West Texas Spanloader

a reply to: kingofyo1

yeah just reading the citations on that one will make your head spin and show you the direction they are going.

a few other cool patents

www.dreamlandresort.com...

a reply to: grey580

Connected to the patent i linked is the NG patent for the b2. If you look at the release date for the patent (1989) compared to the white world release date of "first flight" (1989) it paints a picture that whatever has been patent requested is probably already been flying for years

a reply to: clay2 baraka

Why - because of the location sighted?

a reply to: grey580

so cool. there are a few familiar ones in there

U.S. Air Force Expects to Award Bomber Contract in One to Two Months

Looks like things may be starting to rev up in St. Louis and El Segundo. I remember those days in late 2001 in Fort Worth. : )

So do we get to see the new OML sparkling with laser lights and fog? Maybe a demonstrator fly by - with a simulated bombing run and bursts of fire? Yee haw.

a reply to: TAGBOARD
Impatient to be in two month to see who is the winner of the century contract, I expect wee will see something new and huge with the LRS-B, if not, we will must wait the year 2030 with the futur 6th gen fighter contract.

a reply to: TAGBOARD

Not until October.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I know you said they pushed it back from summer, but I think this is the first definitive month you've given!

Summer for the cotractor but may be nothig at this time on the bomber itself ?

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

That's because they quietly confirmed it a few months ago. I'm not going to give away anything until there are other confirming sources.

a reply to: darksidius

The initial contract award will be done in July, but the aircraft won't be revealed until towards the end of the year.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Well you know the old saying eh, " if it aint boeing, it aint going " !! Just my two pence worth

a reply to: nelloh62

Ah, but in this case, Boeing is the subcontractor, so technically it's NOT Boeing.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Haha. Good point

a reply to: TAGBOARD

Asked about concerns that the contract award could have a negative effect on the losing team, LaPlante said the Air Force always consider broad industrial base issues in making contract awards. It factors in foreign military sales prospects, existing work on classified and unclassified programs and which anticipated contract awards were on the horizon.

"It's a much bigger issue than any one program," LaPlante said. "All we can do is make sure that we don’t inadvertently, by something we control, all of a sudden push someone completely out of the market."

This coupled with Northrop's big $4B contract for Global Hawk modernization should be a pretty big indicator pointing to what we already know.

a reply to: Sammamishman

I thought this was a very well informed article.

What do you folks think?
www.shreveporttimes.com...

Brief.......

The U.S. Air Force is expected in coming months to announce the company selected to build the nation's next strategic bomber, the Long Range Strike Bomber.

An evolution of what once was called the "Next Generation Bomber," its details are closely held by the Air Force. But experts say it will reflect the realities of politics and economics in an era of austerity, sequestration, terrorism and what's often called "low-intensity conflict."

Using state-of-the-art but existing technologies, it will augment and possibly supplant one or all of the nation's three current bomber platforms: the fast but conventionally armed B-1B Lancers and the conventional- and nuclear-capable stealthy B-2A Spirits and venerable B-52H Stratfortresses that call Barksdale Air Force Base home.

The question for many local Barksdale boosters is: Will the new bomber be based here?

"I think (Barksdale) will be a very viable candidate, particularly given the recent restructuring which consolidates nuclear-related activity under Global Strike Command," said David Vitter, the state's senior U.S. senator.

So maybe a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig bombay...

originally posted by: aholic
a reply to: Sammamishman

I thought this was a very well informed article.

What do you folks think?
www.shreveporttimes.com...

In regards to your link it says:

"The B-52 will continue and another generation or two of pilots will be flying them, but we expect the LRSB to roll off the assembly line probably around 2025 to 2028, a little outside a decade," he said.

Is this a BS line? It really will take 10 years for the first one to roll off the assembly line or do they already have this thing ready to go for the most part?

a reply to: TheGoondockSaint

The prototypes have been flying for awhile. They're about to start testing when people can see them so they're doing the award and rollout. It'll still take a few years of testing to be ready to come off the line though.

a reply to: TheGoondockSaint

Well from the F-35's first flight (2006) to the time the Navy gets there FOC birds (2018) is supposed to be about 12 years. I think the LRS's should be a little quicker though, as Zaph mentioned, they have already technically had their first flight and they "shouldn't" be as complicated of a program as the F-35 was. I think they just don't want to get into the mind frame of promising one thing and then having to eat those words later on.