Aircraft Super Thread Mk.VII

[Scyla]

11 hours ago, azrael said:

Technically they did; the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet...which they inherited when they bought McDonnell Douglas.

I was talking about the F/A-XX program: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/F/A-XX_program

I should be more careful with my answers on a message board full of aviation geeks. 

[Raikkonen]

When can we expect the first flight of this F-47?

[Thom]

Look like we've experienced....

16 hours ago, Raikkonen said:

When can we expect the first flight of this F-47?

I don't know, seeing as Boeing has been having a hard time just building airliners. Until I see something from a far more accredited source, it's pipe-dream. Kinda like...

[captain america]

On 3/22/2025 at 2:34 PM, electric indigo said:

That might explain the first american fighter with canards.

Hopefully it'll incorporate active flow control.

Edited March 24 by captain america

[Thom]

42 minutes ago, captain america said:

Hopefully it'll incorporate active flow control.

Also keep in mind, that is an artists interpretation. Despite the word from You Know Who, there is really nothing to fly yet. 

[Chronocidal]

I really just want them to reveal that the Air Force changed their minds, and decided they actually want the YF-23 this time.  

[Thom]

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I really just want them to reveal that the Air Force changed their minds, and decided they actually want the YF-23 this time.  

[505thAirborne]

2 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I really just want them to reveal that the Air Force changed their minds, and decided they actually want the YF-23 this time.  

I forgot where I read this, but I remember seeing a comment about the YF-23 saying something like "Northrop/Mcdonnell Douglas accidently built a Gen 6th aircraft 30+ years ago." LOL

I mean seriously, redesign the rear section for "Thrust vectoring" engines, a one-piece canopy, modern day radar systems, improved RAM, perhaps a larger interior missile bay and you have yourself one vicious stealth fighter that's kind of sort of ready to go vs. this NGAD which is guaranteed to run, way over budget and perform decently. Just my opinion, yours may vary. 

[David Hingtgen]

4 hours ago, Thom said:

I don't recall the -23 being so rivet-y around the intakes...

[Thom]

6 hours ago, David Hingtgen said:

I don't recall the -23 being so rivet-y around the intakes...

Quite possibly an artist's rendering, now that I think about it.

[F-ZeroOne]

US Navy may be about to select its next-generation fighter:

https://www.twz.com/air/navy-f-a-xx-stealth-fighter-selection-this-week-report

The most important thing we need to know about this one: Does it go up to... three? 😉

[505thAirborne]

Since were having fun with the YF-23 at the moment, Growling Sidewinder presents to you, The F-23. 

While I get that these are DCS, you have to respect that the 23 with zero thrust vectoring can give the 22 that much of a run for the money in both a 1 & 2 circle fight. 

 

[electric indigo]

The J-36 is the funkiest new design out there.

 

[Thom]

Well, we'll see if it performs half as good as it looks, and if the F-47, whenever that get's made, is twice as good...

[electric indigo]

There's already a kit in the making.

 

[M'Kyuun]

On 3/24/2025 at 5:00 PM, Chronocidal said:

I really just want them to reveal that the Air Force changed their minds, and decided they actually want the YF-23 this time.  

God, yes!  

[Old_Nash_II]

https://www.airdatanews.com/turkey-aims-to-sell-kaan-fighter-to-brazil/
New Brazilian airfighter, and I only found out about the development earlier today. It looks very similar to the F-22, since it is a joint venture with Turkey, which was prevented from having the F-35 fighters (almost the same XD)

 

[F18LEGIOSS2]

3 hours ago, Old_Nash_II said:

https://www.airdatanews.com/turkey-aims-to-sell-kaan-fighter-to-brazil/
New Brazilian airfighter, and I only found out about the development earlier today. It looks very similar to the F-22, since it is a joint venture with Turkey, which was prevented from having the F-35 fighters (almost the same XD)

 

Personnaly I prefer big bulky fighter jets like the F15 strike eagle and the SU 30 SM. Oooooooooooh boy don't mess with those 

[mechaninac]

11 hours ago, Old_Nash_II said:

https://www.airdatanews.com/turkey-aims-to-sell-kaan-fighter-to-brazil/
New Brazilian airfighter, and I only found out about the development earlier today. It looks very similar to the F-22, since it is a joint venture with Turkey, which was prevented from having the F-35 fighters (almost the same XD)

 

Basil tirando uma página diretamente do roteiro chinês... por que desenvolver um projeto original quando os Estados Unidos já fez o trabalho difícil?  E o nome do caça me faz pensar no grito do capitão Kirk em A Ira de Khan. 

[Big s]

12 hours ago, Old_Nash_II said:

https://www.airdatanews.com/turkey-aims-to-sell-kaan-fighter-to-brazil/
New Brazilian airfighter, and I only found out about the development earlier today. It looks very similar to the F-22, since it is a joint venture with Turkey, which was prevented from having the F-35 fighters (almost the same XD)

 

Looks very lime candy

[Big s]

Saw this and it gave me a little laugh 

in all seriousness, I do hope nobody gets hurt during these accidents and do feel bad when that does happen 

[sh9000]

 

 

[F-ZeroOne]

This year marks the 85th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. In the UK the Spitfire, and to a (sadly) lesser extent the Hurricane [1], are the symbols of the Battle but over the past few years I've become a little bit fascinated with an aircraft that is much less well known: the Boulton-Paul Defiant.   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulton_Paul_Defiant

Now don't get me wrong - I'm not one of those people who is going to claim that the Defiant was some kind of latent super-fighter that could have taken on a F-22 and won - but I just find its story interesting. The main reason I've bought it up is that it never ceases to amazes me the little undiscovered side-alleys that still wait to surprise the fan of World War II military history, and one of those I only discovered today was that the Defiant had a single seat, forward firing gun armed [2] variant planned, which somehow I'd never heard of before!:

https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_boulton_paul_P94.html

[1] If one were really reaching, one could also class the Blackburn Skua and Roc as "Battle of Britain" fighter aircraft...

