Looks like our boys saw something cool out there

a reply to: hawkguy
Only one was a tech demonstrator..

originally posted by: E92M3
B-2 has a huge front gear door, you can see this doesn't.

I don't think the front gear door being visible is a definitive clue one way or the other( I assume you are referencing the larger of the front gear bay doors hinged to starboard and not the smaller squarish door fixed to the landing strut itself ).



Like quite a few AvGeeks at the moment, I've viewed a lot of B-2 pics recently and the larger, saw tooth edged door is often closed after the front gear deploys and while on the ground.

a reply to: Drunkenparrot

Actually that was for me at least one thing that stood out. There does not seem to be that large of a door covering the landing gear.

a reply to: FredT

That's what I meant, I didn't word it well enough.

What was the focal distance of the photo? I could do a 3D render using a B-2 model at the same angle to compare.

a reply to: Blackfinger

Ain't that the truth.

So what's the possible explanation for those widely-spaced nacelles? The B-21 renderings have so far suggested something with deeply buried engines like on an X-47B, and switching from that to engines in B-2 style pods seems like it would be a fairly major design change.

At the same time though, the narrowness and spacing reminds me a ton of the satcom bulges on an RQ-170, although I guess that would completely muddle the entire "[RQ-180 or whatever it's actually called] is a Northrop bird" story, and yet I can't shake the idea that this thing, of you squint, kind of looks like a bigger RQ-170 with skinnier wings. But then you have the details like the clearly-visible bomb bay doors that suggest it's designed to carry a little more than some SAR imager or GORGON STARE follow-on.

It's probably gone now, but didn't we have a thread with a digital representation of a large, unmanned bird coming up behind a tanker? It looked like a training simulation for a boomer to practice with. I presumed it represented a 180 but that was just my assumption.

originally posted by: Badgermole42

It's probably gone now, but didn't we have a thread with a digital representation of a large, unmanned bird coming up behind a tanker? It looked like a training simulation for a boomer to practice with. I presumed it represented a 180 but that was just my assumption.

a reply to: Blackfinger

Wichita?

a reply to: mightmight

Are we refueling Chinese UAVs now? Readying for our sneak attack on the Russians? Or to resist the Grays?

a reply to: anzha
The picture was posted by a certain someone originally. Probably wasnt build just because.

a reply to: hawkguy
Its a possibility..Smaller than a B2.

originally posted by: anzha
a reply to: mightmight

Are we refueling Chinese UAVs now? Readying for our sneak attack on the Russians? Or to resist the Grays?

I just had a wonderfully absurd thought, wouldn’t it be awesome if say India hacked their drone down and shipped it off to us and this is our reverse engineered version as a big nose thumb to China and some well deserved payback? Hey a guy can dream or write crappy mil-fic lol

a reply to: mightmight

I was being goofy, not serious. I should have put a smiley in the post.

It does look like the Star Shadow though.

a reply to: BigDave-AR

It would be awesome and funny, but probably not happen: not because of the plausibility of a hack though. Half the Indian military wants to side with the Russians. The rest are split. We're the next largest, but there's a french contingent and even a Brit contingent. Some even want nunya.

originally posted by: anzha
a reply to: BigDave-AR

It would be awesome and funny, but probably not happen: not because of the plausibility of a hack though. Half the Indian military wants to side with the Russians. The rest are split. We're the next largest, but there's a french contingent and even a Brit contingent. Some even want nunya.

Oh I know but the scenario just ran through my mind and tickled my irony bone, India was just an easy stand in for Iran and the US drone with them being in land disputes with China it seemed like an apt party to “obtain” some juicy tech. Be nice to see China knocked down a few pegs.

This is sort of what I envision the aircraft in the image looking like:

Over 10 miles away the math doesn't make any difference. 50 feet or 500 not going to be able to tell a measurement difference.

I saw that last summer maybe with my Armasight Zeus

Reported it well in a post here at ATS


Th he wingtips had less of a skinny profile from above....less high aspect......the tips were cut off and somehow the back line was different!

Edith no it was a PVS14 with the gain up to 85 %...normal is 58%