PJ Media
A new stealth fighter prototype has taken to the skies, Air Force acquisition chief William Roper casually let it be known on Tuesday.
Move over, F-22 Raptor — there’s a new kid in town.
Well, maybe not quite yet, but also maybe years sooner than anyone expected or even dreamed.
The Air Force “secretly designed, built, and tested” the prototype in just one year, which is unprecedented in recent decades. More
“Aim High”
(I plastered the footboard of my bed with an AF bumper sticker I got in junior high with this slogan. Several years later I was holding up my right hand and saying “I, state your full name”, do solemnly swear…”
Maybe someone has finally gone and studied Kelly Johnson’s design and organization successes at Lockheed’s Skunk Works. Johnson and team designed, built, and flew the P-80 Shooting Star, the first U.S. operational jet fighter, in six months. And that was before he got really good at it!
I want a ride!!!!….and I promise to only vomit the minimum….
25 years ago I’d watch 20 year old kids typing specs into CNC milling machines faster than I could comprehend. Got a hunch we’ve had the technology to design and test in one year, for a long, long time.
@judgeroybean — The designers, builders, and test pilots have pretty much always been on top of things. The problem has pretty much always been red tape and bureaucracy, with DoD procurement the worst. I have it on good authority that the Pentagon is not built out of steel and concrete, but rather millions and millions and miles of red tape.
I wonder if this made it any cheaper that if it had been done through normal methods used in the past.
great pull quote from the article …
Can you say, “Make procurement great again?”
I hope they don’t send the prototype to China for the benefit of cheap mass production! {sarc}
The front end looks like a more aerodynamic version of the XR 71. That will be the fastest aircraft to date.
@ AbigailAdams
I, too, took the oath to become a USAF airman on November 19th, 1973. I became a 206X0 and loved my four years in. By the way, today is the 73rd birthday of the United States Air Force. AIM HIGH, indeed!
Trump speed–it ain’t just for vaccines, anymore.
I thought the thumb rule was the public doesn’t hear about a new kick ass aircraft model until it’s either used in war for the first time or there’s an even deadlier aircraft in existence that’s still kept double super top secret.
Whoo Hooo! Took the Oath November 1980…
Judge & Unk,
Not to mention all the 3D computer modelling programs out there that can build and test virtually, before the first piece of metal is milled and assembled.
The only question I want to ask about this Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter, can it lope “low & slow” like the A10 Warthog? (every Ground Pounder’s wet dream during combat – well, maybe not “wet dream”, but close enough)
I appreciate the fact that all the specs aren’t laid out in a Popular Mechanics magazine for everyone to see. That’s how they usually did it in the past with comprehensive information and details better kept on the downlow. Let your enemy find out what you have and how it works the hard way