where pilots can stretch out and rest during long missions.

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The aircraft seats just two crew members, side by side, and in front of them are a few large digital screens that do the work of hundreds of buttons. The most important one is called the Vertical Situation Display (VSD), telling the pilot almost everything: altitude, speed, direction, attitude, all in a single glance. Then comes the Horizontal Situation Display (HSD), which helps track the flight path, nearby aircraft, and mission details.

Each and everything is designed to help the pilot stay focused without being overwhelmed. And that matters because B-2 missions are no joke. The flights with these silent killers can be incredibly long, often needing midair refueling to make it to their targets and back. That’s the reason why the aircraft is also equipped with an autopilot feature. This feature lets the pilots focus on other crucial things related to the mission, without worrying about where the flight is headed.

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Each and every thing on the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber is built with stealth in mind. It might sound overwhelming, but over 250 materials make up its special coating, designed to absorb radar signals. Even inside, systems are designed to manage heat using air and liquid cooling because too much heat could make the aircraft visible to sensors. And to make sure everything stays perfectly stealthy, even the tiniest parts are built with extreme accuracy — we’re talking measurements as small as a few thousandths of an inch. It’s no wonder a single unit of B-2 Bomber costs around $2.12 billion.

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But, is the stealth the only thing that defines a B-2 Bomber? Quite the opposite. It can carry both conventional and nuclear weapons, such as the GBU-57 and the B83, two of the most powerful bombs in the U.S. arsenal. Thanks to a modular bomb system — jokingly called “Mr. Potato Head” — crews can mix and match parts depending on the mission. With a single midair refuel, the B-2 has a total range of over 12,000 miles. Putting it simply, it can strike anywhere on Earth without landing. Not bad for a plane that still looks like it’s from the future.