The Air Force Secretly Designed, Built, and Flew a Brand-New Fighter Jet

Popular Mechanics ^ | 9/16/2020 | KYLE MIZOKAMI

[MAGA2017]

The Air Force Secretly Designed, Built, and Flew a Brand-New Fighter Jet

And it all happened in just one year. Yes, that's mind-blowing.

The U.S. Air Force revealed this week that it has secretly designed, built, and tested a new prototype fighter jet. The fighter, about which we know virtually nothing, has already flown and “broken records.” (The image above is Air Force concept art from 2018). The Air Force must now consider how it will buy the new fighter as it struggles to acquire everything from intercontinental ballistic missiles to bombers.

The Air Force’s head of acquisition, Will Roper, made the announcement yesterday in an exclusive interview with Defense News, in conjunction with the Air Force Association’s virtual Air, Space, and Cyber Conference.

[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.

[BillyCuccio]

I was reading some place else that it might just be a piece of technology that set records. I’m sure it’s a prototype of something they’d like to start using by 2030. This is probably put out to freak China out because their 5th generation is really just 3rd or fourth generation fighter compared to the F35 and f22. Their new stealth fighter is a hunk of shit 👍🇺🇸

[knarf]

Looks a little like “FIREFOX”

[Big Red Badger]

Invisible Man Jet!
.

[Red Badger]

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

[wattsgnu]

They went from concept to prototype in Trump time.

[Red Badger]

That’s Old School..............The BEST SCHOOL!................

[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? :)

[ProtectOurFreedom]

If Kelly Johnson were alive, I’d believe it. Without him heading it up, not so believable.

[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.

[Yo-Yo]

Hey! Loose lips sink vaporware ships!

[marktwain]

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

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