Message posted by Smythers (Member since 01/10/2010) on February 15, 2023 at 7:24:26 PST:
In short? My theory is that the entire wing is active - as in full blown surfaces, adaptive wingtips & morphing rear to create a wing that can, and does, adapt to create a near perfect geometry for high altitude loitering, coupled with a micron level roughness to create laminar flow in places where it is traditionally impossible. Looking at the hi res images again, I am now near certain that the B-21 raider is using the RQ-180's ability to shed heat (bakes into the ceramic RAM) on the upper surfaces. My offering is in the linked image below. The cloak as a wing was clever. The cloak as the aerodynamics behind the said wing? Was a brilliant play. Simply brilliant. The patch showing the heat distribution and shedding, as well as strength of the blown flow? Bravo.
Esteemed member (here on DLR) Mr Peter Merlin said to me the other week that 'sometimes a cloak is just a cloak' in reference to the image within the B-21 Raider patch I linked (It is also to the left of the linked image). I didn't argue at this, but I knew that the cloak rang a bell. I'd seen it before, that wiggly line & kinked twist. Took me a while to ponder it, went through all my work, but yes, I had remembered correctly.
Sometimes a cloak is just a cloak. But not this time. No, not this one. This one had real meaning. In my opinion of course.
Replies: