Posted on 01/22/2021 11:31:38 AM PST by Red Badger
The first two B-21 Raider bombers are currently under construction in Palmdale, California.
The first flight will take place in 2022.
The B-21 Raider will replace the B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit later this decade.
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The first two B-21 Raider bombers are currently under construction in the California desert. The Air Force’s first new bomber in more than 30 years will replace most of the service’s heavy bombers—with the exception of the immortal B-52H Stratofortress. Although the B-21 Raider has mostly stayed on schedule, the Air Force has pushed the first flight back to the middle of 2022.
Of the two B-21s under construction, the first jet is “really starting to look like a bomber,” according to Air Force magazine. The second bomber is in its early production stages.
The B-21’s first flight was initially scheduled for December 2021, but Air Force officials warned last fall that the date was likely to slip. Officials seem fairly confident the Raider will fly next year, with the plane entering service “around 2026 or 2027.”
Artist’s depiction of a B-21 at Whiteman Air Base, Missouri. U.S. AIR FORCE
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The B-21 is the Air Force’s first new bomber since the 1980s. The B-1B Lancer bomber entered service in 1986, and the B-2 Spirit bomber followed in 1997. The end of the Cold War cut the number of B-2 bombers from 132 to just 20, as the lack of a nuclear-armed adversary reduced the need for bombers. The Air Force’s fleet of B-1, B-2, and B-52 bombers have proved useful in the last 30 years, racking up conventional missions against countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria.
The B-21 Fuzzy Puppy
The B-52s were routinely going over our house on approach a few thousand feet up. The ground would shake. The flaps look big as barn doors when extended and probably are that large.
It's been 30 something years since the catastrophic F5 tornado blew Moore,OK away. That tornado left Moore and headed directly at Tinker about 10 miles away. Residential and commercial density was low after leaving Moore so not as destructive to life and property. A couple of miles from Tinker was a GM automobile plant that was severely damaged. It was totaled and never rebuilt. A mile or so from Tinker, that tornado skipped into the air sparing Tinker from devastation. The B-1 hangers and shops likely would have been wiped out had the base been hit.
Nope. SR-71 is the coolest ever.
Yep. I was listening to a podcast about big volcanic eruptions in Oceania and subsequent food shortages in Europe and starvation. Cooling does really bad things.
Gorgeous picture ... gorgeous plane...
I love this site!
https://www.b-21.com/
The BONE also has the largest payload capacity in inventory. The new ones won’t come close.
And do you tell her that’s the sound of freedom?
Word!
There definitely was a certain panache to most of Convair’s designs.
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