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Since we all seem to love the Historic Aircraft Thread, but don't want to take away from that topic with new tech, I thought I'd start a new one. Drop the latest tech, spy shots, news, pictures, etc.
I'll start with Pratt & Whitney's newest "Next Generation Adaptive Engine"
Some easy reading on the bird…well…what the aircraft is supposedly going to be & it’s assumed design…
https://theaviationist.com/2026/02/20/pw-f-47-like-design-ngap/
The tech is amazing and all... But is there a reason to be investing trillions of dollars in it? Isn't the future in UAV and drone warfare. The limitations of these 6th gen aircraft appear to be the pilot. What mission are these designed for that a UAV or drone can't accomplish? Serious question as I might be missing something.
The Lady of Larissa, not to be confused with The Beast of Kandahar...
New Views Of Massive RQ-180 Stealth Drone Flying Over Greece
I think a requirement for 6th gen is that it has an unmanned option, so you are right.
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Your argument is perfectly logical, I'd imagine a chunk of that cost is going into stealth capability as AA/AI tech continues to ramp up. Ukraine is our first real glimpse of what anti-drone tech looks like modern day, and even that still has archaic elements to it (cope cages).
Then the actual production cost for that new tech. I didn't realize until reading on it today how much cheaper production of a B21 is compared to a B2. "The B-21 Raider is approximately $1.3 to $1.5 billion cheaper per unit". Optimizations like that on modern aircraft have to massively help with building an extensive fleet.
Oh...and...while we're on the subject of 'Crew Optional" aircraft...🤣
The B21 fits that description...too.
Any thoughts on what this is? My guess is the A-12 Avenger. The radio traffic between the ground and refueler is quite interesting. Various snacks are referenced.
I guess I'll put my link here as I didn't see this before I started a new thread,
https://www.twz.com/air/b-21-raider-like-you-have-never-seen-it-before
Everyone assumes its a B2 when it may very well be a B21..
I miss the days of building secret stuff. Sadly none of the ones I worked on ever made it into production.
I was happy enough building 16s and keeping 111s flying, but man, one we tried was cool.
What happens when the drone software is corrupted by another government? Would be stupid for any government to think they are the the most advanced bla bla. Hard to do to a well trained force.
That of any consideration? Interesting seeing this stuff change so fast in front of our eyes right now. With all these wars going on
Skynet will likely hack the whole kill chain...
Think of it like a swarm of bees. The way it's going in Ukraine at the minute and the way a lot of armed forces are re-thinking is a pilot-controlled aircraft in stand-off role coordinating and organising swarms of drones from there. The human being in effect being 'queen bee' although in some cases even that's not needed.
Some of the hunter-killer stuff in Ukraine is fully autonomous and 'trained' to recognise markers on friendly troops. Not wearing that marker... boom. If it weren't so horrifically effective that it's actually scary, it would be pretty cool. As always in major conflicts, things have evolved and changed massively in a very short space of time. Right now everyone is scrabbling to respond and re-align spending to match those threats.
Any stories you can share?
The War Zone is such a good site!
It was the A-12 Avenger. It just ran into way too many growing pains as they were trying to develop the technologies required to build it as it was being developed.
It was way over budget and way over weight.
It was just interesting working on something that you couldn't tell anyone about. That was 30+ years ago, and all that stuff we were trying to figure out is common practice these days.
While I never had the experience of the level of tech you got to work on. For most of my life I designed packaging equipment. Many times we got to see new items that were going to be sold in the next year that were still "secret" we couldn't tell anyone about as it was confidential until they were able to sell that product. Remember those shrink seals around the bubble tape 35 years ago? That was me. Things that seems common place now but companies were very tight lipped about their new products.
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I think one of those A-12s is flying around Area 51 these days...
...keep seeing a triangle up in the air in those Area 51 memes ever so often.
I've heard several were built and flown. I was told they were assembled in Tulsa and they had to build bypasses on one of the interstates so the thing wouldn't get stuck under a bridge when they delivered sub assemblies from other plants. I was also told USAF or Northrop didn't want to share tech from the B2 that would have made this a success.
Yeah, the one we were building was pretty far along so I wouldn't be surprised if they took it somewhere to be further modded and tested.
It just didn't happen here, and since I was pretty much hired back to work on this project specifically, I was asked to leave again after the program was 86'd.
The Enterprise isn't stealthy...
The Enterprise has cloaked…just like the ship in your post…but, WAY BEFORE the ship you posted…and I’m pretty sure they stole it from a rather attractive Romulan female captain…I think…?
Oh, and, to be clear for just how wrong you are…This took pace in THE SIXTIES.
Therefore, it could be said, CORRECTLY, that the Enterprise was among THE FIRST Stealth Defense Applications.
But, I digress.
Edit…some “receipts”…from 1968…
What's funny about all that is they were always engaging WVR, and that's the only time "Cloaking" visually makes sense.
Rodenberry had some futuristic ideas, but I think fighting BVR wasn't one of them. It probably would have made for some boring episodes, so maybe he did think of it, who knows.
Drone wars are heating up. I'm curious what an air show demo would look like with these.
YFQ…?
Interesting
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