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The F-47 program has entered its engineering and manufacturing development phase with unprecedented maturity. The F-47 program has entered its engineering and manufacturing development phase with unprecedented maturity. Kalawin/USAF =========================================================================== The United States’ next-generation fighter aircraft program has reached a significant milestone. Boeing has begun manufacturing prototype aircraft for the F-47, the U.S. Air Force’s future sixth-generation stealth fighter. According to Air Force officials, the program remains on schedule, with the aircraft’s maiden flight expected in 2028. The progress marks the transition from years of design, research, and technology demonstrations to the construction of physical aircraft that will undergo rigorous...

Within the next few years, we will begin work on the sixth generation [fighter] capabilities necessary for future air dominance.” The Secretary of the Air Force, Michael B. Donley, and the USAF Chief of Staff, Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, issued that statement in an April 13 Washington Post article. The Air Force may have to move a little faster to develop that next generation fighter. While anticipated F-22 and F-35 inventories seem settled, there won’t be enough to fix shortfalls in the fighter fleet over the next 20 years, as legacy fighters retire faster than fifth generation replacements appear. The...

The U.S. Air Force has begun peering into the far blue yonder for a futuristic aircraft to replace Lockheed Martin Corp's F-22 fighter, a move that has cheered the aerospace industry. The Air Force in a written solicitation this week sought concepts for a next-generation tactical aircraft to begin operating in roughly 2030, apparently with a pilot aboard. Experts cast such a system as a would-be successor to the radar-evading F-22 Raptor, the top U.S. air superiority fighter. The single-seat, twin-engine F-22 was designed as a response to Soviet combat aircraft in the 1980s and is barred by law from...