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Sixth generation fighter prototype secretly fielded for USAF

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“Air Force reveals it secretly built and flew new fighter jet.” (thehill.com) 更多...

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jordanabrown
Alan Brown 11
Almost sounds like a "Skunk Works" type of aircraft build. Those always seem to fly well and work as designed.
sparkie624
sparkie624 13
In this day and time.... With all he Blabber mouths... how did they keep this a secret for an entire year.... Great Job...
royhunte92
Roy Hunte 9
Hence the reason Groom Lake remains off limits to the general public.
royhunte92
Roy Hunte 1
It's highly probable that is the location of build and testing.
gzelna
Greg Zelna 6
"The NGAD, in contrast, was first designed and tested digitally before it was physically built." Not sure on that point, having worked in those industry(s) since the F-22 development in the 80's , everything is mocked up digitally and extensively analyzed and tested before anything is 'physically built'.... Hopefully the NGAD shares more of the F-22's flight characteristics, and none of the F-35's.... For reference, remember the SR-71 was designed in the 50's when most planes had reciprocating engines and a cruise speed of about 250kts....... It flew well beyond mach 3 and 80,000 feet......
TiredTom
Tom Bruce 5
hope it doesn't take 15 years to get it right like the F35... oh wait, the F35 still isn't quite right.. and, after all this time I bet the Chinese and Russians know more abut the F35 than we do...still, if this is a "skunk works" project maybe it will go a lot faster... seems the AF always wants to add unproven tech and gold-plate everything... hope this one pans out quickly for our fly boys and girls!
ghstark
Greg S 6
"Getting it right" or perfect is not that important for strategic deterrence. Holding adversary assets at risk is what matters. The F35 does that in spades. Even the B52 still does that in a small way.
gzelna
Greg Zelna 2
I believe from my father a Naval Aviator's comments from many years ago, the real problems occur when government procurement 'experts' try to have a jack of all trades aircraft built for all military branches, including Naval carrier operations. Of course with 'slight modifications'. You end up with an overweight, under-performing (and I refer to its flight characteristics) 'master of none'.
Rickawald
Rick Wald 5
Send your old junk up here to Canada!!
We are still crashing our Widow Makers!!
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 4
The Have Blue program tested, built and flew the F-117 in secret, even if it took more than a year. With the advent of digital design, there is no reason why such could not happen for a new aircraft, and in less time.
gzelna
Greg Zelna 3
I've worked in that field since the mid 1980s, as some of the earliest practitioners of '3D CAD' , while there really wasn't much analysis capability like ANSYS around, even then we had the ability to transfer 3D digital data (no 'drawings') to suppliers for prototyping. Now and for the past couple decades everything is modeled and much of it analyzed, before anything is built.
patpylot
patrick baker 4
Has to be skunk works, and i expect it to be splendid. Chinese and Russians ought to be more than a little concerned. The secrecy is unusual- no warning, no bragging in advance, so we all get to see the wisdom of the new means of design, production, testing and deployment. Maybe the nickname "zorro" would be correct....
michaelk2311
Michael Kelly 3
Does anyone actually believe this? It take a committee at least a year to come up with the specifications. Then once the prototype is started the brass will change their mind on what they want. I'm highly skeptical that this is true.
ToddBaldwin3
ToddBaldwin3 1
In the manner of the movie "the Pentagon Wars".
picturetaker
Stealth Fighter and Stealth Bomber were also built in secrecy.
mariofer
mariofer 3
Can't wait to see how this thing looks like. Who knows, it may help explain a lot of the late "UFO" sightings LOL
user3956
user3956 2
"The NGAD, in contrast, was first designed and tested digitally before it was physically built."

As someone else here has said, "in contrast" is a crock of feces. They should rephrase with something like "using the latest software/hardware technology.

This thing better be UAV-able or it will be obsolete before it is produced in numbers. UAVs have the potential ability to loiter for a longer amount of time AND sustain maneuvers that humans cannot endure.

With technology where it is today in 2020 it would be almost unfathomable that we would seek to build another manned fighter aircraft when that cost could be better spent on increasing a UAV's capabilities. And we're not talking drones here, we're talking about human decisions still being made, but just being made in an air-conditioned safe room somewhere with X-Box controllers instead of from within the cockpit whilst enduring G forces.
Optimist134
Ed Huenniger 2
Did anyone else notice the movie clip is mainly of NAVY operations of Navy aircraft?
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 1
This is something I have noticed over the last couple of years. A news report of some sort has video of something totally unreleated to the actual article. I don't know if that is better or not though, it isn't better than a video that is word for word what is in the actual article and neither gives us any different information.
GoFly4Me
Henry Ziemba 2
It’s good to see that people can still keep secrets.

As to the technology, digital modeling and simulation capabilities have been growing dramatically across the board, so it’s reasonable to assume that they have done so in the aerospace world.

Remember FS 1.0 on the IBM PC in the mid 80’s? Compare to recently released FS 2020...and that’s with a video game on a PC. Imagine the power of equipment in a lab with networks of specialized computers!

The better you can model, the less flight test is needed, and the fewer problems will occur during that flight test.
Also, it’s a lot easier to keep a simulated flight out of public view than a real one.

