[al baby]

Frankenjet

[bigdaddy45]

I’m sure the Military Industrial complex will figure out a way to make them cost $1B+ apiece.

[CodeJockey]

Call me skeptical, but I highly doubt the Air Force completely designed a new aircraft from scratch, contracted it to be built, built it and then flew it within 12 months. Maybe they did, and maybe it’s want the AF wants some to think.

Either way Popular Mechanics is a leftist publication. I don’t believe half of their articles anyway.

[RayChuang88]

My guess is that somebody built a small-scale remote-controlled model (about the size of a Predator drone) and test flew it out of Groom Lake in the last 24 months.

[Trueblackman]

I suspect it was built from existing parts. F-22 here, F-15 here, F-16 here and F-35 there. Half of the most famous weapons of War have come from military member tinkering with existing designs and refining them.

[knarf]

Looks a little like “FIREFOX”

[Red Badger]

https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3885077/posts

[wattsgnu]

They went from concept to prototype in Trump time.

[Yo-Yo]

It was not an operational prototype. It was a technology demonstrator.

It took almost 10 years to go from the YF-22 to the F-22A, and almost 15 years to get from the X-35 to the F-35A, B, and C.

[blueplum]

so triangle-shaped UFOs are just Lockheed playing with toys and cloaking? No little green men after all? :)

[HangnJudge]

Skunk Works strikes again

[PIF]

3rd posting

No one knows anything bout this - could be drone could be piloted; costs unk; manufacture unk; right now just AF hyped vapor-plane without further info.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

• We don’t know which defense contractor designed and prototyped the new jet, though it's almost certainly one of the big aerospace giants (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Boeing).
• We don’t know where it flew and where it is now. We don’t know how many prototypes exist.
• We don’t know what it looks like, what it's called, how fast it flies, how maneuverable it is, and what special capabilities it has.

I searched the web thoroughly and, in some dark, deep recess, found the design drawings.

[marktwain]

If nothing else, it is good psyops against the Chinese.

It is important to create uncertainty in the minds of potential opponents.

[Herakles]

And the name of the new jet is “737 Max” and has the capability of superseding pilot commands. The only problem is that it flies into the ground evading enemy attack.

[PIF]

turns out that all the design, manufacture and flight was all digital ... what may have flown were bits and pieces to teat out various aspects on a totally different platform built just to test, but looking nothing like the final concept

"As such, it is very unlikely that NGAD is a 'new fighter' as many have extrapolated it to be. Instead, it will be a system of platforms and underlying shared technologies that will work together seamlessly to break the enemy's decision cycle and dominate future air wars."

It is about radically changing the entire process of arriving at and maintaining air superiority into the future

The Air Force's Secret Next Gen Air Dominance Demonstrator Isn't What You Think It Is
Like the future of air combat in general, there are lots of misconceptions about the secret technology demonstrator and the program it belongs to.
By Tyler Rogoway September 21, 2020