A movie show the B-2 MHD system in action !

Look carefully at this commercial movie of the Northrop-Grunman B-2 : www.is.northropgrumman.com...]B-2




Passage of B2 into transonic to the top of the sea. Migration of the electric discharge (MHD) in the water vapor environment. Sequence isolated and converted into GIF animated by Christophe Tardy.

To notice that the blue glow interests only the higher part of the apparatus. B2 is equipped with a system of creation of plasma using the ambient air flow as generating MHD which allows him, even in subsonic configuration, to be surrounded plasma. This last is not visible of day. It is this plasma which makes the apparatus furtive while absorbing and by diffusing the waves radar. If this "B2 of demonstration" were not to it people would be tempted to put question since a priori it has reputation to be undetectable.
In film this "minimal" system MHD is activated. Normally the electric discharge would not have a visible being. But when the apparatus flies over the sea, a zone saturated with moisture, it carries out a passage into transonic. Let us represent hereafter a profile of wing in transonic mode. At the time one one approaches the speed of sound of the phenomena "of tompressibility" apparears the vicinity of the thickest part of the profile (area materialized by a line).

Wing and fuselage of plane with transonic rate.

It is in this area that occurs a water vapor condensation, in general fugitive because the planes are not designed to accomplish flights of long duration to this transonic pace where they are in addition unstable. When an apparatus crosses the wall of the sound it is a beach speed where it does not tend to be delayed. Idem when it slows down. Hereafter a photograph of a F-18 flying to the top of the sea into transonic. It then appears a variable nebulosity of extension which is obviously of white color, since it is... water vapor.



F-18 carrying out a passage into transonic in the air saturated with moisture.

In the movie with the B-2, we have something ttotally different :



Look at the light on the back of the plane :



What does one observe?

On the part higher of the apparatus, where system MHD is, mainly localised than the air intake of the engines and at exit of conduit the vapor bubble is strongly luminous. It is normal. The populated air of water vapor microphone-droplets is more conductive electricity. The electric discharge then tends to extend in all this area. Obviously this vapor bubble emits light, which is due to the radiative de-energizing of the molecules of gas excited by the collisions that they undergo with the free electrons constituting the discharge. This luminosity is very low, even non-existent on the lower part of the apparatus.

How the Air Force did let pass such images? With our opinion because nobody paid attention there. Under normal conditions (those which correspond to all the other images of film) the electric discharge is not visible. This one appeared during a short moment because the water vapor condensation related to the passage into transonic abruptly increased the electric conductivity of the air. These images were entrusted to a company whose task then was to assemble this film of a little more than one minute. Nobody then paid too much attention to the colouring and the luminosity abnormal of the vapor bubble during this very short sequence. One needed the eye of a specialist to note this anomaly.

Morality: even when one takes great care to hide the things of the clues always remain. On the image hereafter, the same phenomenon of halation around B2 but system MHD not activated.




Translation by Nans Desmichels of an article in french of Jean-Pierre PETIT, released Juanary,17 th 2003 o, his homepage : www.jp-petit.com...

[Edited on 14-6-2003 by Nans DESMICHELS]

I read some of it but it was confusing. Can you please explain to me what is going on.

I am not an specialist but I figure that what you are seeing is the sonic boom. How they are able to capture that is beyond me. Maybe Nans can tell us how that works.

Yup

it is a sonic boom visual. neat huh, have you guys seen a infared image of them?

I understand what it is, but why is it such a big deal? It talked about plasma suronding something and i got confused.

is the light halo around the transonic compression of water vapor. This prove that the B-2 use a plasma steath generator that create a sort of Electromagnetic mirror to send back the radar waves...

They missed the point time because it's not official that the USA have develloped plasma stealth generator... This technology doesn't officially exist and maybe a component of alien tech...

On the last pic, the B-2 pass the transonic wall but the plasma stealth generator is off... So, no halo...


[Edited on 14-6-2003 by Nans DESMICHELS]

I thought the plasma was being used by the russians?

