Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit B-2A Block Test

The first six B-2s left the Palmdale line as development and test aircraft, numbered AV-1 to AV-6 and carrying serials 82-1066 to 82-1071. AV-1, christened Spirit of America, was first publicly displayed on 22 November 1988 at USAF Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, in a heavily restricted viewing where guests were not allowed to see the rear of the aircraft; Aviation Week editors found there were no airspace restrictions above the presentation area and photographed the exhaust section from the air. The same airframe made the type's first flight on 17 July 1989, from Palmdale to Edwards Air Force Base.

The reference fleet table lists these six aircraft as Test/30, except AV-5 Spirit of Ohio (82-1070), listed as Test/20. All of them eventually joined the operational fleet: AV-6 Spirit of Mississippi (82-1071) on 23 May 1997, AV-5 Spirit of Ohio on 18 July 1997, AV-3 Spirit of New York (82-1068) on 10 October 1997, AV-2 Spirit of Arizona (82-1067) on 4 December 1997 and AV-4 Spirit of Indiana (82-1069) on 22 May 1999.

AV-1 is the special case. Although the Clinton administration was originally committed to ending production at twenty aircraft, in 1996 it authorised the conversion of a twenty-first bomber — a prototype test model — to fully operational Block 30 status at a cost of nearly 500 million dollars. Spirit of America entered service on 14 July 2000, bringing the fleet to twenty-one aircraft.