4 ms·

Multi-billion is a bit high, even for modern planes. You basically have to crash a B-2 bomber to get there. Which has, of course, been done. https://en.wikiped

• vonseel 8y ago
  Incredibly expensive plane to put in the air. Recent ISIS fighting article claimed 100 hours of maintenance for every hour of flight.
  • hatedWhenRight 8y ago
    Oh, I dunno. I bet it's possible to fabricate an airworthy airframe of identical external appearance, and power it with cheap engines that are permit the same capablities of subsonic speeds, for much cheaper. But, it obviously couldn't fly in a warzone. It'd be missing all of its expensive radar absorbing material, valious fly-by-wire avionics and electronic countermeasures, it'd be hot on thermal imaging, very loud and noisy, and it couldn't haul half of a B-52's armament and payload, and it'd probably lack the range and durability of a military war plane. But. You could do fly-bys at air shows, and everyone would be just as impressed. I have to figure, it might be possible to put something that looks (and maybe, in an engine-out glide, sounds) like a B-2 in the air for on ten-thousandth of the cost. So maybe, with budget of 20 legit bombers, you could manufacture 200,000 defective twins with the same visual impact?