B-2 re-enacts flight to mark decade at Missouri home base

Associated Press WriterKNOB NOSTER, Mo. (AP) -- The Air Force on Wednesday celebrated a decade of B-2 Spirit bombers flying from a home base in America's heartland.

Wednesday was also the centennial of the Wright Brothers' pioneering first flight, historical symmetry that pleased Col. Doug Raaberg, commander of the nation's 21 B-2 bombers, the first of which swooped into Whiteman Air Force Base on Dec. 17, 1993.

Before the base opened today to give the public a rare look at a B-2 traveling the runway, Raaberg noted that Orville Wright's first flight lasted just 12 seconds and covered only 120 feet.

"In the Wright Brothers' day, Jules Verne's novel idea was going around the world in 80 days. Now we fly anywhere on the planet in hours, in aircraft physically larger than the footprint of the first flight at Kitty Hawk a century ago," Raaberg said.

The B-2 Spirit -- at $1.3 billion apiece, the world's most expensive aircraft -- holds the record for the longest nonstop combat flight, a 44-hour round trip from Missouri to strike targets in Afghanistan in October 2001.

The batwing-shaped plane has also "kicked the door in" for combat operations in Kosovo and Iraq, all without detection by the enemy because of its stealth technology, Raaberg said.

Tenth-anniversary events scheduled Wednesday included a luncheon speech by Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton, the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, who landed the B-2 mission for the World War II-era base in his district. A ball was set for Wednesday evening at nearby Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg.

And a B-2 was again making a cross-country flight from manufacturer Northrup Grumman's operation in Palmdale, Calif., arriving before what was expected to be a large crowd gathering in chilly weather at Whiteman.

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Whiteman Air Force Base: http://www.whiteman.af.mil