Weird California sighting

a reply to: Zaphod58

SO here's where I'm confused. I thought Lockheed/Boeing has got the go ahead for the B3. Northrup for a F111/F117 replacement. Are you saying that aircraft has been grounded due to some technical issue. Or that that project is proceeding fine and Northrup has their eyes on another platform that will fill a certain type of Bomber roll. And if not Lockheed's B3 roll, The F111 Replacement roll, or Lockheeds Express delivery vehicle. Are they looking at something more like a B1 bomber's roll? OR maybe something in between the B1 Bomber and the F111?

I dunno it seems like the Air Force has gotten one hell of a varsity team for this season. Fair to say they have all their bases covered?

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Northrop was working on a full size bomber as well as other projects. Their bomber broke pretty hard. Their other projects are fine.

Bases covered with spare players on the bench.

a reply to: Zaphod58
Do you think the NG bird can suffer big problem to fail or just normal developpement with classic problems? , for your opinion what bird has the more chance to win the futur contest more on NG or Lock/Boeing ?

a reply to: Zaphod58
My post sorta mirrors Darksidious question

Yeah what kinda full size bomber? One that will operate like a B1. Fast, not VLO but still pretty stealthy. Or one that was trying to compete with the Lockheed B3. And if the latter they must be pissed they got showed up by Lockheed.

Didn't Lockheed just get a RFP for the B3?

And finally are you saying the F111 replacement is just fine? Cause I wanna be buzzed by her at the next possible airshow. I don't mind if she likes to play hard. Hell, Northrup, just pick me up on one of those blackend out busses make me sign (happily) an NDA and let me look! Pweety Pweeeze?

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Well Zaph or Astr0 will have to correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the NG bird that has the grounding due to its "issue" was NG's LSR-B entrant into that competition, hence the reason LM/Boeing ran away with the contract. That plus theirs is pretty bad ass.

Which brings us to bird #2 which I believe might be a B1 replacement and the reasoning behind NG's plant expansion in the South.

Now there might be a third bird which will be an F111/117 replacement and may or may not have blood line that connects it too a loosing ATF competitor.

Of course this is all conjecture and here say on my part though, so grains of salt should be had in plenty.

originally posted by: Sammamishman
Well Zaph or Astr0 will have to correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the NG bird that has the grounding due to its "issue" was NG's LSR-B entrant into that competition, hence the reason LM/Boeing ran away with the contract. That plus theirs is pretty bad ass.

Badass is a mild understatement but it'll do. The LM / Boeing produced a show stopper.

Which brings us to bird #2 which I believe might be a B1 replacement and the reasoning behind NG's plant expansion in the South.

I'd say that was about the size of it.

Now there might be a third bird which will be an F111/117 replacement and may or may not have blood line that connects it too a loosing ATF competitor.

Northrop's on an attack mission role

Of course this is all conjecture and here say on my part though, so grains of salt should be had in plenty.

Who gets funded, who gets to go main stream, is up to Capitol Hill. What I will say though is Boeing is on fire right now with its development team.

originally posted by: Astr0

Badass is a mild understatement but it'll do. The LM / Boeing produced a show stopper.



And, just to clarify... this kick ass LM/Boeing bird is not the one in sighted by Zaph's friend in this thread with the green light?

Oh, and Astro, I did receive your pm yesterday, I just need 10 more posts to be able to pm you back.

originally posted by: keeley
And, just to clarify... this kick ass LM/Boeing bird is not the one in sighted by Zaph's friend in this thread with the green light?
.

LMs bomber is airborne as a prototype right now. The green light is Three differing airframes - a fast / high, a large / slow / low (which seems to be testing its ability to escape audible detection) , and a lighter than air vehicle.

a reply to: Astr0

Lighter than air vehicle you say? Is it interesting or is it a crazy blimp like cargo thing.

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
a reply to: Astr0

Lighter than air vehicle you say? Is it interesting or is it a crazy blimp like cargo thing.

Interesting. Very interesting.

Funnily, I was playing with some Gen.3 NVG's the other day and decided to have a look see why they started to use green lights on the airframes (green single underside)

I broke out some strobes, some statics and a rotator. The penny dropped. Sneaky bastards.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Sam hit it pretty much dead on. They were competing with LM for the LRS-B. I've heard convicting reports about it. One source said software failure that was fixable. Another said materials failure that happened to another platform previously.

Personally I suspect materials failure, but if it was, they're done for this program.

a reply to: Astr0

I'm kinda lost by that last post there astro. The penny dropped etc... Nightvision goggles, green lights harder to see in night vision or something?

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
a reply to: Astr0

I'm kinda lost by that last post there astro. The penny dropped etc... Nightvision goggles, green lights harder to see in night vision or something?

I am still wondering why green lights... I am assuming it needs to be there because of its propulsion system. You would think they would do every thing they could to remove a bright flashy light that would only attract attention. If this thing is that "omgwtfbbq" advanced, I would think they wouldn't be to worried about someone seeing it with nvgs... Unless it is meant to be close to the enemy to drop off sf troops.

a reply to: Astr0

Have you just discovered a way to see them using Gen 3 NVG's and strobes? Can you hook them to a video camera?

a reply to: keeley

I think the green lights are aircraft position light designed to be seen in the NVG of other aircraft flying in formation with it. They are pretty dim lights when viewed by the naked eye and are nearly invisible at altitude. The thing about the green is that green wavelength of light are the easiest for the human eye to see making it easier for pilots without NVG's to see the aircraft flying blacked out.
See the video of the F35 Green lights here:

originally posted by: Sammamishman
a reply to: keeley

I think the green lights are aircraft position light designed to be seen in the NVG of other aircraft flying in formation with it. They are pretty dim lights when viewed by the naked eye and are nearly invisible at altitude. The thing about the green is that green wavelength of light are the easiest for the human eye to see making it easier for pilots without NVG's to see the aircraft flying blacked out.
See the video of the F35 Green lights here:

Thanks for posting that video, I was picturing a bug green light on the underside, not lights light the ones in the video. Does the plane in this thread have vertical stabilizers? It not where would the lights be for other pilots to see?

originally posted by: Sammamishman
a reply to: BASSPLYR
Now there might be a third bird which will be an F111/117 replacement and may or may not have blood line that connects it too a loosing ATF competitor.

Of course this is all conjecture and here say on my part though, so grains of salt should be had in plenty.

i9.photobucket.com...

Astro, when you say it floats out of the Hangar - are you hinting at the Airship Transport thing Lockheed were testing or has the military gone away from that now?

I thought I read somewhere the US cancelled its contract on lighter than air vehicles (at least gas based ones) and returned the parts back to a company in the UK.

I googled low-boom and there are some windtunnel models on the net which look pretty awesome, but I think they were commercial.

Dont know if it was posted, saw the picture inside the B2 but this is a nice article:

Popular Mechanics

a reply to: Sammamishman

Those are low visibility position indicators. They're designed to give the other pilots a reference that can only be seen from a short distance away, without lighting the plane up like a Christmas tree.