Northrop Grumman has once again included what appears to be a Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) crewed platform concept in its latest ads. This follows another ad from 2021 that teased the same design, although that ad didn’t offer a wide-angle view of it.
The main video itself, which is only 15 seconds long, plays in the company previous ‘hangar’ setting. Here, we see three Northrop Grumman employees discuss the contribution of women to the history of military aviation in the company’s “Advanced Aeronautics Hangar.” Refers to the all-female crew of Grand Forks Air Force Base – which in 2014 recorded the longest, full-scaled pilotless flight of a military aircraft without aerial refueling (34.3 hours) – the trio ponders the possible contributions each could make to future aviation history at the company.
All we can assume is a notional NGAD-like crewed tactical jet concept seen on the left in the video. Unlike Northrop’s 2021 ad, which shows the nose of what appears to be the same concept in more detail, the new ad provides a better view of the airframe as a whole. As we said in our previous piece, the aircraft certainly seems to fit the NGAD bill –being relatively large with an assumed premium on range, payload, and low observability (stealth) with no vertical tail. Top-mounted low-observable air intakes can also be seen. The design also features a very long chine line around the airframe as well as a B-2-like ‘beak’ nose and a pilot cockpit.