Couple of things to keep in mind: plasma is ionized gas particles. Therefore, plasma flow is a flow of ionized gas particles. Ion is an electrically charged particle or group of atoms. Plasma cloud is a quasineutral (total electrical charge is zero) collection of free charged particles. The vast majority of matter in the universe exists in plasma state. Near the Earth plasma can be found in the form of solar wind, magnetosphere and ionosphere. The main property of plasma (for our purposes) is its frequency, which is equal to a square root of a ratio of 4 * Pi * square of ion charge * concentration of ions to the mass of ion:

SQRT ( (4 * Pi * n * e^2) / m ),

where e is electron or ion charge, n is concentration of ions per volume of plasma and m is mass of ion.

There are several types of oscillations in plasma: low frequency (ion-sound waves), high frequency (oscillations of electrons relative to ions), spiral waves (in the presence of a magnetic field - "magnetosound"), and cross waves propagating along a magnetic field. A device for generating plasma is called plasmatron. This device generates the so-called low-temperature plasma.


See Link

Heres one seen here before, but I'm reposting it since it fits the topic.







[Edited on 14-6-2003 by ADVISOR]

Nice story nans, but none of it is true.

The Russian did/do indeed experiment with plasma stealth technology, but it's not intergrated on the B-2.

The cloud you see in not a sonic boom, since the B-2 cannot fly at supersonic speeds.
We have in fact discussed about that last big pic of the B-2 on William One Sac's website.
First I though a sonic boom causes that cloud, but I found an interesting website that explained it prefectly:

pub173.ezboard.com...


I'm sorry but they never released any info about plasma generators on the B-2...

Can I stir things up and state that while the possibility is very small, the B-2 could have passed supersonic speed for that instant?

Zion, you are very correct in stating that the plane is too large and could cause structural instability should it exceed 700mph+ and hit supersonic. Well, you could always take a peek over the schematics of a B-1. Very large, very fast!

Further, you said it has no afterburner.

Well, I'm sure you already know about the Raptor and it's revolutionary technology called supercruise (supersonic without afterburner), is it possible this plane through some fluke managed to push the envelope that little bit.... Weather patterns over the ocean may have been enough at the time for the B-2 to create a sonic boom. After all, it does fly high subsonic (according to RELEASED figures by the USAF anyway) and the actual speed of supersonic Mach 1.00 is variant on weather conditions.

Anyway, when I first saw the picture I was going to suggest the Prandtl-Glauert Singularity effect which is my first and final judgement on this one!

I have a very cool video clip of an F-14 creating this effect. I was going to put it up on ATS when I noticed another site had it (good old Google search):

www.eng.vt.edu...

Also, I am unable to view the link at the top of the page that you posted Nans ( www.is.northropgrumman.com...]B-2 ).

Is it not working anymore?

What an awesome clip

You are right about the fact that the air force never released it's real top speed, only that it can fly high subsonic.
To me it seems highly unlikely that a B-2 pilot deleberately pushes the aircraft to supersonic speeds, after all, it is a $2 Billion design.

The B-2's engines are derived from the B-1's engines. BUT, B-1 sweps it's wings to fly supersonic. And it build to go fast.

I'm not saying it's impossible, it could be a trick by the USAF to make us all believe that the B-2 can only go subsonic, while if needed it can go supersonic.
But I doubt it, it just doesn't look like it's designed to handle Mach 1+ speeds.

Doesn't a real plasma generator also alter the mass of the object. There is also very little air resistance. Therefor, I believe the speeds it can achieve are very impressive indeed. Jmo

I know EXACTLY what this is...

it is the pilot of a b2 bomber farting, and his farting igniting with the B2's fuel.

What exactly would they feed him to maintain such a high level of methane? I don't understand it...why use the ole methane trick when they have much more sophisticated methods of fuel ignition?

Originally posted by ilovepizza
I understand what it is, but why is it such a big deal? It talked about plasma suronding something and i got confused.

It's a big deal cuz the B-2A is a subsonic bomber and only supersonic aircraft can do this kind of clouds.

