Damaged B-2 Spirit Back In The Sky After Four Year Repair Effort

Today’s military aircraft aren’t cheap; a point noted in that the United States Air Force spent approximately $23.7 million over four years to repair and return to service a Northrop B-2 Spirit bomber damaged in a landing mishap on September 14, 2021.

The aircraft, nicknamed “Spirit of Georgia,” suffered a hydraulic failure that led to a landing-gear collapse, with the wing scraping along the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, damaging the aircraft’s composite structure.

It also took significant effort to return the aircraft, which involved a multi-phase “repair journey.”

It paid off, and on November 6, 2025, the Spirit of Georgia was back in the sky!

Such an investment was undertaken because the United States Air Force operates fewer than 20 of the flying-wing long-range strategic stealth bombers. The B-2 will remain operational for at least another decade until its replacement, the more advanced Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider, enters service.

Just 19 B-2s In The Fleet

Currently, the B-2s are also the “newest bombers” in the Air Force’s fleet, with the program running from 1988 to 2000. The 21st and final B-2 Spirit was completed in 2000.

However, due to two other mishaps, just 19 remain.

The “Spirit of Kansas” crashed at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, in 2008 and was a total write-off for the Air Force. Given the estimated $1.4 billion cost of the aircraft, it is considered the most expensive aircraft crash in history.

Three years ago, on December 10, 2022, the “Spirit of Hawaii” suffered a landing mishap during a routine support flight. The aircraft subsequently caught fire after its landing gear collapsed, destroying the airframe and grounding the B-2 fleet for months. It also resulted in the closure of Whiteman AFB’s only runway.

Although the retirement of the B-2 is likely just a decade away, the capabilities of the Spirit were apparent in June’s Operation Midnight Hammer, where the bombers flew for 36 hours round trip to strike Iran’s nuclear program. That mission also served as a reminder that the U.S. Air Force may need every bomber it has in wartime.

It Took Team Spirit

Returning the Spirit of Georgia to service was no small task. It also began nearly as soon as the bomber came to a halt following its 2021 mishap. Repair efforts were underway even before the aircraft was moved to a hangar.

“The immediate response by the 509th Maintenance and B-2 System Program Office Engineering team was critical,” explained Col. Jason Shirley, senior materiel leader at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s B-2 System Program Office, in a statement.

“They quickly recovered the aircraft, using airbags to lift it enough to manually lock the main gear and tow it into the hangar,” added Shirley. “Damage assessments and Non-Destructive Inspections followed, revealing damage primarily concentrated around the left main landing gear bay and lower wing area.”

AFLCM led the overall effort to repair the aircraft, a long and complex journey that included four key phases. However, even before that point, there was an issue of where the work would be completed.

The entire B-2 Spirit fleet is based at Whiteman AFB. Still, the repairs needed to be handled at Northrop Grumman’s facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, where the stealth aircraft first rolled off the assembly line. With a wingspan of 172 feet, the Spirit of Georgia couldn’t be transported to California except by making the flight across the country.

That required temporary repairs to the wings in Missouri, which were completed in just over a year. That allowed the damaged B-2 to make a ferry flight to Palmdale, but it also impacted its stealth capabilities, a key attribute of the Spirit.

“Air Force Global Strike provided critical response and concurrence on temporary repairs to facilitate the initial ferry flight and programmed and approved an unfunded request for in-depth scarf repairs during depot maintenance,” said Cindy Conner, deputy branch chief for Air Vehicle and Systems Management Branch in the B-2 System Program Office.

Once back at Northrop Grumman’s Plant 42, more significant repairs began in earnest, including:

One challenge is that the B-2 hasn’t been produced in more than two decades at the time of the accident, and while there are spares, components like wing panels aren’t being made any longer. To save time and costs, the repair efforts included using an existing eight-by-four-foot composite skin section from a test aircraft as a donor part. That was used to restore the lower wing skin that carries wing loads, airstream, and internal fuel tank pressures. Further repairs included the replacement of a left-hand wingtip and the outboard wing major mate skin panel, as well as the landing gear hinges. The structural work was completed on May 12, 2025.

Composite Challenges

The repairs to Spirit of Georgia faced other challenges, including controlling the heat distribution to the composite materials.

“The distribution of localized heat to the areas needing cure, while maintaining localized control as repair areas were in enclosed, confined spaces and directly adjacent to critical joints and structure was a huge challenge,” said Matt Powers, structure engineer with the B-2 System Program Office. “This was overcome by utilizing advanced custom-built heating equipment, performing thermal surveys, and adjusting insulation and cooling air throughout the final cure.”

The team further employed a new resin system that could cure outside an oven. It was the first time the resin, which had previously been used on extensive composite repairs outside an autoclave, was used on the B-2. It saved months of work and lowered repair costs. It further utilized techniques and processes from other Northrop Grumman programs.

The combination of new materials, equipment, and processes should also help improve the sustainment and modernization of the B-2 Spirit fleet and enable faster, more cost-effective repairs of all aircraft composite structures. According to the Air Force, this will further reduce downtime and extend the lifespan of the fleet.

The result speaks for itself: another Spirit is back in the sky.