Breaking - US Air Force tests NEW fighter prototype! (NGAD)

The US Air Force has flown a new prototype and questions are aplenty. While it is unlikely that this new aircraft has seen any substantional development, it is an interesting development within the NGAD program that parts of the USAF champion.

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#militaryaviationhistory #usaf #ngad

[MilitaryAviationHistory]

The US Air Force claims to have flown a new prototype and questions are aplenty. While it is unlikely that this new aircraft has seen any substantional development, it is an interesting development within the NGAD program that parts of the USAF champion.

[JohnnyWednesday]

Given there's probably at least a handful of secret planes going back to the 80's that we've not heard about? it's nice of them to throw us a bone now and then.

[iflycentral]

With the end of F-22 production; I'm not all that surprised. Figured they would be working on something else.

[brucestein]

If I accept that the key cost of the f-35 was the software and not the hardware, then this makes more sense. If they can roll over the software from an f-35 into a new airframe, the costs will be much lower to gain a new and/or complementary capability. Think of a very rough analogy: Tesla developed a lot of software for the Model S, rolled it into the Model X, then the Model 3, and now the Model Y. All share certain core requirements, but have different "missions."

[taivaankumma]

I first heard about this over at the War Zone, but I Most Def like your current events videos like this one and the one on the German Super Hornet. Keep up the great work, is all I can say!

[jackwalters]

I find it unlikely that this is actually a prototype for a real fighter, I find it more likely that it was just a technology test bed, similar to what the Have Blue was meant to be

[dorlonelliott]

The acronyms are part of the "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance..." program.
It keeps Congress baffled.

[akacurmurdar]

Considering that NOBODY knew the US had "stealth" helicopters, and them being at the SECOND generation, you never know what they've been working on and for how long.

[crcurran]

The Chinese probably downloaded the plans for this fighter off our servers years ago.

[gOtze]

it dosent seem that unusually, F-35 Prototypes gone public almost 2 decades ago.

during the cold war plattforms(tanks, vehicles, aircraft etc.) had an production run of ~20 years. and allready at the beginning of the serial production work on an new type has begun.

[lukefreeman]

I imagine it'll be the new "Hi" of the "Hi-Lo" mix the USAAF uses? the "Lo" being the F-35? Eventually anyway...

[zeitgeistx]

The USAF, CIA and NASA are flying new research aircraft all the time. Look at all the classified drones they developed and flew in the 90s.

[andysimpson]

Just to point out as an ex civil servant in the UK, we sometimes received issues of the civilian MoD news magazine. This was circa year 2k, so twenty years ago now. Back then, it was common knowledge that the F-35 was completing in flight trials with the Boeing X32. That's a development period of 20+ years...

... It might be sometime before you see this thing reach service.

[vuesch]

A full-fledged program for a new standard air superiority fighter could not be run in secret for many reasons. Therefore we are probably talking about a technology demonstrator. And to add a bit of context to "we flew around with something":

The EAP flew first in 1986 - Typhoon entered service in 2003 (17 years)
The YF-22 flew first in 1990 - Raptor entered service in 2005 (15 years)

A little correction on FCAS: FCAS is the whole project including the aircraft, drones, sensors, electronic warfare, communications, etc. The aircraft itself is called "New Generation Fighter" (NGF). Its shape has not been decided yet. The mock-up they had is just one of the design studies and was build for the official contract signing. You can not have a press conference without some airplane ;)

[GCJT]

It might just be another test system, like forward swept wings and variable geometry. Geoff Who will believe it when I see it in an airshow, or a museum.

[AsbestosMuffins]

I'll believe it when I see it since just buying a pre-existing small engined plane for 3rd party CAS has taken 10 years

[richardtisdale]

Its rumored they are using the yf23 airframe with some updates and the f35 electronic suite

[muznick]

The F-15 is such a clean, simple design. Still looks good.

[onewhosaysgoose]

Chris, I have seen photos and drawings of this thing for weeks, but your video is the first one I trusted to be worth viewing.

[NickPoeschek]

I think we’ve seen with SpaceX that if pushed, aerospace companies are capable of more rapid development and iteration than they traditionally have been. Would be interesting to see some newer players disrupt the existing decades-long development process.