B-2 Bomber Interior: Does The Stealth Jet Actually Have A Toilet?

With military aircraft, we sometimes have a tendency to think of them mainly just in terms of how potent their arsenal is or how absurdly speedy they can be. The F-15E Strike Eagle variant, for instance, is capable of Mach 2.5 and wields a variety of weaponry including an M61A1 vulcan cannon and AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles. They're awe-inspiring and deadly aircraft bristling with high-tech equipment and weapons. It's also vital to remember, though, that they're piloted by extraordinary service people who nonetheless have needs that must be catered to.

With regards to civilian aircraft, food options and toilet availability are some of the most pressing issues we'll typically face on a flight. Though military aircraft like the B-2 bomber have rather different duties than flying excitable vacationers to Bora Bora, they can also undertake rather lengthy flights, and so the same issues arise for those on board. Fortunately for the pilots and other staff, the B-2 is equipped to make the experience more manageable: Though the plane has room for only the two crew, the cockpit offers a toilet.

There's precious little room to spare on fighter jets and bombers, and so you might think that practicality would dictate a very basic toilet, as small as it was realistic to make it. The fact is, though, the B-2 Spirit, one of the best U.S. stealth bombers, uses what limited space it can spare to offer more comfort to personnel than they may be used to in other such aircraft. It needs to, as well, because it is sometimes used to engage in some rather lengthy flights.

Northrop Grumman's B-2 Spirit bomber is 69 feet long and boasts a wingspan of 172 feet. It's not especially large for a bomber, particularly considering that the United States has previously introduced the likes of the massive Convair B-36 Peacemaker. It's huge in some areas, though, not least of which being its price tag. At a cool $2 billion or so per aircraft, the B-2 cost more than any other plane. For the price, the U.S. Air Force bought itself a truly unique and remarkable plane, a pioneer in the field of stealth bomber technology with a unique and unmistakable angular design optimized to make it far harder to locate and track. Sophisticated technology and its radar-confusing shape, combined with an impressive range of 6,000 nautical miles, allow it to fly for long periods, but for safety's sake, its two crew members need to be in a fit state to do so.

To allow for this, an area to sleep, eat, and answer the call of nature is needed. Luxurious conditions they aren't, and nor would they be expected to be, but they are available. The Atlantic reports that, behind the area where the crew sits, alongside the toilet, is "a microwave oven, and typically a couple of Styrofoam coolers containing food the pilots pack for themselves. It allows just enough room for an average-size man to lie down."  This space provided everything the crew needed to take these astonishing aircraft on some suitably impressive endurance missions.

The range of a bomber, of course, will vary greatly, and it's a great strategic headache to get each aircraft and asset to the right place at the right time according to its specific capabilities. Even flying far afield and engaging a given target successfully is only half the battle, because it must then get back (or to its ultimate destination afterwards) safely too. For any aircraft, the critical concern is fuel management, and the great advantage for the B-2 in this regard is that it can also be refuelled while in flight.

This intimidatingly angular aircraft, then, is an ideal candidate for a long-distance bombing mission, and President George W. Bush sent some models on just that during Operation Enduring Freedom. Only 21 of these planes were manufactured (which isn't surprising considering just how pricey they were), but each of them that took to the skies during the operation was a force to be reckoned with. Their objective was to target the al Qaeda and Taliban air defenses and remove the dangers they posed, and they were well equipped to do so with the Joint Direct Attack Munition. The distances that were flown during this campaign are astonishing. The famed Spirit of America was one of the B-2s that took part in some missions that entailed 44 hours of flight. For context, Air & Space Force Magazine declared that when the crews left, "ahead of them were more than 30 hours of flying time just to get into the target area."