Gallery: New Images Emerge Of The Secretive B-21 Stealth Bomber

The first B-21, named ‘Cerberus’ after the hound of Hades, a multi-headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld, taxies out for its first flight from Northrop Grumman’s Site 4 production area at the U.S. Air Force’s Plant 42 facility in Palmdale, California. The side profile reveals the aircraft’s pronounced beak-like nose which is horizontally aligned with the continuous sharp leading edge rather than curved down in the B-2A. Also visible is the large upward hinged auxiliary inlet door. 

Credit: Matt Hartman 

A close up of the B-21’s broad underside reveals thermally protected areas of the trailing edge below the engine exhaust area and the faint outlines of the weapons bay, as well as the engine access locations inboard of each main landing gear leg. Between the engine access bay and main weapons bay appears on each side to be a smaller payload access door – possibly to house self-defense systems including the Stand-in Attack Weapon.

Credit: Matt Hartman

Picked out clearly by the low sun angle is the B-21’s prominent forward mounted air data probe array which, for flight test purposes, is configured to project below the aircraft’s nose to collect static air pressure data between the pitch attitude – the relationship between the nose and the horizon – and the angle-of-attack – which is a measure of the angle between the chord line and the oncoming airflow. Also illuminated close to the leading edge below the nose and forward body lobes are 12 of the B-21’s port transducer unit array – a set of flush-mounted sensors which pass airspeed, angle-of-attack, sideslip and attitude data to the aircraft’s quadruplex flight control computers.

Credit: Matt Hartman

The morning sunlight clearly picks out the thread like line connecting the B-21 with a trailing air data cone device. The system is designed to deploy outside the aircraft's airstream allowing for a higher level of total and static pressure measurement accuracy.

Credit: Matt Hartman

Climbing after rotation from runway 07 at around 6.50 am., the B-21A heads east and displays a well distributed thermal exhaust against the backdrop of the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. The tips of the auxiliary inlet cover doors are also visible either side of the upper fuselage. 

Credit: Matt Hartman

Moving along taxiway bravo for runway 07 the B-21’s broad, low observable engine exhausts are clearly visible from this aft perspective. The aircraft’s span also appears to be larger than previous estimates of around 132 ft. and may be closer to 150 ft., though still less than the B-2A’s 172 ft.

Credit: Matt Hartman