Osprey Combat Aircraft 64

B-2A Spirit Units in Combat

by

Thomas Withington

Reviewed by John Prigent

B-2A Spirit Units in Combat is available online from Squadron.com

This is good!

It begins with an interesting chapter on the development of the B-2A, which also lists deliveries to the USAF and gives information about variations between the three Blocks built as well as crew comments on flying characteristics and maintenance. This takes us to page 30.

The rest of the book is devoted to combat flights over Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq and to future possible developments. The two-man crew switches over during long flights, with folding cots bought by the men to allow sleep. Since the fit in the “spare” crew space it’s difficult to understand why they weren’t included in the design in the first place, but presumably the Air Force thought its crews were supermen who didn’t need sleep to maintain concentration on flights lasting up to 50 hours.

There is a great selection of colour photos, with quite a few monochrome ones as well, and good colour plates showing markings. My only criticism is that these include scrap views of “name plates” without indicating in the captions where they might be carried or even if they’re on the aircraft at all.
 

Thanks to Osprey Publishing for the review sample
 

Review Copyright © 2006 by John Prigent
This Page Created on 20 July, 2006
Last updated 20 July, 2006

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