Message posted by Peter Merlin on February 16, 2011 at 8:10:01 PST:

It's not really a fair comparison. The SR-71 and B-2 are very different airplanes that were built under very different procurement models. Kelly Johnson had the luxury of using his classic Skunk Works methods with relatively little "adult supervision," as it were. The B-2 acquisition was much more complex, more heavily supervised, and subject to a lot of politics. Much of the over cost of each airplane includes the cost of research and development, infrastructure, and other things. The B-2 has a very high cost per unit because only 21 aircraft were built. Had the full production run of 100 been completed, the other costs would have been spread over the fleet, so the total cost would have been X divided by 100 rather than X divided by 21.

In Reply to: Re: SR-71 vs B-2 Cost posted by Connor Davidge on February 15, 2011 at 22:49:05 PST:

Replies: