Resurrecting a stealthy giant

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-c1-rebuilding-billion-dollar-bomber-20140320-dto,0,285088.htmlstory



A 2010 fire on a ($2.2 billion dollar) B-2 stealth bomber in Guam left it heavily damaged. That sparked a four-year — and largely secretive — mission to repair the costly warplane

Resurrecting a stealthy giant
By W.J. Hennigan
March 20, 2014

It wasn't long after the morning sun came up over the Mojave Desert that Sean Byrne noticed a black speck fluttering just above the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

He knew what it was, as did the other workers from Northrop Grumman Corp. surrounding him. They were waiting on this wind-swept tarmac at the company's plant in Palmdale to catch a glimpse of the aircraft nicknamed "Lazarus" — the plane that died in a fire on the island of Guam only to be resurrected.

The dot grew larger and larger. Suddenly, the unmistakable bat-winged silhouette of the B-2 stealth bomber emerged. As it touched down for a landing, the crowd erupted in applause, hugs and tears.

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The four-year operation to rebuild the military's rarest — and most expensive at $2.1 billion — aircraft involved hundreds of hard-to-find parts, thousands of labor hours, and 300 Air Force and Northrop workers. Many of them, mechanics such as Byrne, left their families in Palmdale and flew 6,000 miles to Guam to work seven days a week for months at a time to restore the stealth bomber.