Inside the cockpit of a B-2 bomber, one of America's most secret aircraft
The US Air Force has only given a handful the opportunity to take a look inside the cockpit, where B-2 Spirit pilots are trained for their long-haul trips to carry out top secret bombing raids.
Documentary filmmaker Jeff Bolton was allowed to step inside a B-2 back in 2019 as it took off from the Whiteman Air Force Base outside Kansas City, Missouri — the first time a civilian journalist was allowed inside the bomber.
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4 The US Air Force has only given a handful the opportunity to take a look inside the cockpit.
PBS SoCal
Whiteman Air Force Base — the home of the B-2 fleet — is also where all seven bombers launched for the 37-hour round-trip strike on Iran's Fordow nuclear enrichment facility on Saturday.
A short clip of the Bolton's B-2 experience shows the pilot maintaining a steady hand as he flew over US airspace, with the filmmaker's camera panning across the aircraft's intricate dashboard.
Bolton's video harkened back to the first time America got a look inside a B-2 during a 1997 PBS episode with the late Huell Howser.
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4 A short clip of the Bolton's B-2 experience shows the pilot maintaining a steady hand as he flew over US airspace.
PBS SoCal
4 Bolton's video harkened back to the first time America got a look inside a B-2 during a 1997 PBS episode with the late Huell Howser.
PBS SoCal
The episode featured a giddy Howser marveling at the aircraft and surprised at just how small the cockpit was, as it was barely able to accommodate him and both pilots he was interviewing.
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Even though the military allowed Howser inside the plane, the bomber's dashboard was turned off and windshield covered for security reasons, with the pilots reiterating the B-2's need for secrecy above all else.
4 The episode featured a giddy Howser marveling at the aircraft and surprised at just how small the cockpit was.
PBS SoCal
The bombers — which were originally designed to slip undetected into the Soviet Union and drop nuclear bombs — entered service in 1997, and each one costs more than $2 billion.
The US Air Force has a fleet of 19, and it's the only US aircraft capable of dropping the 15-ton GBU-57 bunker buster bombs, which were needed to breach the Fordow nuclear facility, which is buried 300 feet under a mountain.
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