A stealth bomber pilot keeps his edge on a jet that first flew in 1959.
The B-2 cost about $1.16 billion apiece in 1998 dollars. Only twenty-one were built; twenty are left. In 2016 the Air Force said the average B-2 pilot flew it about 3.3 hours a month.
Fly the bomber more? The Pentagon’s own FY2026 reimbursable rate sheet charges almost $96,949 for every B-2 flight hour, and twenty airplanes have real missions. Use a simulator? The wing’s rules call for training in the air — real sorties, every month. Build more B-2s? The last one was delivered in December 1997. The line is gone.
So they flipped the problem and gave the pilots a second airplane: the T-38 Talon. Two seats, two small engines, supersonic. First flight 1959, last deliveries 1972. Every B-2 pilot there flies it three times a month — aerobatics, formation, low-level, instruments. U-2 pilots in California fly it too.
The same rate sheet prices the T-38 at about $6,730 an hour. Roughly fourteen times cheaper. But the newest one is more than fifty years old — the airplane that keeps the pilots sharp now needs keeping up itself.
It’s not a trainer for beginners. It’s a gym for pilots who already know how.
—— SOURCE MAP (timecodes) ——
0:00.0 DVIDS 930770 @ 74.4s
0:04.0 DVIDS 862053 @ 45.5s
0:06.9 DVIDS 935141 @ 152.3s
0:11.6 DVIDS 935141 @ 7.0s
0:16.4 DVIDS 895564 @ 0.5s
0:21.0 DVIDS 935141 @ 159.3s
0:25.6 DVIDS 935141 @ 144.5s
0:30.8 DVIDS 935141 @ 164.9s
0:36.1 DVIDS 930770 @ 8.0s
0:39.9 DVIDS 930770 @ 12.0s
0:43.7 Original diagram (production timeline)
0:52.5 DVIDS 930770 @ 196.0s
0:58.5 DVIDS 995792 @ 5.4s
1:02.8 DVIDS 862053 @ 48.7s
1:07.7 DVIDS 995792 @ 31.7s
1:12.3 DVIDS 930770 @ 42.8s
1:16.6 DVIDS 995792 @ 38.5s
1:22.8 DVIDS 930770 @ 53.0s
1:28.2 DVIDS 862053 @ 19.2s
1:30.6 DVIDS 995792 @ 71.5s
1:38.5 DVIDS 930770 @ 233.0s
Sources:
U.S. Air Force T-38 Talon and B-2 Spirit fact sheets (af.mil)
DoD Comptroller FY2026 Reimbursable Rates, Other DoD Component
U.S. Air Force news release, 2016 (monthly T-38 training requirement)
Public domain U.S. military footage (DVIDS). Synthetic narration. Educational reconstruction.
#T38Talon #B2Spirit #StealthBomber #MilitaryAviation #HowItWorks #TheWayItWorked
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