[2] The Defiant could fire forward, if the gunner locked the guns in position, but only the pilot could then fire them but as he had no gunsight...  

[renegadeleader1]

7 hours ago, F-ZeroOne said:

This year marks the 85th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain. In the UK the Spitfire, and to a (sadly) lesser extent the Hurricane [1], are the symbols of the Battle but over the past few years I've become a little bit fascinated with an aircraft that is much less well known: the Boulton-Paul Defiant.   

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulton_Paul_Defiant

Now don't get me wrong - I'm not one of those people who is going to claim that the Defiant was some kind of latent super-fighter that could have taken on a F-22 and won - but I just find its story interesting. The main reason I've bought it up is that it never ceases to amazes me the little undiscovered side-alleys that still wait to surprise the fan of World War II military history, and one of those I only discovered today was that the Defiant had a single seat, forward firing gun armed [2] variant planned, which somehow I'd never heard of before!:

https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_boulton_paul_P94.html

[1] If one were really reaching, one could also class the Blackburn Skua and Roc as "Battle of Britain" fighter aircraft...

[2] The Defiant could fire forward, if the gunner locked the guns in position, but only the pilot could then fire them but as he had no gunsight...  

If the Boulton Paul Defiant breaks your brain you should look up the Bell YMF-1 Airacuda, a twin engined pusher "bomber destroyer" that had gunner positions in the engine nacels in front of the motors. The USAAC had a squadron's worth of these things operating with the USAAC/USAAF at the start of the war before those in charge realized how much of a deathtrap it was and quietly removed them from service and scrapped them all two months in.

 

If you need more obscure WWII aircraft there's also the B-32 Dominator which was the backup from Consolidated should the B-29 fail, and the Brewster SB2A Buccaneer a dive bomber so terrible the Navy and USAAF chose to send most of them directly to the junkyard for scrapping rather than use them as trainers or target tugs after they failed miserably at those jobs.

 

Probably one of my favorite obscure aircraft is the Curtiss-Wright AT-9 "jeep" trainer. It looks like a cartoon come to life looking a half used toothpaste tube mixed with a Japanese style super deformed Beechcraft Model 18. It was deliberately designed to fly like crap so as to simulate adverse flying conditions brought on by battle damage.

[electric indigo]

5 hours ago, renegadeleader1 said:

It was deliberately designed to fly like crap so as to simulate adverse flying conditions brought on by battle damage

It's not a bug, it's a feature 😁

[F-ZeroOne]

Renegadeleader1, I’m familiar at least in passing with the aircraft you mentioned (the thing that always gets me about the Airacuda more than anything is where did they get that name from?!) though I hadn’t heard of the AT-9 before.

[Thom]

12 hours ago, renegadeleader1 said:

....

Probably one of my favorite obscure aircraft is the Curtiss-Wright AT-9 "jeep" trainer. It looks like a cartoon come to life looking a half used toothpaste tube mixed with a Japanese style super deformed Beechcraft Model 18. It was deliberately designed to fly like crap so as to simulate adverse flying conditions brought on by battle damage.

That's a plane that, from the nose to the beginning of the tail, looks like it needs to be stretched by about 10 or 15 percent to make those curves work.

[pengbuzz]

51 minutes ago, Thom said:

That's a plane that, from the nose to the beginning of the tail, looks like it needs to be stretched by about 10 or 15 percent to make those curves work.

Yeah, this is pretty messed up alright...

[Thom]

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

Yeah, this is pretty messed up alright...

I love the tail on it!

[F-ZeroOne]

YouTube hears me and OBEYS!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re5eRa6BAYo

Edited September 23 by F-ZeroOne

[electric indigo]

Meanwhile, in China

https://x.com/RupprechtDeino/status/1971509335944729072

Edited September 26 by electric indigo

[wsna]

...this is an interesting look into the J-50:

https://youtu.be/oTUsjtD7HIQ?si=GsSRywlvpsFh_8UQ

Although tailless is not a new thing, I wonder how effective can this design work as a dogfighter. Agility is not likely to be in the design brief, however if it were to be seen, does it become a giant flare?

[Thom]

And does dogfighting count anymore when targeting and missiles can hit before you even reach visual range? I'm a bit of a Romantic, in that I like the thought of a 'fighter' being able to fight, but more of the tech is geared to avoid that.

[pengbuzz]

6 hours ago, Thom said:

And does dogfighting count anymore when targeting and missiles can hit before you even reach visual range? I'm a bit of a Romantic, in that I like the thought of a 'fighter' being able to fight, but more of the tech is geared to avoid that.

The thing is: many craft now are including the same kind of features as the F-22. Not to mention: just because a missile locks on and fires is no guarantee that it will strike.

[Big s]

7 hours ago, Thom said:

And does dogfighting count anymore when targeting and missiles can hit before you even reach visual range? I'm a bit of a Romantic, in that I like the thought of a 'fighter' being able to fight, but more of the tech is geared to avoid that.

It’s always a wonder about what the future of aircraft combat will be like. Missile technology advances along with guidance, but then again countermeasures are also advancing and it makes you wonder what a larger scale battle might be like and if the counter measure technology is ever able to negate missile technology enough to bring two top tier aircraft together in combat. 

Edited Sunday at 11:03 PM by Big s