The plane suffered a touchdown gear collapse at Whiteman AFB on Sep. 14, 2021, and was put by way of an intensive Programmed Depot Upkeep at Plant 42 to return to operational service.
The U.S. Air Drive has returned a B-2 Spirit bomber, 89-0129 “Spirit of Georgia,” to operational service, in keeping with photos captured on Nov. 6, 2025, and shared on the DVIDS community on Dec. 2. The photographs present the plane being parked at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, after struggling heavy harm in 2021.
The caption accompanying the photographs says: “The ‘Spirit of Georgia’ was broken in an plane incident in September of 2021 and has just lately returned to the fleet.” A Dec. 3 press launch by the AFLCMC (Air Drive Life Cycle Administration Heart) detailed the restore, restoration, examination, testing, elements procurement and an exhaustive PDM (Programmed Depot Upkeep) at Northrop Grumman’s facility at Air Drive Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, which allowed to revive the bomber to operational standing.
The B-2 Spirit is the mainstay of the service’s long-range strategic typical and non-conventional strike roles, as demonstrated in Operation Midnight Hammer in opposition to Iran’s nuclear services. The stealth bomber is deliberate to get replaced by the incoming B-21 Raider within the subsequent few years.
USAF B-2 fleet
The U.S. Air Drive is at the moment left with a fleet of 19 B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, after the service determined to divest the “Spirit of Hawaii”. That plane skilled a hydraulic failure, in keeping with the Plane Accident Investigation Board (AAIB) report, which prompted its left predominant touchdown gear to break down on Dec. 10, 2022 at Whiteman AFB, Missouri. The plane skidded off the runway and caught fireplace and the service ultimately assessed the harm as too expensive to restore and retire the jet, as The Aviationist reported in Might 2024.
The mishap involving 89-0129 “Spirit of Georgia” came about on Sep. 14, 2021, when the plane assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing’s (509th BW) 393rd Bomb Squadron (393rd BS) additionally skilled a left predominant touchdown gear (LMLG) collapse on Whiteman AFB’s runway. The plane skidded off runway till it got here to a cease about one mile from the landing level. Preliminary estimates put the price of repairing the bomber at a minimal of $10.1 million, in keeping with the AAIB report.
The investigation decided that the LMLG “lock hyperlink springs failed to supply adequate strain to keep up the lock hyperlinks within the locked place, which resulted in a LMLG collapse” throughout Spirit of Georgia’s touchdown. “Additional, the AAIB President discovered, by a preponderance of the proof, that one issue considerably contributed to the mishap: the failure of a hydraulic CryoFit coupling that drove a fast a lack of hydraulic fluid within the #1 and #4 hydraulic methods, which remoted the LMLG lock hyperlink actuator and prevented its use in aiding the LMLG lock hyperlink to stay down and locked,” talked about the report.
“Spirit of Georgia” is the second B-2 Spirit introduced again to life by the USAF, after the service introduced in early 2014 the return of the “Spirit of Washington” to operational standing, after a four-year restore course of. The aircraft burnt down again in February 2010 throughout a take-off from Guam’s Andersen AFB, following an engine fireplace that engulfed the airframe.
Repairs on Spirit of Georgia
Col. Jason Shirley, Senior Materiel Chief, Air Drive Life Cycle Administration Heart’s B-2 System Program Workplace mentioned within the press launch that the “rapid response” by the 509th Upkeep and B-2 System Program Workplace Engineering staff allowed to rapidly begin recovering the plane, “utilizing airbags to carry it sufficient to manually lock the principle gear and tow it into the hangar.” Shirley additional added that “Harm assessments and Non-Harmful Inspections adopted, revealing harm primarily concentrated across the left predominant touchdown gear bay and decrease wing space.”
