Over the last 100 years, the history of flight has moved at lightning speed. At least, that’s the sense you get when you watch this Army video teasing a new winged bomber that is bigger than the B29 Superfortress. This new flying bomber looks like an early predecessor to the B-2 bomber but with a much more exciting window cockpit layout. With this in mind, you must first look at these images to get a sense of the plane’s glory with the full video.
Rear View
The rear view of this plane shows off not only its height compared to the men on the ground but also a side view of the four engines required to propel it into the skies.
10,000 Miles
What’s truly incredible is that this plane could fly more than 10,000 miles during a single flight. This is a lot of staying power in the air for important Army missions.
Full Plane Reveal
In this view from the video, you get a sense of the size of the plane at scale. You can see how large it appears compared to the men on the ground. The same can be said for the engine blades, which look to be the size of a full-grown man.
Under the Plane
This view underneath the plane gives an even stronger sense of its size. The man standing underneath the plane is only slightly taller than the landing gear, which speaks well to the plane’s scale.
Window View
In this still image, you get a sense of one of the crew positions, where a pilot, copilot, or navigator will sit during the flight. While the video doesn’t provide specifics, it’s a unique design with this bubble on top of the aircraft.
Second Window View
You can see a man’s head just above the aircraft line to better understand how large this window bubble is on top of the plane. There is room for not only one crew member but many crew members.
Mini Version
Before launching this larger plane into the air, the Army created an experimental forerunner that would fly hundreds of hours in tests to work out the aerodynamic kinks. Engineers could gather vital information from these flights to help improve the larger aircraft.
Mini View Second View
This is another view of the smaller airplane in the air. According to the video, results from this test will help build at least 15 of the larger aircraft. This is why so much data is required to create a successful first test flight.
Large Engines
With this view, you have another up close and personal look at the engines on this strange military aircraft. As you can tell from the photo, each engine requires two separate counter-rotating propellers to generate enough lift to get this plane in the air.
Test Flight Ready
With all the engineers giving the okay, the strange aircraft is rolled out to a runaway to begin its first test flight. During this test flight, engineers will gather more data to determine if any engineering or manufacturing changes need to be made.
Unique Aerodynamics
While the video doesn’t specify, the open slots on each plane’s wings hint at the video’s mention of unique aerodynamics. Some of the information about the test flight was likely classified at the time, so this video doesn’t provide additional detail.
Watch the Full Video
Watch the full video to learn even more about this strange military plane, which looks like it’s either from a Batman movie or the predecessor to the B-2 bomber.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Big Lu/Shutterstock.com.
