B2 Bomber seen over Staten Island, NY

[fightnight]

Saw a B2 Spirit while visiting Staten Island today.. It was a beautiful sight to see. Very quiet -- you wouldn't know it was over you until it was too late..

I've been waiting to see one for quite a while, and finally got a chance to. My son pointed out a plane to me, and I looked up expecting to see a passenger jet but instead saw the B2... :-)

[fightnight]

1:00pm? I thought it was around 2:00, but now that you mention, it, it probably was around that time..

Very rare -- in fact, I've never seen one out this way before....

And I'm sure it's the same one -- I doubt they sent more than one for an airshow, ball game, etc....

[Paddlefish]

One flew over Phoenix for the 7th game of the D-Backs/Yankees game 7 of the World Series. We were in a large group just outside of the stadium when someone started pointing. The crowd went wild. You're right: "coolest thing ever."

[verum ago]

the only time I've seen a B2 in flight was when one flew over the soccer field complex I was at in Boise to land for an airshow. It was only ~500-600 feet off the ground, landing gear down, and very, very surreal

[irishtenor]

Thank you all. It is a beautiful plane, and I am proud to say that I did the machining on all of the wing panels for them. I spent six years working on these planes and it is a joy to see them flying.

[SunTzuWu]

Very cool! I was traveling East on 81 on Friday the 8th and saw a beautiful sight. I saw, for the first time a B-24 Liberator and a B-17 Flying Fortress, both in flight. I was heading for Hartford but was still in NY. They must have been coming from or going to an air show. I've seen B-17s before but the B-24 was a first for me.

[GBA]

The Nazis did have flying wings, but give Jack Northrup some credit. The B2 is his airplane and fortunately he lived long enough to see one of his flying wings in the air force inventory.

[Mrs. Shawnlaw]

Nice Candygram!

[Puddleglum]

They are beautiful and silent as a kite up in the sky. Almost ghostly.

[Zeppo]

I could be wrong on the time - lemme see... I was at the Post Office right at 12:00, stopped at home to pick up some stuff to bring to my boat, then hit the road again, and the spot where I saw it is probably a half hour from my house, so yeah, it was likely around 1:00 when I saw it... But it might have been doing fly-bys for the people on the beaches and out on their boats, rather than making a high-speed beeline for its home base, so it could have taken its sweet time getting to your part of NY, which is not all that far as the B2 flies (I also noticed a blimp going in the other direction, at much lower altitude, and they routinely cruise along the shoreline for just that purpose).

When I first caught sight of it, I was a bit puzzled, because you would normally expect such a plane to be at low altitude only shortly after takeoff, but the only airport anywhere nearby that I can think of (unless it came from Long Island) is in Stratford, and besides it being a civilian airport, I doubt that its runway or facilities are adequate to support such an aircraft. That lead me to speculate that it may have been showing off for an audience - for all that I know, it could have been doing a flyby for one of the Connecticut-based defense contractors (a couple of them are located in Norwalk) having an open house or whatever...

[cyborg]

I'll give credit where credit is due. Sure. I was just surprised at how similar they were and where the idea came from.

[martin_fierro]

Mrs. F & I were driving back to the SF Bay Area from Sacramento one evening a few years back and saw one do a banking turn right overhead.

Those things're MUCH bigger than I'd imagined.

[VOA]

There will be a B2 flyover at Homecoming (for University of Missouri),
in Columbia, MO on Sept. 23.

Nice to see the local boys from Whiteman AFB will be swinging by.

[taxed2death]

Poor Kelly Johnson and Jack Northrop are rolling over in their graves. :(

[taxed2death]

"...B-24 Liberator and a B-17 Flying Fortress, both in flight. I was heading for Hartford but was still in NY. They must have been coming from or going to an air show. I've seen B-17s before but the B-24 was a first for me."

They were in Oxford (CT) airport for a day too...I snuck over there (5 miles from my home) and had a peek. Too cool!

[VOA]

I think it was the Horten brothers of the Reich that were just a bit
ahead of the curve -- just a bit ahead of Jack Northrup.
http://aerostories.free.fr/constructeurs/horten/page2.html

[Inyo-Mono]

I was traveling East on 81 on Friday the 8th and saw a beautiful sight. I saw, for the first time a B-24 Liberator and a B-17 Flying Fortress, both in flight.

Oh how I wish I could have seen that for my late Father was a bombardier on a B-24 in the Pacific in WWII.

[cyborg]

It doesn't bother me that US aerospace engineers studied what Nazis built, esp. if it was superior and could be an asset to the US. The plane was just sitting in a museum and nothing being done with it. Now I wish I never said anything.

[taxed2death]

Hey, Hey, Hey!!!! Relax FRiend... :)

I was just making a lamo joke. No harm intended. :)

I read a great book a while ago called Skunkworks...I forget whether it was K. Johnson or Northrop...but one of those guys actually got to see the B2 fly shortly before his death....some Brass at Skunkworks new how important it was to let the creator finally see his dream take to the air. It seemed like such a nice gesture.

[butternut_squash_bisque]

I'm a Jack-Fan, GBA!

[dancusa]

I once saw a B-17 and B-24 flying in formation on approach to BDL. I heard low pitch rumbling noise, I went outside and looked up and I was amazed by how slow that they flew.