Author: Hong Photo Kursk
This may be the most famous new fighter jet launch ceremony in history. Due to the previous high-profile preview by the US Air Force and Northrop Grumman, global military observers, media and military fans are looking forward to today's B-21 "Air Raider" strategic bomber launch conference! The B-21 strategic bomber is the second stealth strategic bomber in the world after the B-2 bomber , and is also the core force of the future strategic strikes of the US Air Force, so it has attracted widespread attention.
Picture: For nearly a week, the global military field has been discussing what the B-21 looks like!
The video of the press conference was only more than one minute, but it was very stylish. Before the meeting, the third generation of the US military's strategic bomber - B-52H "Stratigraphic Fortress", B-1B "Lancers" and B-2A "Ghost" flew over the exhibition site one after another. This large row showed the muscles of the US Air Force and ignited the enthusiasm of the entire press conference!
Picture: The third generation of strategic bombers of the US Air Force are here to support the market, and the competition is here!
The entire press conference video is not long. Except for the speech, the core video that really appeared was only more than 1 minute. Moreover, B-21 appears in a positive image, and there are no videos from side or downward angles.
But in just over 1 minute, we can still see a lot of things! There are at least three details!
Picture: Picture: The last positive image of B-21 appears is like this, which is very similar to B-21, but is different.
1. Judging from the pneumatic layout of the body , the volume of the bullet bay will not be small:
Although many CG diagrams and models of the whole machine have been published before, based on the principle of "there are pictures and the truth", we can only analyze the aerodynamic layout that can be seen on the front.
B-21 can be regarded as a low-cost version of B-2, but it cannot be said to be a simplified version of B-2. Its uniqueness can be seen from the aerodynamic layout.
Let’s first look at the familiar B-2 bomber. As an excellent representative of aerodynamics, B-2 stealth bomber was developed for the US Air Force by Northrop and Boeing in conjunction with MIT . The plan outline consists of 12 straight lines parallel to each other, and the middle part of the aircraft is raised to accommodate the cockpit, bomb bay and electronic equipment. The bulge on both sides of the central fuselage is the engine bay, with serrated air intakes arranged on the back of the flying wings, and two afterburnerless turbofan engines are installed in each engine bay.
as the B-2 center fuselage depth needs to be sufficient to accommodate the cockpit and bomb bay, but the length should be shortened as much as possible to avoid excessive resistance at high subsonic speeds.
Picture: The front of the B-2 bomber, the center fuselage is raised under the bottom to accommodate the cockpit and bomb bay.
B-21 inherits the aerodynamic layout of the B-2 bomber as a whole. From the front, you can also see the bulge of the central fuselage to accommodate the cockpit and bomb bay. However, since the B-21 is smaller than the B-2 bomber, it seems that the upper and lower bulges account for a larger proportion of the "Flying Cake" body to accommodate a cockpit and bomb bay of basically the same level.
From this perspective, the B-21's bullet casing volume should not be much smaller than that of the B-2 bomber. Therefore, it cannot be said that B-21 is a simplified or reduced version of B-2.
Picture: Looking at B-21 from the front, since B-21 is smaller than B-2, the central raised body accounts for a larger proportion of the entire body, but the volume of the bullet casing will not be small.
2. The engine air intake adopts an inverted S design, which is more concealed and has a partition plate inside.
According to previous reports, the B-21 will be equipped with two F-135 turbofan engines, and the B-2 bomber is equipped with 4 engines. The low-cost version of the B-21 mainly refers to the reduction of 2 engines and becoming a rare twin-engine strategic bomber. In the past, only China's H-6K strategic bomber used twin-engine. Of course, whether it is recognized as an internationally recognized "strategic bomber" is still questionable.
We can see from the video that the air intake of the B-21 is lower and adopts a "inverted S" buried design, so that the radar waves on the front and above cannot illuminate the engine leaf surface, and the incident radar waves can also naturally attenuate after being refracted many times and cannot be reflected back.From this perspective, the B-21 has a large abdomen bulge, which may be because it is backward compatible with two engines.
However, from the video, we can also find a detail, that is, there is a vertical partition in the middle of the engine air intake. Why is a partition in the middle of the engine air intake? This is puzzled.
Picture: The air inlet of the B-2 bomber adopts a semi-buried design, each air inlet corresponds to two engines, which are more prominent on the wing surface.
Picture: B-21 with a dual-engine design has a lower air intake and better stealth. One air intake corresponds to an engine, but there is a partition in the middle.
3. The cockpit windshield area is smaller, or a better stealth design is adopted. The windshield glass of
B-21 is designed to be smaller than that of B-2. There are 4 pieces in total, including 2 pieces on the front and 1 piece on the side.
front windshield adopts a pentagonal design, while the B-2 adopts a quadrilateral design. The side windshield is very low and does not connect with the front windshield. Judging from this design, the seats of the internal pilots will also be lower than those of the B-2 bomber.
reduces the area of the windshield glass, which may also be to minimize radar reflection. We know that the windshield of the B-2 bomber is coated with 24K real gold, which is very expensive, and the B-21 will definitely use this technology.
Picture: The four windshield glasses of the B-2 bomber are larger in area and closer in connection.
Picture: The front windshield of B-21 uses small-size five-sided glass, and the side trapezoidal glass is very low. The details of the
B-21 bomber may have to be released in the future before further analysis can be further analyzed.
Finally, let’s talk about the nickname “Air Raider” of B-21.
At the press conference, the United States announced the nickname of B-21 - "Raider". The name of this type of aircraft comes from in in in in in in in (the predecessor of the US Air Force) Doolittle air strikes in Tokyo.
At that time, Doolittle led 80 Air Force personnel to fly 16 B-25 medium bombers from aircraft carrier , carrying out a mission to "change the progress of World War II." The Doolittle Raiders' bravery is the source of the US Air Force's choice to name the aircraft "Air Raiders."
Picture: Doolittle bombed Tokyo, which is the source of the nickname of the B-21 bomber!
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