Posted 2/23/2008 05:51:00 PM by Douglas

Ooops!

A B-2 stealth bomber plunged to the ground shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on Saturday, the first time one crashed, but both pilots ejected safely, Air Force officials said.

The aircraft was taking off with three others on their last flight out of Guam after a four-month deployment, part of a continuous U.S. bomber presence in the western Pacific. After the crash, the other three bombers were being kept on Guam, said Maj. Eric Hilliard at Hickham Air Force Base in Hawaii.

At least one B-2 bomber had taken off safely from Andersen Air Force Base but was brought back when another aircraft plunged to the ground.

There were no injuries on the ground or damage to buildings, and no munitions were on board. Each B-2 bomber costs about $1.2 billion to build.

Good to hear that the crew ejected safely. The GAO puts the unit cost closer to $2.2 billion, so here's some fun facts about the B-2:

• How much of a Space Shuttle would a B-2 buy? About 1.3. And we have 20 of them!
• A string of 2.2 Billion one dollar bills would stretch from San Francisco to Guam 37 times.
• If the B-2 were made entirely out of solid gold, it would still cost $2.2 Billion.
• The cost of a single B-2 is about 69% the GDP of Guam. And we have 20 of them!

Your tax dollar at work. And so on. . .