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The World War Two bomber that cost more than the atomic bomb

205 points by pseudolus

by Hilift

2 subcomments

The cost of a B-61 nuclear gravity bomb is only $28 million (2012). There are approximately 400, of which 100 were moved to Europe in 2022. They can only be launched by an F-18 or F-35 with a special armament control package (not included in the $28 million).
$28 million gets you spin rocket motors that improve accuracy to within 10 meters, and internal and celestial guidance. The yield is variable ("dial-a-yield") (10-340kt) to allow selecting the amount of tritium for the explosion.
The cost for an F-22 is $191 million (2023). A B-2 is $2 billion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B61_nuclear_bomb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-22_Raptor

by vanderZwan

3 subcomments

Well, it cost more to design and build.
I personally would consider the total cost of dropping two atomic bombs much higher, for hopefully obvious reasons.
EDIT: Although, per the article, I might have been wrong about that:
> The loss of life was shocking. The B-29 raid on Tokyo on the night of 9 March 1945 is thought to have killed as many as 100,000 people, making it more destructive than either of the atomic bombs that were to follow.
Fascinating bit of history though, thank you for sharing.

by chiph

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Each turret had it's own analog computer. Here's an explanation by the curator at The Museum of Flight in Seattle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOX-2d9qLec
The B-29 also had ECM detectors and transmitters, so they could block enemy radar signals.

by Someone

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FTA: “The B-29 had entered service in a little over three years since design work began. "It's very quick, even for World War Two standards," says Kinney”
Not for German standards. Near the end of the war, their schedules were frantic, for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinkel_He_162_Volksjäger#Volk...: “On 8 September 1944, the requirement was issued to industry; bidders were required to submit their basic designs within ten days while quantity production of the aircraft was to commence by 1 January 1945
[…]
During January 1945, the Luftwaffe formed an Erprobungskommando 162 ("Test Unit 162") evaluation group to which the first 46 aircraft were delivered“
I remember reading about even faster development cycles, but cannot find links.

by nopelynopington

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There's a good book by Malcolm Gladwell called "the bomber mafia" that's all about the airforce doctrine of indiscriminate bombing to break the population and the rebel faction within the airforce who advocated high precision bombing instead. Crippling industry instead of punishing civilians.
They eventually lost out to the former, culminating in horrific napalm raids on Japan that continued even after the atomic bombs were dropped and had more casualties

by dzonga

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What's more impressive to me - is how much production was ramped up during WW2.
e.g https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willow_Run - that plant was producing a bomber almost every hour
to this day not a lot of countries can produce a full plane in an hour. I don't think the US can

by nickdothutton

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For those interested in this period, I highly recommend the Errol Morris interview with RSMcNamara[1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fog_of_War

by 7e

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They made 4,000 copies of this aircraft. That’s only $12.5 million per, in today’s dollars.

by a3w

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> The bombers had been built by hand because the factory was also making other aircraft on the assembly line, and the B-29s differed in hundreds of tiny details. No B-29 in those first batches weighed exactly the same, a worrying state for such a highly complicated aircraft. Only 20% of the "finished" aircraft could be flown out of the factory. Badly fitted windows and observation panels bled air or were distorted, and many electrical plugs in the plane's 16km (10 miles) of wiring didn't work properly.
Any European today still wonders why Tesla workers in the US still cannot hold a screwdriver, producing widely worrying results and claiming that the product is a valid car.

by pcrh

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Nice article, thanks!
This is apparently a picture of the B-29 "Its Hawg's Wild" mentioned in the article before its restoration and flight to the UK: https://i.imgur.com/9e26SKj.jpeg
Taken from this blog which has some pictures of the restoration project: https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/08/b-29-its-hawg-wild-...

by RattlesnakeJake

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I saw "Bockscar" (the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki) yesterday in Dayton.
It's an interesting feeling to stand by a beautiful, poised, marvelously-engineered mass death machine. It doesn't look scary at all, yet that silhouette must have been as terrifying in its prime as the B-2 is now.

by wkat4242

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A wwii bomber is a weird first pressurised aircraft.. after all one bullet and you have explosive decompression.

by stankybruh

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Wow what a wild bit of history. I knew nothing about any of this.

by ChrisMarshallNY

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> In today's money the aircraft, from design to completion, cost the equivalent of $55.6bn (£41.2bn).
F-35: "Hold my beer."

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by chasil

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I thought that this was in Masters of the Air, but I was wrong.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masters_of_the_Air