Originally posted by Nans DESMICHELS
is the light halo around the transonic compression of water vapor. This prove that the B-2 use a plasma steath generator that create a sort of Electromagnetic mirror to send back the radar waves...

Great idea. An anti-radar device who's sending back the radar waves. Sending back where ? To the radar emitter ? You little genius.

Originally posted by SimonGray
Also, I am unable to view the link at the top of the page that you posted Nans ( www.is.northropgrumman.com...]B-2 ).

Is it not working anymore?

he he he.... www.is.northropgrumman.com... You just have to remove the " ]B-2 " But I bet 1000� you knew it....

[Edited on 14-6-2003 by ultra_phoenix]

No UP, youd didn't read the discussion on wilklies board did you...

Although the B2 is clearly in a banking maneuver here, the general consensus is that the above pattern is not connected with high lift maneuvers. I think that a reasonable guess is that the clouds are due in part to lift enhanced by the Prandtl-Glauert singularity. The speed of the B2 is likely to correspond to a Mach number of 0.6 so that the enhancement is likely to be weak.

So you see, a plane doesn't need to fly at supersonci speeds to produce "Prandtl-Glauert" clouds.

Great idea. An anti-radar device who's sending back the radar waves. Sending back where ? To the radar emitter ? You little genius.

lol...
Nans,
the B-2, and other stealth aircraft are designed to absorb radar instead of reflecting it...

Originally posted by Zion Mainframe

1) No UP, youd didn't read the discussion on wilklies board did you...

2) So you see, a plane doesn't need to fly at supersonci speeds to produce "Prandtl-Glauert" clouds.

1) eerm..well, you see, in fact I...ok ok, I didn't read it.

2) If you say it....

Actually, there are rumors around that the B-2 uses some form of Magneto-Hydrodynamic propulsion, which would allow it to fly at supersonic speeds without structural stress (as the air immediately surrounding the vehicle actually moves with the aircraft).

This would explain the glowing effect on the upper surface of the. It would also have the added bonus of suppressing any sonic boom if it were to exceed the speed of sound.

There have been reports of ground crew injured and killed associated with the B2 due to electrocution when they touched it immediately after landing (which would be consistent with an MHD system, as the outer skin of the aircraft would be highly charged).

Retired Air Force Colonel Donald Ware has claimed that a three star general revealed that "the new Lockheed-Martin space shuttle (National Space Plane) and the B-2 (stealth bomber) both have electro-gravitic systems on board" and that "this explains why our 21 Northrop B-2s cost about a billion dollars each."

I feel that it is also worthy to note that the Selected Aquisition Report (with which United States lawmakers track the cost of major U.S. weapons projects) valued the B-2 program at $45 billion. With 21 aircraft built, that works out at $2.14 billion each, twice the cost as stated above.

After taking off conventionally, the B-2 has the option of switching to anti-gravity mode. It has been said that using it's anti-gravitic technology, the B-2 can fly around the world without refuelling.

The F-117 stealth fighter also has hybrid propulsion and lift technologies which may be electro-gravitic systems. Utilizing
conventional thrust for public take-offs and landings, switching to anti-gravity mode would allow an extended cruising range, lightning fast manouverability, and for shrouding the airframe in invisibility (by having its local counter-gravity field bend light around the airframe).

www.nanodata.com...&%20B2%20Bomber.htm

Originally posted by dragonrider


I feel that it is also worthy to note that the Selected Aquisition Report (with which United States lawmakers track the cost of major U.S. weapons projects) valued the B-2 program at $45 billion. With 21 aircraft built, that works out at $2.14 billion each, twice the cost as stated above.

Not sure. In the begining, the USAF had to recieve 136 B-2A. But the fall of the former USSR has dropped the number to 21. The more B-2 ( or any other aircrafts ) you build, the less it cost per unit. With 136 B-2, the unit cost was probably close to 700/800 million USD and not 2.14 billion.

I remember that I've heard that Northrop was ready to build new B-2 for a 250 million USD per unit.