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The most expensive aircraft

The most expensive military aircraft is the B-2"Spirit", which costs 2.22 BILLION DOLLARS PER UNIT! The B-2 weighs 49,900 kg, made of metals and plastics. Now, for comparison, 49,900 kg of gold are worth about 457 million dollars. –The B-2 costs 5 times more than its weight in gold!

B-2 The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is a multi-role stealth heavy bomber, capable of deploying both conventional and nuclear weapons. It is operated exclusively by the United States Air Force. Its development was a milestone in the modernization program of the U.S. Department of Defense. The B-2's stealth technology is intended to aid the aircraft's penetration role in order to survive extremely dense anti-aircraft defenses otherwise considered impenetrable by combat aircraft. The bombing runs the B-2 made were very precise, with almost 100% hit rate. Not only that, it could carry up to 16 JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) bombs and launch them all at once towards different targets. It was considered a successful airplane because of the missions it accomplished, but his success was shared with another 14 airplanes and 85 crew members who escorted it to make sure the 2 billion dollar airplane will return home safely. Because of that, the B-2's vitality was questioned, and because of its price, only 21 of them were made. The average price for one B-2 can be calculated easily: It's the whole project's cost divided by the number of airplanes (B-2s) made-only 21 of them were made, but if they were mass produced, the price would seem more reasonable. If Northrop's request for making more B-2s would have been accepted, each unit would cost only 566 million dollars.

from: www.iaf.org.il