B-2 Spirit: 44.3 Hours From Takeoff to Landing — a Call After 12 Bombs, and the Last Four #iran

In October 2001, with 12 of its 16 JDAMs dropped over Afghanistan, the B-2 Spirit of America was on its way out when a call came over the secure radio: would its two pilots be willing to take their last four bombs back in? Maj. Melvin Deaile and Capt. Brian Neal said yes. Following Deaile's own account, the historian Daniel Haulman and RAND's Benjamin Lambeth, this short follows the orbit over the Arabian Sea, the 90 minutes back over Afghanistan and the 45-minute hot swap at Diego Garcia. 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 · Benjamin S. Lambeth — Air Power Against Terror, RAND MG-166, 2005 · 509th Bomb Wing, Whiteman AFB — "10 year anniversary of strikes," October 21, 2011 The 3D scenes are a directed reconstruction built from the records with carved models, not footage. The narration is a synthetic voice. #shorts #B2Spirit #JDAM #44Hours #Afghanistan #USAirForce #DiegoGarcia #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.