The December 2022 arrival of the B-21 Raider, the most official aircraft humanity has ever created, captured the imagination and sparked renewed interest in the future of air combat and the role that stealth bomber-like platforms will play.

However, Northrop’s original flying stealth wing represented an absolute qualitative leap in military aviation technology and remains a symbol of aviation innovation. However, there was another aircraft directly competing with it in the highly classified Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB) program. It was the concept of a Senior Peg stealth bomber from Lockheed Skunk Works.

There was relatively little information, a public photo of the model is an important piece of information on this. However, while there are still many questions about the Skunk Works Stealth Bomber, the presentation of the model provides a great amount of detail.

Images of the model combined with the aircraft’s official descriptions and origin, including Have Blue and the resulting Senior Trend design that became the F-117, greatly influenced the Senior Peg configuration. The way the B-2 spawned and evolved rapidly in terms of coverage also helped. We finally got as close as we could get to what Senior Peg might look like on an operational aircraft.

The Senior Peg windshield and air intake configuration were some of the most interesting aspects of the design to bring to life, and the mast model seemed to showcase them very clearly. Based on the model, the illustrator speculated that the flat, radar-weakening air intake grilles seen on the F-117, although with a unique angle along the leading edge, would likely cover the aircraft’s large air intakes. In particular, they needed to supply air to the aircraft’s engines through serpentine ducts to minimize critical forward radar reflection from fire control radars. The exhaust will be flat, unobtrusive, passive and possibly active cooling.

Radar arrays were a big question, and it’s unclear exactly what Lockheed had in mind. It is possible that the large air intakes visible in the polar pattern are indeed radar aperture for large bistatic arrays, but this is unlikely because then the air intakes will be at the bottom. The designer interpreted the placement of a two-phase grille at the top of the nose – the post model seems to point to – with the possibility of a double grille underneath.

The exact radar configuration for the senior Peg aircraft remains a mystery. Focusing on a smaller and more cost-effective design than the Northrop Senior Ice concept, Skunk Works’ aircraft-related goals likely included a smaller array of strings than those found on the B-2. Northrop also learned a lot from the top-secret Tacit Blue demonstrator, which greatly influenced the design of Senior Ice. This top-secret aircraft carried a massive phased array radar that likely did not interfere with moving ground targets as part of the larger Pave Mover program, and side branches of this radar function entered the B-2.

It will be necessary to provide access panels, ejection seat openings, advanced composite structures, communications means and devices for air refueling. The ridges running along the trailing edge of the wings were supposed to hide the drives of the aircraft’s steering surfaces. Finally, the weirdest part of Senior Peg’s design was her little tail.

Overall, the Senior Peg was an incredibly bizarre yet sinister flying machine with very unique silhouettes. It had much in common with the Senior Ice design that became the B-2, but featured a blended wing fuselage rather than a flying wing with elements of the F-117’s multi-pronged approach. Meanwhile, Senior Ice was in many ways the successor to Tacit Blue and a true flying wing design, which is not surprising given Northrop’s previous history with flying wing configuration under company founder and aviation visionary Jack Northrop. Source