KRIS OSBORN
The recently revealed Northrop Grumman photo of the sleek, stealthy airborne B-21 Raider bomber presents a new and significant view of the mysterious and largely “black” aircraft, a next-generation platform reported by Pentagon weapons developers containing paradigm-changing technologies in the realm stealth, sensing, computing and high-altitude, high-risk bombing attack.
Clearly many of its stealth properties and advanced technologies will not be available for public discussion given the secret nature of the program, yet the recent photo does offer an as-of-yet unprecedented side-view of the new aircraft. A quick look at the external configuration would seem to suggest that indeed the aircraft may contain massive “leaps-forward” in the realm of stealth technology.
A key element of the aircraft might jump out at observers, as its “inlets” are smoothly woven into the rounded fuselage-wing-body structure in a way that is flatter, more horizontal, less angular and more seamless than its B-2 predecessor. Simply put it is less vertical and flatter in its integration with the body of the aircraft, something of great significance because any kind of protruding or vertical structure, however rounded or “blended” into the fuselage of the aircraft, introduces the prospect of an increased radar signature.
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