Posted on 01/16/2010 7:51:40 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
With radar-cross-section (RCS) trials for Boeing’s Silent Eagle semi-stealthy F-15 prototype complete, company officials are now focusing on South Korea as a possible first customer.
The RCS testing took place during a two-week period last August and September, although Boeing has only just acknowledged it because of proprietary issues, says Mark Bass, vice president of F-15 programs.
The company is eyeing South Korea’s forthcoming F-X3 competition for 60 fighters as the first sales opportunity for the Silent Eagle. The South Korean parliament’s recent hesitancy about investing in all-stealth aircraft “validates our approach” with the aircraft, says Bass. The company is considering potential international co-development partners for a Silent Eagle conformal fuel tank, although no announcements have been made.
Boeing is developing the variant for international customers that already operate F-15s and are seeking additional aircraft. The system is a possible alternative for nations interested in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The Silent Eagle is not as stealthy as the JSF, but it could provide flexibility for countries trying to stretch their defense dollars.
In the early days of an air campaign, the Silent Eagle can be outfitted with weapon bays suitable for carrying air-to-air and air-to-ground weapons that would be tucked inside conformal fuel tanks, thus reducing the aircraft’s front-quadrant RCS. The aircraft could then be reconfigured in hours to handle the F-15’s characteristic heavy load of weapons once early threats are removed and sustainment operations begin.
The RCS tests on F-15E1, an Air Force test asset leased to Boeing, took place at the company’s anechoic chamber in St. Louis. Various coatings were evaluated and a final candidate has been selected and applied to the appropriate portions of the airframe. Testing produced the desired results, he said. Bass declined to provide details on the coating or the precise
(Excerpt) Read more at aviationnow.com ...
Not at $100 million a pop for a bird that is 40 years old when the F-22 is the same price and we've shut down the lines.
That was a really interesting show about the Horten. I did not know it actually flew.
Ping
Iam just glad that Hitler kept interferring with the Horten brothers and his other weapons designers other wise we would most likely be speaking german today instead of english.
I read a book many years ago by German General Heins Guderian (not sure of the spelling) and the general claimed that the general staff originally didn’t plan to go to war until 1945.
But Hitler couldn’t wait to go to war.
Could you imagine what it would have been like if Hitler had waited until 1945?
They would have had most of their super weapons in mass production by then.
What a scary thought.
It was very important to get your opinion on this particular subject.
Thanks for the links. I watch them.
forgot “will” in the sentence.
You're looking at it the wrong way. Hitler was into bluff & bullying. Look at the sequence. Remilitarize the Rhineland, Anschluss with Austria, the Sudetenland Crisis, finally a lightning war against Poland. Meanwhile Russia was attacking Finland, absorbing the Baltic Republics, and finishing off Poland through the back door. It wasn't until Britain & France declared war on Germany in support of Poland that these events crystalized into a world war.
Don't misunderstand. I'm not blaming WW2 on Britain & France -- far from it. What I'm suggesting is that Hitler may have miscalculated what Britain & France would do in response to his invasion of Poland. After all they did exactly squat in support of Czechoslovakia.
The bottom line is that if things had gone slightly differently, the German General Staff's warplan timeline might have worked out.
Cool stuff. I still like the Raptor.
It is surprising to use the F15 as the base platform when pursuing stealth. The Eagle is an inherently unstealthy platform, wity an RCS of 25m2. Compare that with true stealth aircraft like the Raptor and JSF, which have an RCS of 0.0001 and 0.001m2 respectively. To be honest, if you want cheap stealth it would be better to use the Typhoon orthe Rafale as the base platform, since they have about 0.1 to 0.3m2. Not true stealth, but definitelt discrete and far more useful for further stealthiness measures than the Eagle. Beoing would never publicly release the RCS figures for the Silent Eagle, but it is impossible to make a 25m2 airframe stealthy. You can reduce it to maybe F16 or T38 size, but itwill never be even that of a Rafale.
Complete idiots.
Some of that story and pics: http://gizmodo.com/5305249/the-nazi-stealth-planes-that-could-have-dropped-a-nuclear-bomb-in-nyc
I too weep for the F22, but the plane itself is still pretty groovy.
It looks a lot like the F-15I with conformal fuel tanks.
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