Raider is the name for the Northrop B-21

[horicle]

I see on the DID website that the USAF has chosen Raider as the official name for the new Northrop B-2 lookalike bomber. This raises a few interesting points.

Already some US commentators have noted a certain insensitivity to the USA's principal Asian ally when the naming panel cited the name as a tribute to Doolittle and his 'Raiders'.

What about poor old Sikorsky who have their new S-97 Raider under development. I always thought the Yanks were very clued up about getting the copyright on everything they did, had, or got.

Should this aircraft be the Raider II as Northrop sold a C-125A Raider to the USAF (first flew on 21st Dec 1946 as the Northrop N-23 Pioneer). Special note, when checking to see if any Raider thread existed I discovered Bruce had identified this Raider as one of the Worlds ugly aircraft back in 2005.

I think the naming panel were a bit short on Military History and Aviation History. I would have just called it "Fortress". Phone rings. "Boeing Lawyers here"
Maybe it is hard to find an original name for a new type. Wife tells me to stop talking to myself.

[ErrolC]

Given it is called B-21 (rather than B-3), I wasn't expecting a logical approach to naming...

[htbrst]

The name was semi crowdsourced, selected from the 4600 names submitted by Airmen and their families...The top 16 actually considered by the higher ups were:

According to the Air Force, the top names considered (in alphabetical order) were:

Boomerang
Ghost
Horizon
LeMay
Liberator II
Mitchell II
Night Fury
Phoenix
Raider
Shadow Fortress
Stingray
Valkyrie
Victory
Wraith
Zeus II

There are some quite comedic names in the full list though: www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/09/heres-the-list-of-4600-names-submitted-for-the-b-21-including-911-cover-up-and-lowest-bidder/

[saratoga]

'Valkyrie's' been done before,'Stingray' would be cool but probably breached the old TV shows copyright.
'NightFury' sounds like something you'd need to change the sheets for....

[Dave Homewood]

Boomerang? Were they considering marketing it to the Royal West Island Air Force?

I really like Shadow Fortress.

[Mustang51]

At $550mil we could get one........... And why not just the "Shadow"? I like that.

[saratoga]

'Shadow' already taken by Thunderbirds FAB.

[isc]

Stingray's been done, an inflatable plane!! and Skyray was the Douglas F 4D designed by Ed Heinemann, a little ship board delta that first flew in 1951. isc

[Mustang51]

Skyray was a very nice little (well not so little) machine

[isc]

Well the Skyhawk arrived not long after. isc

[horicle]

Now I see, Quote USAF “The designation B-21 recognizes the LRS-B as the first bomber of the 21st century,” Does this mean we will have to wait 84+ years for the B-22. I think they have backed themselves into another corner.