A new Northrop Grumman ad teases new stealth bomber. And it may be a manned one.
Two aerospace giants are competing to build Pentagon’s next stealth bomber, designated LRS-B ( Long Range Strike-Bomber): a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, and Northrop Grumman.
The latter has produced a cool ad that was posted on Youtube last week.
The ad shows Northrop Grumman’s long tradition of flying wings: the YB-35 prototype dating back to the 1940s, the B-2 Spirit the only heavy stealth bomber known to operate with the U.S. Air Force, and the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System developed for the U.S. Navy.
However, towards the end of the ad another shape is teased to the viewers: a flying wing hidden below a protective sheet that is coherent with the many renderings which have appeared in the past and, possibly, with the triangle-shaped jet sightings of last year.
Noteworthy, a pilot is depicted staring at the plane a scene that may suggest the LRS-B will be manned.
And the slogan the narrator recites is clear enough: “Building aircraft, the likes of which the world has never seen before: This is what we do.”
This is not the only Northrop Grumman ad which gives a hint at the future LRS-B shape: as explained on his blog at War Is Boring, aviation journalist David Axe has seen traces of the LRS-B in another commercial.
