California Autos Examiner

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Moisture Costs Us $1.4 Billion



In the first part of this video, you see a successful takeoff of a B-2 bomber from the Air Force's Guam base. The second B-2 doesn't fair as well, crashing during takeoff. The pilot and co-pilot safely ejected, so the only losses were the pilot's limited edition Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox and the estimated $1.4 billion replacement cost for the plane.

The crash was caused by distorted data in the aircraft's flight control computers, according to a report released Thursday. Air Force investigators blame the distortion on moisture in the system, which caused the computers to calculate the wrong airspeed.

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