Whats this B-2 doing???????????, page 3

Originally posted by infexious
fairly sure this is fake, look in the file header, it's got "Ulead technologies" in it, could just be the program it was cropped in etc. - but could also be the program used to fiddle with it, to be honest tho, it even looks fake

I seriously doubt that the image is faked - that said, I also doubt that what you are seeing is either a sound barrier being broken or an anit-gravity drive being "kicked on"...

Ulead technologies has for several years made among the main programs for optimizing images for the web - (the process of reducing the size and therefore the download time of web images...)

Only recently comparatively has Ulead been into image editing and I dare say that if someone were to attempt a fake this good it would be accomplished with photoshop or another more professional program.



The original picture came from the Edwards AFB photo gallery - the location of the photo is not A51/Groom Lake as some here have stated but Dryden Dry Lake Bed @ Edwards AFB, in California.

Here is a link to a similar picture on the Edwards AFB web site.
www.edwards.af.mil...

I do not believe this picture is showing the B-2 breaking the sound barrier or "kicking in" it's "anti-gravity" drive - 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 approximately 0.6.





[Edited on 23-12-2003 by intelgurl]

globalsecurity.org...

It looks like it is pulling some kind of tether.

Is it an antenna?

a supposedly secret contrail-reduction technology?

Also notice how it seems that different generations of B-2 have changed the infamous leading edge. On that picture it is clearly a different material. That seems to be the original configuration.

but here, it is invisible.

globalsecurity.org...

it's 99% probably just a new radar absorbing/deflecting material....

but if you are conspiracy minded, maybe only some generations have the anti-gravity? As the B-2 moves towards normal operation they make a normal flight version of the plane.

globalsecurity.org...

where do the lights shine from?

Maybe it is all a huge LCD impregnated panel, and they can make
any section of it clear as necessary for lights or cameras or sensors?

Actually this might account for the varying appearance of the front panel, from being dark black to light gray.

That's because the appearance of an LCD depends alot on polarization, you know if you look at LCD display with polarized sunglasses.

Maybe it's always just the same thing but depending on the lighting.

If anybody sees a B-2 closeup in an air-show, try looking at it under polarized glasses. Then take off the glasses and rotate them while
looking at the plane.

And check this picture out. It is the only shot I know from 'underneath' looking up at the front edge.

If you see, it has a "cornice", it is not a blunt body going through the air, it is rather like a lip which curls down. And there appears to be two white lights emitted from squares which are embedded in this surface.

WTF is up with that? I know of no aerodynamic principle which demands that. Any other wings with that shape? No.

And also, notice how segmented the leading edge is.

Everywhere else in the plane, they try to make it as amazingly smooth as possible for minimal radar cross section.

Why is the front segmented? Obviously there must be a real good reason.

Is it because of heat expansion gaps? (supposedly the SR-71 heats up and gets tight at high speed, so much that it is loose and leaky at low speeds).

or the infamous "antigravity" panels?

Ooops, forgot to include the second picture URL.

This is it.

www.globalsecurity.org...

there you can see under the leading edge a little.

I now think the odd curvature is probably for radar stealth, considering the main scenario woudl be B-2 heading in towards enemy radar.

So that the front portion would get alot of incoming radar from horizontal or slightly angled below that. You would want to reflect as much of this as possible upwards to the sky.

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