Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider (LRS-B)

raptor82 said:
https://www.dvidshub.net/image/9309...arrival-second-b-21-test-aircraft-edwards-afb
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It looks so positively alien, truly a stunning aircraft. Makes the B-2 look dated and crude by comparison though. I assume it's the intakes that give me this vibe.

I'm also pleased and surprised in equal amount at how much footage is being released of the aircraft. More than comfortable to show it off to everyone and take note of the next generation of American long range aviation.
 
EmoBirb said:
It looks so positively alien, truly a stunning aircraft. Makes the B-2 look dated and crude by comparison though. I assume it's the intakes that give me this vibe.

I'm also pleased and surprised in equal amount at how much footage is being released of the aircraft. More than comfortable to show it off to everyone and take note of the next generation of American long range aviation.
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Its the angled windows for me.
 
EmoBirb said:
I tried to find pictures where both aircraft are in roughly comparable positions to emphasize what I mean when I say the B-21 looks completely alien even compared to the B-2.

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Awesome pictures.

The freaky part I think is the windows. The dark windows do not contrast as much on the B-2 and they are more conventionally shaped so it doesn't look as strange. They both have a UFO looking front view, but on the B-21, the white on dark and wierdly shaped windows makes it look much more strange than on the B-2. Then you also have the smooth engine bays and almost non-existent inlets. I love the grey ghost looking paint scheme. I'm hoping F-47 and F/A-XX would also have the same color. The J15T also has that cool gray ghost paint scheme.

Also from the last photo, it might be the angle of the photo, but the B-21's wingtips seem to go be shaped differently than the B-2. It almost looks like a slight gull wing effect.

(literally typed this out first only to find out TWZ agreed with me: B-21, B-2 Comparison Image Shows Just How Weird The Raider’s Windows Really Are.... it's a sad day)
 
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EmoBirb said:
I tried to find pictures where both aircraft are in roughly comparable positions to emphasize what I mean when I say the B-21 looks completely alien even compared to the B-2.

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Looks like many more retractable blade-type antennas similar to F-117, the B-2 only had one aft of the weapons bays. I assume antenna actuation is redundant as well and more than likely EM. I am sure the top hump also has many flush antenna arrays as did the B-2 which worked very well. Definitely more organic looking as compared to the B-2.
 
I will obviously never get the opportunity, even if a dying wish, but I’d love to see the display differences on the most advance radar screens when say a 737 flies, then an F-15 then an F-22 then B-2 then B-21.

Tangentially there are stories from, IIRC, Red Flag exercises where Gen 4 fighter pilots went up against the F-22 and returned to base “we never knew they were there before we died” stories.

Love the age of stealth just a civilian and pretty ignorant of the technology.
 
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Scott Kenny said:
I still find it interesting how the leading edge curls over like a hook or a breaking wave.

Is that a LO thing or an aerodynamic advantage thing?
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It has to do with how they handle the stall break in a flying wing. The sharp edge at the nose should cause the flow to separate at the center before the outer wings, allowing for a docile stall where the nose drops instead of a wing. You definitely don't want to drop a wing and get into a spin with a flying wing.Also, the sharp L.E. probably helps as well from an LO perspective.
 
Scott Kenny said:
I wouldn't be surprised if those inlets literally had magic circles on them to pull air in. That is one freaky plane.
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Way back in the ASD Pico days I saw some wind tunnel models with similar inlet configurations, some of the outer edges of the inlets were the same lower and very blended shape but swept back deeper going outboard if you can envision that, not really a slit, kind if difficult to explain. This type of inlet is and was nothing new to Northrop. NG seems to trade-off organic shaping, VLO and aero efficiency to a high degree and they have been doing this for very long time. Northrop/NG had known the limitations of faceting as an example since the XST days hence Tacit Blue, B-2, YF-23 to now where they are at today.
 
Might be the compression but there seems to be a complete lack of joints between the wing and the control surfaces compared to t1.
 
Hello everyone,
I came across this picture of the B-21 Raider flight test article #2 taxiing out on the Twitter alternative, Bluesky. :cool:
The user "Task_Force23" hasn’t shared the same picture on X (formerly Twitter) yet.
If this picture has already been posted, please let me know so that either I or a moderator can delete this post. :)
Sources /Links:
https://bsky.app/profile/taskforce23.bsky.social/post/3lyq3lajkec2aX (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/Task_Force23Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/193204189@N08/
 

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Hydroman said:
Way back in the ASD Pico days I saw some wind tunnel models with similar inlet configurations, some of the outer edges of the inlets were the same lower and very blended shape but swept back deeper going outboard if you can envision that, not really a slit, kind if difficult to explain. This type of inlet is and was nothing new to Northrop. NG seems to trade-off organic shaping, VLO and aero efficiency to a high degree and they have been doing this for very long time. Northrop/NG had known the limitations of faceting as an example since the XST days hence Tacit Blue, B-2, YF-23 to now where they are at today.
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Still seems like pure freaking black magic.
 
Scott Kenny said:
Still seems like pure freaking black magic.
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True, I was with N/NG from 86 to 96 and they have been playing with serpentine ducts (inlets and exhausts) in different configurations since I was there (29 years ago) and most of the R&D was company funded, they were and are not shy about investing in promising technologies.
 
If this is the B-21's APU exhaust duct, why isn't it designed to be a closable door like the B-2's? Will the exhaust duct shown in the picture affect the overall stealth performance?
 

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@Jacky : it's probably just for the test aircraft that have a greater elecrical load on their system from the test equipment.
The radar coating seems also to have been pulled out to prevent damage with the hot flux of exhaust and the doors that seems to be designed to go there are removed to ease cooling (it could also be a guillotine door that remain half open).
 
Any consensus on what those apertures are on along the bottom of the nose and lower fuselage? I'm guessing part of the air data system but seems odd that they have so many for that. I noticed there are 4 more on the trailing edge where the wing joins with the fuselage. They all look identical or nearly so. Really curious as overall, assuming they're all the same thing, that would seem excessive for ADS or IR sensors.
 
BDF said:
Any consensus on what those apertures are on along the bottom of the nose and lower fuselage? I'm guessing part of the air data system but seems odd that they have so many for that. I noticed there are 4 more on the trailing edge where the wing joins with the fuselage. They all look identical or nearly so. Really curious as overall, assuming they're all the same thing, that would seem excessive for ADS or IR sensors.
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To make things more interesting, on Cerberus the two squares and two rectangles cluster you reference on the starboard side appear to be a different arrangement than on the port side.

In the shot of both A/Vs on the ground where Perseus is taxiing, Cerberus appears to have black protective (?) covers for the forward facing black sensors.
 
BDF said:
Any consensus on what those apertures are on along the bottom of the nose and lower fuselage? I'm guessing part of the air data system but seems odd that they have so many for that.
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R=Redundancy. Those are PTUs of flush air data system just like those used on B-2 for the last 35+ years.
BDF said:
I noticed there are 4 more on the trailing edge where the wing joins with the fuselage. They all look identical or nearly so. Really curious as overall, assuming they're all the same thing, that would seem excessive for ADS or IR sensors.
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If sensor has rhomboid aperture it doesn't mean it has the same function as other(s) one of the same shape.
 

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