June 1946
Test pilot Max Stanley flies the XB-35, the distant grandfather of the B-2. It will take decades of engineering progress before flying wings are stable enough to fly in combat.
November 1981
Northrop Grumman wins a contract to research a flying-wing bomber.
February 1982
The Tacit Blue test airplane begins flights. The Air Force uses the data it generates to shape the B-2.
July 1989
The B-2 flies for the first time in the skies of California.
April 1997
The Air Force announces the B-2 is ready to drop conventional bombs.
March 1999
A pair of Spirit bombers strike Yugoslavia with satellite-guided bombs in the B-2's combat debut.
October 2001
B-2s bomb Afghanistan, the first response to the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.
March 2003
B-2 stealth bombers open the "shock and awe" campaign in Iraq, hitting the correct targets with 2000-pound bombs but failing to killSaddam Hussein.
February 2006
The Air Force declares its intention to field a new bomber in 2018.
February 2008
A B-2 crashes without fatalities in Guam after its airspeed sensors are befuddled by moisture. Says Technical Sgt. Thomas Anderson: "For us, it was like when Kennedy was shot."
April 2009
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates cancels the 2018 bomber.
March 2011
Three B-2s from Missouri wipe out Libya's air force on the ground in one evening.
February 2012
The Obama administration in its 2013 budget requests $6.3 billion to develop a new bomber, ready in 2025.
January 2013
The Pentagon confirms the B-2 can carry the GBU-57, a 30,000-pound bomb, which explodes after penetrating hundreds of feet of concrete.
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