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F-47 and the horse he rode in on. 😄
"and the horse he rode in on"
You shouldn't talk about your mom like that....
Deep intel from Ward Carroll:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e_EXmVUJCM
I watched the pc where Trump, Hegseth and some Air Force generals introduced the plane. Each person spoke and then Trump did what Trump does, fielded questions from the press for what felt like a half hour. At one point Trump sees Vance in the back of the room and asks the vice president if he wants to say anything. JD responds, "No Mr president, I'm just here for the show, I like planes, Planes are cool" To which the room laughed. 😀
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lol...
NGAD isn't really "new"...but, this does represent it going into production...finally.
Lockheed's RCS version went to the Helendale test facility during the early COVID years....and that "shape" has gone on to be something other than a fighter...
BOOM! Here ya go...
Anyhoo...NGAD has been around since the days of Adam Brown's inputs.
Twas an awesome industry to grow-up in.
So there is a competition between several companies about who can make the best jet...did each company develop their own, and then the government pick the best one? Or did each company basically do a bid for who could build the F47 the cheapest? How does that work?
If each company developed their own...what do they do with those? Can they still build them and sell them to other countries? Would the US considering building them for other applications? Or did the US fund the development, and thus, can prevent the company from selling them?
3 types were developed and flown over the last 4+ years. Of those, one was chosen. The fact that it's Boeing is interesting in light of what a shit stain Boeing has become as of late...would you "fly them to the moon'? 🤣
This bird will be...from all observations..."pilot optional"...and will be much more than just a fighter. It will be a "quarterback" for a regional air operation where-by it's the command and control for several (more than can be believed)...CCA/UAVs/PCA (including other F47s...etc) and run an air & ground campaign from the cockpit of just one F47.
Original builders were Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup (dropped out of competition and focused on B21).
I'm of the belief that a B21 will be able to operate the F47. But, hey...what do I know?
interesting...I always thought the 6th gen would be "pilotless"...maybe I was half right?
Who pays these companies for the R&D while they are building the "competition" prior to the government picking one?
What happens to the tech the other companies developed "r&d'd" for their versions? I assume those versions were also state of the art/top secret tech in them...Do the companies own it, and can they sell it to other countries? Or are they forbidden to sell to anyone but the US?
Sorry for all the ?'s...but I have a lot of ?'s...lol
Thanks you two!! Now I have to watch Deal of the Century soon 😁😁😁
The government/pentagon creates a requirement and puts out a request for bids based on that requirement...in this case...an R&D or technology development requirement gets bid on...usually separate bids for different levels of development...ranging from presenting papers (design papers aka "pitches") to making wind tunnel and rcs test vehicles and on to flight development: NGAD went thru all of these. Under these conditions, the tech & the demonstrators belong to the government.
In the beginning, there were 3 designs that were funded to go forward into flight demonstrators...Northrop later dropped out of their own choice.
And...I don't know how...but, Boeing got the nod! 🤣W T F???
The un-selected demonstrators get hidden away or destroyed...and sometimes show up again for test, demonstration and/or other uses...see F23, for example... I remember seeing it out at Pax-river a year or so after it was NOT selected...and it was still flying.
Foreign Country sales are a super-duper sensitive subject in this realm and I believe the president mis-spoke when he talked about foreign sales of NGAD...I see no such thing happening for a long, long time...but, I could be wrong.
Right on...thanks for the info...very interesting stuff.
Sometimes the non-selected aircraft will ultimately wind up with another branch after further development as well. The F/A-18 and its variants were/are descendants of the YF-17 (if memory serves, that was the name) which competed against the YF-16 for the Air Force contract that the -16 ultimately won.
TeamGreen likely has more specific info…I’m just an airplane nerd who grew up obsessed with aviation.
You’re “Right on the Money!”…👍
The Cobra became the basis for the Hornet.
You’ll have to zoom in…
(Edit: Never mind. Thought it was a video from a recent F35 test…but, it’s just a very “far out there” still shot…video won’t translate. F35s in “Cobra Stall” while dog-fighting)
This is the max-quality I can share…F35s merging…(from recent test video)
If an F-47 ever gets to a merge, how is the pilot going to dog fight and control it's drones at the same time?
Collins had one, too, which I thought was strange. They likely never got past the concept phase. I also think I heard Northrop was focused on the Navy's NGAD, which is being developed at the same time.
This X-36 looks very familiar...
Pit Row
I think the pilot, in any new/future aircraft, is only on board in case the AI shits the bed. I only say this because I spent the last 10 years of my experimental defense career involved in developing this exact technology.
In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the only reason there is still a cockpit on the NGAD is pushback from the pilots. Cost is always a big consideration in procurement. A new airframe built without consideration for a pilot (no cockpit, gages, life support, ejection systems, etc) is very attractive to those making decisions.
That's what they are saying in the Ward Carroll video (3rd post down). That would be crazy to be a "passenger pilot" in a fighter with the capabilities that this plane allegedly has.
Between the B21 & NGAD, I’m seeing a Political-Military-Industrial-Complex that’s attempting to skirt international consortiums/treaty implications regarding frontline systems that are unmanned/AI/Autonomous and/or they’re trying to NOT make it an issue by putting them out there…1st. So, so far…both of these a/c are “crewed”…sort of…
The point: for over a decade, it’s been said by the wiser and most informed people in the industry…in this case let’s go with a Northrop Grumman CTO/CFO that told me…again, a decade ago…
“Pragmatically, we’ve made our last manned aircraft; but, there are other political forces steering the issue.” As I wrote, this person is now…as he was then…a leading specialist on AI as it relates to aircraft….and, now, he’s a “big picture” individual in-charge of how AI conjoins all systems in the overall defense logistics picture.
So, from where I’m sitting…and seeing how it’s been quietly implied that both of these latest next-generation a/c are “crew optional”…well, I can say that I’m quite confident that we, the United States, are well into the development and nearing deployment of…
Unmanned Frontline Weapons Systems …and, yes, that does imply…Autonomous AI & the like.
Note: Both of these latest a/c have the capability to be “fully autonomous” per statements made by their developers…interestingly, these comments are made early on in the programs “revelation period”…in the very beginning of the program…and then almost never referred to…crazy, right?
Nail on the head Bud.
It's far crazier than you can imagine.
That thing was pretty damn cool…it was less than 3 meters long, remotely controlled and had a really cool little Williams turbofan with vectored thrust (eventually…I think towards the end of the program they had it “vectored” while also being shrouded in the tail…which made it EXTREMELY stealthy…along with cooling air being injected into the jet-stream…also, very stealthy!)…the canard and split slats really let that thing maneuver. There’s a lot of input in the 47’s design from that era…the McDonnell Douglas Stealth era…I still have a hard time calling that a Boeing bird.
I don't know...I let my wife drive sometimes, so I have an idea!
The F15EX’s purpose is to be a “quarterback” for the operations they’ve got planned in the near future, whereby it’s got someone in the backseat that’s literally managing the local theater.
We "proof tested" some of that tech on the Scorpion. I'll just say that L3 is a...er...ummm. 🤫
It's funny, the "pilots" were Stick and Rudder...
But it was remote controlled, so the plane had no stick, and the plane had no rudder!
That bird was flown from a console…with a joystick
Yep, but no stick on the plane...
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