Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2022 7:02 am Post subject: Re: US Airforce unveils the B-21 Raider
C M B wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJvcoFnehEM
Worst kept secret in SoCal. So many strange contrails and lights in the NW skies towards Edwards the past few years, we've been assuming they were B21 trials (even if they weren't).
Best kept secret - they've brought it in under budget (so far). That's unheard of in Air Force procurement.
I thought the program was another boondoggle, but it's supposedly forward looking design may keep it flying longer and the B-2 (33 years old) is just on the wrong end of the technological curve.
The BUFF (B-52) is 70 years old, however, and still pretty much irreplaceable. It may fly for 100 years. _________________ On Lakersground, a concern troll is someone who is a fan of another team, but pretends to be a Lakers fan with "concerns".
Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 52624 Location: Making a safety stop at 15 feet.
Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2022 11:40 am Post subject:
I actually went to the public reveal of the F-117 Nighthawk at Edwards back in 1990. It was in no way the stage production that this video is. There was no dramatic music and stage lighting, just a press conference outside a hanger, and then they opened the door to the hanger and we walked in. _________________ You thought God was an architect, now you know
He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow
And everything you built that’s all for show
goes up in flames
In 24 frames
I was watching this on their website and it was basically a tease even for those people that were there. They pulled the aircraft forward so you could see the profile of the front of the plane but then pushed it back into the hanger. So very few people actually got to see the aircraft other than most likely the Secretary of Defense and the employees and maybe senior execs of the company.
I actually went to the public reveal of the F-117 Nighthawk at Edwards back in 1990. It was in no way the stage production that this video is. There was no dramatic music and stage lighting, just a press conference outside a hanger, and then they opened the door to the hanger and we walked in.
That one is a dinosaur in terms of shaping (like the 80s Lambo Countach), but back in 88-90, the F117a and B2 looked leaps ahead of the tech perspective of the average American idiot. In 70, the Tomcat did too. We don't get the same wows as then at least looks-wise. Maybe shape/design has more or less been figured out for the forseeable future, tho who knows what aircraft will look like when quantum computers are prevalent.
edit) -Peeped a Modern Marvels on stealth planes (nerd) after this got me thinking and one of the Skunk Works men did say 90% of stealth was shaping alone, wind tunnel tests, etc. So shaping might be more or less static now that it's been perfected down to smoother/rounder forms/panels. The coatings and the coatings of the canopy are the "tech wow" features of the F22 vs F117. _________________ GOAT MAGIC REEL SEDALE TRIBUTE EDDIE DONX!
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum