Dropping bombs ain’t easy
Brigadier Gen. Robert Spalding, world-class bomber pilot, on how an airplane drops a 30,000-pound bomb.
The General: “Drop anything that heavy, the airplane jumps. Drop two, it jumps twice. Big jump. The plane suddenly goes up several hundred feet. You can feel them coming off.”
Is there some fear for the pilot?
“No. You’re focused on the mission. No time to be afraid. Many things to focus on: the mission, going through enemy territory, be sure you hit your time correctly, do whatever the plane needs, navigate to the location. No time to think of being afraid.
“We’ve practiced this over a decade. The weapon was designed specifically for the B-2 bomb bay. Only aircraft to get across the target. Couldn’t make bombs bigger. Didn’t want smaller. Had to consider the different type of ground soil, construction, what they’d have to go through to detonate. Hard engineering.