So before I left Colorado I lived just south of the US Air Force Academy and the "Soaring" Class would use my barn to line up for the final approach. Needless to say I got to see a lot of tow planes,Choppers,Jets flying over my property for graduation for many many years. Just announced is this new F47 jet is next level 6 technology. Time will tell. It seems we will all find out together. The press conference information about NATO brought up some good points. Has NATO strengthened?
... the Ford Motor Company people pull this sh+#, all the time. Pisses everyone off. Exactly the same thing bugging everybody, about the Mauwkee (e.g., Mustang Mach-e), we don't particularly appreciate it when these people pull these little stunts, defecating themselves over posterity, stealing names by overwriting, grossly distorting our historic antecedents: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt - Wikipedia They do these things, just to piss us off - Samuel, '04 Ruthiemobile /////////////////// -
Another 35-year old warmed over jet or the next 'big thing?' Only one way to find out but I remain skeptical, and I would not put it past the current administration to either prematurely claim credit for a napkin drawing or revive a project that some in the USAF are trying to kill.... I recall all of the claims from the f35 (penguin) or the LCS programme, or the DDG-1000's Like I said I AM SKEPTICAL! Another (and perhaps more learned) opinion......
Bit of a problem in that they chose Boeing to build it. Since the McDonnell Douglas merger in '97 Boeing has been in a steady downward spiral. They can keep manufacturing slightly updated 1960's airframes for however long they can keep selling them, that's not a problem. The problem is that they have been downsizing all those frumpy old overpaid white male engineers until they are at a point where no one knows if they have anybody left who actually knows how to create a brand new aircraft. For examples you can look at the dreamliner passenger jet, which they had to design twice before they got something that would fly, and the Starliner space capsule. The Starliner program is insanely over budget and it still doesn't work.
I don't think 'HE GAVE' Boeing ANYTHING. I think it was more like the ChiComms. They're already "flying" a g6 bird kinda sorta, and this is a repeat of the 1960's "missile gap" - or more appropriately the 1970's "Fighter gap" after the Rooskies made the Mig-25 'Foxbat.' and the Pentagon used it to scare the crap out of Congress critters and fund the F-15. They even made a pretty bad movie about that one with Clint Eastwood. The difference between THEN and NOW is that back then we actually got a danged GREAT plane out of the scam. The ChiComms have perfected industrial espionage to the point that they're almost beating us to the deliveries of systems like the Ford Carrier, the NGAD fighter, and even Starshield. The only reason they're not beating us to the street with these things is that they wait for US to field test them and fix the bugs! LIKE the F35s...AND the Ford Carriers.... MY THEORY is that the ChiComms made a balsa-wood plane shaped like a G6, "accidently" flew it in front of a camera and leaked it so that somebody not-so-bright would pour a pant-load of new money into OUR NGAD programme and they can benefit by stealing the data. The NGAD (next gen air dominance) programme has been rattling around in the puzzle palace for the last 10 years. USAF officials said experimental tests have been flown since 2020 featuring examples from Lockheed-Martin and Boeing. During the last administration, the USAF's civilian boss wanted to can the programme when bolt-on costs mounted and the fly-away costs reached 300mil per copy. Their plan was, LITERALLY, to keep using Penguins for a while longer - but they're already old....slow....and outdated. THAT is either the Biden administration following their infamous pattern of doing stupid "S" of the new F47 is even worse and more expensive than the Penguins are. The constant reader might remember when Trump threatened to 'fix' the Penguin (F35) and claimed to cut the per-copy cost of that plane 'down to' 100 million - but it was actually export copies and cost sharing. NOT to mention the fact that we've punched out 1100 of the derned things with a projected run of 2500. This is actually a good thing because the USAF can only keep them mission capable about half the time. No dig on the USAF. They're good troops, but you can't polish a turd. I'm actually hoping that the F47 really IS worth 300 mil per copy. BUT....as we all know by now....... HOPE is NOT a plan.
Somebody not so bright, hmm… Trump Announces 6th-Generation Fighter Jet Named F-47; Air Force Contract Awarded to Boeing | Military.com
Some truths. Some 'not truths.' but the two overarching failures with the 35 are cost per flight hour (2-3x the French bird) and the availability rates. EVEN with the French swinging wrenches on them, the Dassaults are probably knocking down 80% + availability rates in peacetime. The Dassault Rafale is about 80-90 million Monopoly bucks per copy but the Penguin is closer to 150 than it is to 100 - no matter what the USAF is telling Congress Critters. HOPEFULLY the '47s will ONLY be horribly expensive to build and fly.
IMHO; highly doubtful; It's going to be 3x-4x more. When systems integration is added to the mix and all vendors want to keep their piece of the pie. They'll say everything is top secret and/or proprietary information. That's why it takes so long to get systems integrated. Then a simple software/firmware upgrade may disrupt that entire chain.
