B-2 Reinvented?

摘要

There has been speculation concerning the USAF's new stealth bomber for quite a while, so I was especially interested to see the artist's impression released of what is now known as the B-21 and read more details about it in your Headlines pages (April issue). From an enthusiast's point of view, I was very disappointed with the look of the new aircraft in the artwork - it appears to be very similar to the B-2 Spirit. Pushing the boundaries of aerospace technology has produced some unusual looking aircraft, such as the F-117 Nighthawk and indeed the B-2. The first Spirit was rolled out in 1988 and was significantly different from the F-117 because technology had moved on. I naturally assumed that what the USAF has referred to as the bomber for the 21st century would look very different to something that first flew in the 1980s.