size of the B-2 cockpit?
Paul Hirose
>
> Anyone know how big the cockpit is on a B-2? It is pilot & co-pilot?
> I would love to see the inside and take a ride in one. Very cool.
I worked for 10 years in B-2 avionics maintenance and have a lot of
experience running the cockpit. Even got a ride one time. Okay, that
was just a taxi out to the runway hammerhead for a ground test!
On a per-crewmember basis, the B-2 has the largest cockpit of the USAF
bombers. There's a wide center console between the seats and plenty of
space between your head and the side window.
If the toilet isn't installed (and it hardly ever was during the
flight test program) the area behind the seats would amaze someone
used to the B-52 or B-1. The floor is flat for the full width of the
cockpit except for an avionics rack on the right. A man can lie
crossways with room to spare. You can stand directly behind either
ejection seat, look over the top of the seat, and watch what's going
on. In the other two bombers this is impossible because of all the
stuff right behind the seats.
The fore and aft space is large enough that you can have one guy
standing behind each seat, one sitting on the storage compartment
between the seats, and still have space for someone to move across the
cockpit behind them.
That's just the forward portion of the cockpit. The rear portion is
raised about 1.5 feet and narrower. An avionics rack is on the left,
and our B-2s at Edwards had a big rack of instrumentation electronics
on the right. One time a B-2 from Whiteman visited. With no
instrumentation rack that big bare area in the rear cockpit was really
eye-catching. The spot was intended to accommodate a third seat if the
need ever arose, though when I left the program in '97 it wasn't used
for that purpose.
For training purposes, all the space was a big advantage. Lots of
times you need to break in new people - put them in the seats and
coach them as they run up the systems. With plenty of room for
looky-loos, the B-2 cockpit was great.
The B-52 was pretty good too. My system - the offensive avionics - was
operated by the two downstairs crew members. You could do pretty much
everything from either seat, and a third person could stand
comfortably between the seats. A couple retractable tables gave plenty
of space for our paperwork.
I thought the B-1 was terrible for giving hands-on training. There was
only one seat where the OAS could be operated, and if you wanted to
stand by the seat and teach somebody, you were precisely in the way of
people going in and out through the hatch. The table was never big
enough to spread out all the manuals we used, and in general the crew
station felt cramped.
That impression carried over into the "front office" as well. The
first time I ever went inside a B-1, I'd been working on the B-2 for
many years. I still remember the vivid impression of a snug, narrow
cockpit. In particular, there was a strong feeling of being right up
against the side window, like sitting in a car. The windows were small
compared the B-2 (which has a HUGE pair of windscreens) but visibility
was much better because you sat so close to them. In a B-2 you're
sitting well back under the "roof" and visibility is nothing to brag
about. Compared to a B-1 it's like looking out through a bunker slit.
Unlike the B-52 and B-1, there are no little windows above your head
for visibility when banked over in a turn. I doubt a B-2 pilot can
see around the turn in a 30 degree bank. Of course for us maintenance
types that wasn't a concern.
Although I liked the B-2's cockpit layout, when powered up it was a
cold, drafty, and noisy place because of the big air conditioners we
connected to keep the avionics cool. Lots of guys would wear their
field jackets and gloves! We communicated through headsets and the
interphone, as otherwise we'd have to shout at the guy in the seat
beside us.
On the other hand, if the B-2 sat in the sun its cockpit turned into
an oven. Other than firing up a ground air conditioning unit, there
was no way to get ventilation. Made you appreciate those two little
sliding windows on the B-52.
> Also how do you get in the plane? The cockpit does not open like a
The crew entry hatch is aft and outboard (left) of the nose landing
gear well. Pushbuttons on the nose gear open and close the hatch.
There are steps attached to the door. The outer hatch is for
aerodynamic and low-observables smoothness and isn't pressure-tight.
When you climb the steps you find yourself in a vertical passage of
square cross section. At the top is a manually operated door which
opens inward. This is the pressure hatch, which is flush with the
floor when closed. Going up through that, you step into the cockpit at
its extreme left side, just aft of the pilot's seat. It's the same
place you enter a -135 cockpit.
Our planes were never left unsecure, so we kept both hatches open
practically all the time. Over long breaks, like Christmas, we did
close the upper hatch so the stupid birds in our hangar wouldn't get
inside and build nests.
With both hatches closed there's a fair-sized space between them, big
enough for a man to crouch.
Since the pressure hatch opens inward, there's no danger of being
clobbered if you try to open it before the crew dumps pressure. On the
other hand, in a "crew entrapment" test, we found the hatch impossible
to open from inside as long as external air conditioners were
operating. The overpressure in the cabin was too much to overcome.
This was a nice to know fact but not a concern since we kept the hatch
latched open.
Other than blowing the hatches, there's no alternate route into the
B-2 cockpit.
Here's the best B-2 cockpit photo I've seen. It's AV-3's cockpit. I
spent most of my time on that airframe, and a great many hours in
those seats.
http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/b2/b27.html
There's a funny story about the two rectangular tabs you see hanging
down above the windshields. The plane came from the factory that way
and flew several flights before a pilot squawked the obstruction to
his vision. He said it appeared a crossmember had been installed
inverted. Now, maintainers sometimes chuckle at the lack of
mechanical aptitude displayed by some fliers, but this guy was
absolutely right. The piece was upside down and nobody had noticed!
Actually, it had been installed correctly at one time. You can see the
circular scars the fasteners left around the bolt holes. But at some
point it got turned around. I'm still kicking myself for not making a
copy of the squawk sheet as a souvenir.
In another newsgroup somebody asked how you go about starting a jet
engine, so I'm writing up how we did it on the B-2. I'll crosspost it
to r.a.m.
--
Paul Hirose <x3xpp-c5...@earthlink.net>
Jim Hale
>
> [snip good stuff]
>
> In another newsgroup somebody asked how you go about starting a jet
> engine, so I'm writing up how we did it on the B-2. I'll crosspost it
> to r.a.m.
How about:
Throttles idle, fuel pumps on, gate valves open, starter switch
on until 25% N1... :-)
yo yo ma
Well written and thoughtful post just are not tolerated, please read the
FAQ :)
"Paul Hirose" <x3xpp-c5...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:3E8FCFBD...@earthlink.net...
Tarver Engineering
"Jim Hale" <jhal...@cox.net> wrote in message
news:RDVja.57512$S14....@news1.central.cox.net...
Wrong compressor and too slow for a turbo fan.
John P. Tarver, MS/PE