Weird California sighting

a reply to: Sammamishman
That very close but not quite the same

a reply to: punkinworks10

You won't find an exact picture online yet.

a reply to: Zaphod58
I'm sure,
I'm glad I was able to see it.

a reply to: punkinworks10

You should see it again at some point in the not distant future.

a reply to: punkinworks10

That's the Lockheed bird.

Lockheed Martin produced this impression of a long-range strike (LRS) design for the U.S. Air Force in 2007, before a secrecy clampdown banned contractors from discussing the program in public.

www.ainonline.com...

Very cool. Psyched you got to see her.

I've been following this thread pretty closely and haven't had much to add. In regard to the bit of speculation about it originating from Beale, I can say there was something at Beale yesterday that generated a lot of noise. I usually attribute it to U-2's in the pattern but this even got the attention of people who otherwise pay no attention. All told, it was likely the cloud cover combined with whatever other conditions that made it particularly loud, but I will say windows shook like we haven't seen since the days of the Blackbird program. Maybe another piece of the puzzle, who knows.

The shape of your sighting look a lot like the SR-72 concept of Lockheed.

a reply to: darksidius

Yes very close. Albeit, slightly elongated, single stabilizer. Definitely some commonality.

a reply to: aholic

I think the SR-72 concept was also much smaller (more fighter size) than what was spotted.

a reply to: Sammamishman

Oh no. It's a beast of an aircraft.

Moving to Colorado soon, hopefully being a little closer to the West coast will afford me the opportunity to feast my eyes on one of these ladies.

Damn they're sexy.

a reply to: aholic

Is this what they're saying the SR-72 is going to look like?

Sorry to spam, but you guys got me all excited about this LRS. I found the following excerpt pretty interesting in an article describing the LRS-B system:

The Long-Range Strike Bomber is supposed to be stealthy, like the current batwinged B-2, but faster and significantly cheaper, at $550 million per system. We have to say “system” instead of “plane” because the LRS-B may actually be a collective of several aircraft, manned and unmanned, networked together into a single tactical unit.

Source: Breaking Defense

Could our other ladies be these other aircraft? Or I wonder if they're referring to existing platforms that will play a role in supporting the new bomber. Interesting none the less.

a reply to: parad0x122

Yup.

a reply to: parad0x122

I think they are referring to the two planned versions of the bomber. One manned and the other un-manned that can be networked and controlled by other bombers or other aircraft.

a reply to: Sammamishman

The B-1, B-52, and B-2 are all part of the LRS program.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Ahh good to know. I thought they were hinting at other platforms in the works, shucks.

a reply to: parad0x122

It sounds exotic and cool, but it's really pretty mundane.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I Figure they are going with fast , medium , slow as their approach to the bomber family. One hypersonic that can double as something else. One supersonic like a replacement for the B1, and another VVVLO sub sonic like a replacement for the B3. All of them capable of deep penetration. no wait able to slip through the cracks, wait no uhhhh. ... they have long legs and are stealthy either due to speed or via some other voodoo for the VVVLO ones. Damn these sexy birds. Either way they have all the bases covered. Then I figure they also have something more like the aardvark to replace the F111 and f117 for tactical bombing.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

No, the actual bombers themselves are high subsonic/low supersonic.