B-2 Spirit: 44.3 Hours From Takeoff to Landing — Five Tankers on the Way to Afghanistan, 2001 #iran

In October 2001, the B-2 Spirit of America left Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and never touched the ground until Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. On the way in it met five tankers — off California, near Hawaii, over Guam, near the Strait of Malacca and near Diego Garcia — and its two pilots swapped seats at every one. Following pilot Melvin Deaile's own account, the historian Daniel Haulman and RAND's Benjamin Lambeth, this short rides the tanker road to Afghanistan. Lambeth called the 44.3-hour sortie the longest air combat mission ever flown. The whole flight — the five tankers, the changed targets, the call and the last four bombs — is in the main film (about 10 minutes): [main film link — added after upload] Sources · Daniel L. Haulman — "44 Hours," Air & Space Forces Magazine, November 21, 2016 · Mel Deaile — "Inside the Longest Bombing Run Ever," United Service Organizations (USO), December 10, 2014 · David Roza — "15 Tons of Bombs and 1 Tiny Toilet," Air & Space Forces Magazine, June 25, 2025 · Benjamin S. Lambeth — Air Power Against Terror, RAND MG-166, 2005 The 3D scenes are a directed reconstruction built from the records with carved models, not footage. The narration is a synthetic voice. #shorts #B2Spirit #AerialRefueling #44Hours #Afghanistan #USAirForce #KC135 #SANDTABUL SANDTABUL · Warfare, set out on the sand table. Battles, operations and the machines of war, re-staged in carved 3D and placed in the world that shaped them.