Earlier than the “key early milestone” of a one-time ferry flight from Whiteman AFB to Northrop Grumman’s facility in Palmdale, “in depth inspections and non permanent repairs” came about. “Laser dimensional inspections confirmed that essential areas, reminiscent of flight management attachment fittings and touchdown gear bay fittings, remained inside acceptable tolerances. Finite Factor Technique evaluation was then used to guage potential final load exceedance on the first construction and to focus the Non-Harmful Inspection efforts on essential areas of the outboard wing spars. These inspections confirmed no harm to the outboard wing spars,” defined the press launch.
The B-2 such as you’ve by no means seen it earlier than at Palmdale, CA. 👀 😎
Large due to 📷 Dylan Phelps for sharing! Take a look at his FB and IG pages: Centerline Photos pic.twitter.com/2kTV0Mtw0h
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) March 27, 2024
The non permanent repairs saved an estimated $52 million and shaved 9 months off the schedule, with the ferry flight happening on Sep. 22, 2022. The four-phase everlasting repairs, price $23.7 million, had been listed as follows:
Section 1: Design the restore and order long-lead supplies.
Section 2: Conduct take a look at panels to show the restore idea.
Section 3: Restore the plane.
Section 4: Develop airworthiness artifacts to certify the repairs.
An “revolutionary” technique was the usage of an current 8×4 foot composite pores and skin part from Take a look at Article 0998 as a donor half, saving vital “price and schedule in comparison with fabricating a brand new composite pores and skin.” This restore restored performance to 89-0129’s decrease wing pores and skin carrying wing hundreds, airstream, and inner gasoline tank pressures.
The left-hand wingtip, the outboard wing main mate pores and skin panel, and the left-hand predominant touchdown gear door hinges had been changed, whereas the composite pores and skin that disbonded was repaired and the door was rigged. “All structural repairs had been accomplished by Might 12, 2025,” added the AFLCMC.
Engineering challenges
A “vital hurdle” was controlling warmth distribution throughout the composite restore course of. In response to Matt Powers, Construction Engineer with the B-2 System Program Workplace, “the distribution of localized warmth to the areas needing treatment, whereas sustaining localized management as restore areas had been in enclosed, confined areas and immediately adjoining to essential joints and construction was an enormous problem.”
The staff utilized “superior custom-built heating gear, performing thermal surveys, and adjusting insulation and cooling air all through the ultimate treatment.” For “contamination management” whereas repairing composites widespread to gasoline tanks, the staff managed to return them “to a close to lab-grade cleanliness stage previous to making use of the restore plies.”
New applied sciences and processes, like a brand new composite resin from one other platform, was used for the primary time on the B-2, because it was not attainable to conduct the restore in an autoclave, a specialised container generally used for the curing means of composite supplies.
“This new resin was already confirmed for giant composite repairs outdoors of an autoclave,” mentioned the AFLCMC. “This saved months of schedule and lowered the danger of expensive rework.”
“The brand new supplies and gear will considerably enhance sustainment and modernization work for the fleet, permitting for quicker and more cost effective repairs of composite buildings sooner or later, lowering downtime and increasing the lifespan of the fleet,” the press launch additional added.
I discover it so attention-grabbing narratively that the B-2, all individually named plane Spirit of Kansas, Spirit of Georgia, Spirit of Texas, Spirit of America, Spirit of Kitty Hawk, and so forth, for sneak assault missions are launched out of a spot known as Whiteman Air Drive Base in Missouri pic.twitter.com/GKcDqiFUcF
— TheHuntForTomClancy (@HuntClancy) September 24, 2025
Jerry Mcbrearty, vice chairman and B-2 program supervisor at Northrop Grumman, mentioned that for “distinctive repairs,” together with reconstruction of the broken left wing, the staff developed and utilized a “new scarf restore evaluation strategies and processes leveraged from different Northrop Grumman applications.”
Assist from AFGSC
The Air Drive International Strike Command’s A4A (Logistics, Engineering and Drive Safety) and A5B (Plans and Necessities) divisions facilitated the preliminary ferry flight and programmed and authorized an unfunded request for in-depth scarf repairs throughout depot upkeep.
