Wednesday, December 31, 2025

Rain Could Threaten to Ground Rose Parade’s B-2 Flyover for First Time in Decades

The mission remains “100 percent a go”—but whether the flyover occurs depends on a simple rule: if spectators will be able to see it, they will fly it.

Somewhere over the western United States on New Year’s morning, a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber will be hours into a 15-hour mission from Missouri, its two-pilot crew managing fatigue through carefully planned rest cycles, having already completed multiple mid-air refueling operations with tanker aircraft.

Whether that bomber crosses the Rose Parade step-off line at Colorado Boulevard at Orange Grove Boulevard at 8:00 a.m. depends on something the 4,000 air force personnel who made the mission possible cannot control: the weather.

For the first time in nearly two decades, the Rose Parade faces the prospect of significant rain. And for the Air Force, the calculus is straightforward.

“If people can see the airplane in the fly by, then we have good enough weather to do it,” said Col. Joshua Wiitala, the 509th Bomb Wing commander and installation commander at Whiteman Air Force Base.

But if spectators cannot see the aircraft [due to rainfall and low clouds], he said, regulations prevent the flyover from taking place.

As of Tuesday, the mission remained fully on schedule.

“It is still a go of 100 percent,” Wiitala said. “We will fly in and check out the weather no matter what.”

The decision will come down to Thursday morning’s ceiling height—the altitude of the cloud base—in the final hours before the parade steps off.

“If there’s any chance to do the fly by,” Wiitala said, “we’ll be here to do it.”

A 15-Hour Mission for a Moment Over Colorado Boulevard

The Rose Parade flyover is among the most logistically complex training missions the Air Force conducts annually—not because of its duration, but because of its precision.

The B-2 must arrive over the television cameras at Colorado Boulevard at 8:00 a.m., timed to the parade’s step-off, coordinated with a second aircraft that will appear over the Rose Bowl at 1:00 p.m. Each bomber serves as backup for the other; if one encounters a maintenance issue, the remaining jet performs both flyovers.

The operation requires 4,000 total force airmen—active duty and National Guard—from 15 squadrons working across hundreds of specialties at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. From maintenance crews to mission planners, the personnel involved span virtually every function on the base.

“From our base in Missouri, we have 4,000 total force airmen, active duty and guard across hundreds of specialties from 15 different squadrons who all have to work in unison to make this mission happen,” Wiitala said.

The flight itself involves multiple air refueling operations, a maneuver Wiitala described as “the most challenging kind of hands-on flying event that we do in the B-2.”

“Two big airplanes connected to each other in the sky like that,” he said. “It takes a lot of training and practice to get good at that. Big airplanes, as you would imagine, have a lot of momentum. You’re always having to think ahead of the airplane.”

Yet 15 hours is considered modest by B-2 standards. Crews train for missions exceeding 30 hours, with the Air Force conducting 24-hour simulations to teach pilots to manage their physiology during ultra-long-duration flight.

“We train our crews to be able to fly over double that kind of duration,” Wiitala said.

A Tradition Born in Palmdale

The flyover carries particular resonance in Southern California. The B-2 was built in Palmdale, making each New Year’s Day appearance something of a homecoming.

The tradition began at the 108th Tournament of Roses Parade in 1997, when the B-2 first appeared as a tribute to the Air Force’s 50th anniversary, according to an Air Combat Command article. It has continued nearly every year since, interrupted only by the COVID-canceled 2021 parade and a 2023 absence after the fleet was temporarily grounded following a December 2022 emergency landing and runway fire at Whiteman. B-1B Lancers substituted that year, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Air Force rotates pilots for the mission; Wiitala said he knows of no pilot who has performed the Rose Parade flyover twice.

“We try to rotate around because again, it’s a valuable training opportunity and it’s a cool milestone for those pilots,” he said.

Wiitala himself, despite numerous flyovers in his career, has never participated in this one.

“The flyby is just such a great opportunity for us to connect with the local community here in Pasadena and the broader area,” he said.

The Last of Its Kind

This year’s mission comes as the Air Force transitions from the B-2—now nearly three decades in service—to the next-generation B-21 Raider. The B-2 offers a combination of attributes Wiitala said no other aircraft in the world matches: long range, large payload, and stealth characteristics.

“B-21 is going to modernize all that,” he said, adding that the next-generation bomber will carry forward everything the B-2 community does today to ensure the Air Force remains viable on the long-range strike mission.

For now, the question is simpler: Will the clouds lift enough on New Year’s morning for Pasadena to see what 4,000 airmen and 15 hours of flight made possible?

The Air Force will be overhead regardless, waiting to find out.