Once in a lifetime, the venerable B-29 Doc and the legendary B-2 Spirit stealth bomber of the United States Air Force took to the skies together. On July 13, at the Wings Over Whiteman Air Show at Whiteman Air Force Base, these iconic aircraft performed a spectacular formation flight in the sky, despite having taken off almost fifty years apart.
Connecting the two models, the B-29 was the first aircraft to fly the aerial leg of America’s nuclear deterrence triad, which now includes B-2s as a crucial component. In April this year, twelve B-2 stealth bombers demonstrated aerial power at the same venue to cap off the yearly Spirit Vigilance exercise. The Boeing B-29 Superfortress is a four-engined propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing and primarily used by the United States during World War II and the Korean War.
It was named after its forerunner the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-29 was designed for high-altitude strategic bombing but it was also found highly effective in low-level night time incendiary bombing and laying of naval mines to block Japan. Interestingly, the B-29s were the planes that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; they remain the only aircraft ever used to deliver nuclear weapons during wartime. Close to 4,000 B-29s were manufactured with serial number 44-69972 being one of them that reached the U.S. Army Air Forces in March 1945 — this particular plane is now famously referred to as Doc.
A plane was born in the halls of Spirit AeroSystems— who now supply parts for Boeing airplanes. Doc never saw combat but served between 1945 and 1956, flying with a radar calibration squadron along the East Coast. It was during the 1970s that the US military sought to replace its aging B-52 bomber; it was then that the shadow of what would become the B-2 bomber first flickered into existence.
Northrop Grumman, the defense company that won the bomber contract, invested billions of dollars and almost ten years in developing the B-2 bomber. Radar scanners perceive the resulting 172-foot-wide flying wing as an insect. The B-2 Spirit bomber is unique among aircraft designs because of its single, enormous wing construction. There are several advantages to this flying wing design over conventional aircraft layouts. In contrast to standard aircraft, which rely on individual wings to sustain the weight of the fuselage, or main body, the B-2 aircraft produces lift throughout. This makes a wider operational range possible.
“The B-2, one of the most survivable aircraft in the world, is the only aircraft to combine long-range, stealth, and a heavy payload on a single platform,” according to Northrop Grumman. In 2001, during Operation Enduring Freedom, the B-2 Spirit of America and five other B-2 bombers set a record with a 44-hour mission over Afghanistan. After a brief pit stop with engines running, the B-2 flew back to Missouri, totaling over 70 hours of flight time. Nineteen B-2s are in service with the US Air Force as of 2024; one was destroyed in a crash in 2008, and another was lost in a crash in 2022. The Air Force intends to utilize them till 2032, at which point the Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider is scheduled to take their place.
