B-21 Raider: Next step, First flight!

a reply to: penroc3

Most of its missions will be manned. Optionally manned flights will be an option, and we may see it used as an ISR platform occasionally.

a reply to: intelgurl

How much more this bird looks like a UFO than anything else in the
hanger is mind-boggling. But the test pilots doing wringout proced-
ures and gathering response data on everything on back to the XB-43
say they're all a dream to fly! Besides: who am I to judge Kelly's brain??

I just have to personally get over seeming to need a control surface
to handle all the degrees of freedom --- and the whole bird is actually
one big control surface. Mind blown and flappergasted as usual, F&S!

PS Being a lazy old cuss I haven't fired up the uSoft FS in Win10 yet.
Time to fire up the Acme Rocket Sled / stubbies again.

a reply to: Zaphod58

this is part of a family systems, do you think this is the daddy? or is there another bird controlling all the rest or at least organizing things that is would be dedicated to this family

Air Force Global Strike Command released renderings of the B-21 in the hangar at all three locations they'll be based at. Only the background is different in each.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Explains the issues we were hearing about inlets. dang.

a reply to: anzha

Yeah it does. Good luck getting any kind of beam in there though.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It looks very smooth, almost slippery. Tricky inlets indeed.

She look pretty cool , look the shadow on the ground in the third picture in Dyess it say much about the shape. Its me or it look to have not a large wingspan ? cranked kite shape ?

theaviationist.com...

www.airforcemag.com...

a reply to: anzha

Even as small as she is, it's weird as hell to see only two wheels on the mains.

a reply to: Zaphod58

si i guess this puts the nail in the coffin of your picture, it was for sure a 180

a reply to: Zaphod58

NG just grafted the gear from a 737 to the Raider to save money.

a reply to: Sammamishman

They did say that they're using off the shelf components.

I'm going to be interested in finding out how those inlets perform and if it will put any performance limitations on the aircraft.

a reply to: Masisoar

most likely some sort of boundary layer control

With the quicker airflow over the top surface inlets on the top would make sense.High AoA is usually the sticking point.

www.youtube.com... The shape Under the wrap was the good one, when we look the shadow on the bottom of the hangar of Dyess. I love this little UFO looking. We can look a bump betwen the inlet and the start of the wing.The shape of the front edge look round insteed of straight.

a reply to: Zaphod58
In all seriousness its unlikely to be a 737 landing gear. From what specs I have seen the B-21 will have about twice the empty and MTOW of 737-800. They may well have used the gear off something but as to what who knows. It will have quite a high ground pressure as a result of only using 2 wheels per main gear, but I suppose shes never exactly going to operate from some dirt bush strip.