Message posted by The Agent on March 22, 2002 at 15:29:17 PST:
I have being looking at rendered images of the Aurora and Brilliant Buzzard and I am starting to believe that these images are not the true shape of the plane. This is so for one simple reason, the engine placement. To understand why this is so you need to know military tactics in dealing you stealth and spy planes. The idea is the stay hidden from both stealth and infrared (IR) identification. The key with the engines is IR of course. The problem is that they are located below the fuselage. Most identification of high-altitude aircraft is done from below, so a military design tactic is to put the engine outflow on top of the fuselage so that enemy fighter below can't see the hot gases flowing out with IR sensors. A good example of this is the B-2. The engine outputs are on the top of the fuselage. Another design tactic is to put most of the engine inside of the fuselage. Again the B-2 is a prime example of this. I can't see the government not implanting these tactics in the new black planes. The following links explains the tactics used in stealth in greater detail. The page is about the B-2 but can apply to any plane.
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