Bottom line is that I find this very believable.
TiredTom
Tom Bruce 2
flight test isn't the concern... loading it up with unproven tech will kill it... like the 15+ years it's taken on the F35
gzelna
Greg Zelna 2
The SINGLE engined F-35 is also expected to perform Marine/Naval carrier operations and, VTOL, STOL, and fly reasonably well despite being overweight and under-powered. In fact its flight performance requirements were reduced several times since it could not handle little stuff like rate of climb, turns/G-forces, etc..... I guess thats one way to meet the performance specs, reduce them !
jbsimms
James Simms 1
I still haven’t told stuff I know abt the Persian Gulf War
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 2
My Pops went to the grave with his secrets as a photo-interpreter while in the AF. He told my brother some not so secret stuff and we all knew what he did, but the actual specifics outside of helping to create strike packages in'Nam and that he had seen shots of the missles in Cuba (I swear I see pics of him in documentaries about that) as he was stationed at a SAC bomber base.
ChrisRyan66
Chris Ryan 1
Just because we didn't know doesn't mean the Russians didn't...
WhiteKnight77
WhiteKnight77 1
Satellites are a wonderful thing. If you notice, since the deployment of the F-22 and now the F-35, US air bases are putting them under a cover on the flight lines so they are not dragging them in and out of hangers on a daily basis for flights. It also helps the mechanics not be in the sun while making repairs like I did when I was in (though helicopters would need a rather large one).
ReverendLee
ReverendLee 2
So they're already building the replacement for the F-35. Good. Now maybe they'll get those pieces of junk off the line and work on something that can fight.
wiregold
wiregold 1
Hopefully we just stole the design from the Chinese ...
awsauerman
Hope the cost per flight hour is better than the F-35. At $44,000 per flight hour for the F-35 plus the cost to build, about $89.2 .million this sounds like it might actually be more cost effective.
https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2019/11/deceptive-pentagon-math-tries-to-obscure-100-million-price-tag-for-f-35/
VMGR352
Wouldn't be surprised at all if this 6th gen thingy is triangle-shaped.
lynx318
lynx318 2
Already did that with the F-117
VMGR352
The exception being that the F-117 doesn't hover.
lynx318
lynx318 2
Yep, there is that.
lynx318
lynx318 1
Why Area 51, groom lake, skunkworx which is the publicity shot venue for nutters? What about Area 6 where the real secret stuff is.
paulgilpin1953
paul gilpin -1
US announce new jet.
rusha and china spies expose theirselves trying to find new jet.
rusha and chana spend billions to start new jet program.
US sits back and watches what rusha and china build.
US reverse engineers rusha and china design.
pay backs are heck.
paul gilpin goes on amazon. buys sixth generation jet. prime delivery.
gzelna
Greg Zelna 8
I cannot remember any designs we copied from either Russia or China, I can remember plenty of the US designs they copied, though...
TiredTom
Tom Bruce 3
think gilpin is "tongue in cheek"
bentwing60
bentwing60 1
The 'art of sarcasm and irony' is lost to many.

Did you ever work an SR?
Quirkyfrog
Robert Cowling -3
Why not. They aren't paying for it. Just add it to the deficit. Brilliant...
bentwing60
bentwing60 1
As long as I get 'Jack' out of them proppin' up wall street, I guess I have no objections to the use of 'fiat money' to add to the national defense.

In the 80's FL 450 was great, cause you could go anywhere 'direct' cause there was nobody else there! The real deal was when your state of the art loran (Arnav 40) died from P ststic or the mid continent 'gap' and RNAV became a guessin' game, otherwise known as, could I get a heading for that while I reprogram the Box!

Cheers!
frankL55
Frank Lewis -1
Russia and China are already looking for some American that will take a million or two to sell out the country and get the plans. After all this is the USA and nothing matters but money that I get in order to buy a big house and a M-B.
sam14iam
Peter Scott -1
You may recall that Putin recently gave the Turks a new missile defense system last year. It is designed to identify and destroy F-35 fighters. It came out before the F-35 fighter did! Look on the bright side. The F-35 looks pretty at air shows and might be able to do a job in some primitive 3rd world countries. Let's hope this new fighter is a little more 'unannounced'.
GoFly4Me
Henry Ziemba 3
Just because a new missile defense system comes out doesn’t make the F-35 obsolete.

Like all modern fighter planes, it’s systems are designed for upgrades. Depending on how the new missile defense system works, it may be a new box, reprogramming, or change in tactics, though most likely some combination of the above.

It’s like ECM: it works until the other side gets corresponding ECCM, and the cycle repeats.

This will be true with ANY weapon system. The question is only how long the hops will last, and how much they’ll cost.
JMARTINSON
JMARTINSON -9
One year from the drawing board to flight testing? Yeah, right.
ghstark
Greg S 4
Where in the story is that claim made?
JMARTINSON
JMARTINSON 5
different article, sorry.

https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2020/09/15/the-us-air-force-has-built-and-flown-a-mysterious-full-scale-prototype-of-its-future-fighter-jet/
kd7eir
Jim Myers 0
Obviously you didn't even read the article.

JMARTINSON
JMARTINSON 4
Obviously you only read this one article.

[This comment has been downvoted. Show anyway.]

bsbaker1
Brian Baker 7
Like my Drill Sergeant said, "If flies had guns, frogs wouldn't f*ck with them."
Westward
Dave Alan 2
One who saves money on his army will feed the foreign one soon.

-from a commenter @defensenews.com
seekice
Ron Fallon 1
Freedom

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