Pictures Of Mystery Plane Over Wichita

a reply to: Zaphod58

So the plane it's self isn't going faster than the speed of sound, the air flow is. That makes sense. Thanks guys.

always appreciate zaph and boomer responses. ATBspirit's pretty cool too. Anywhoo, I can attest that despite what some posters believe they can indeed build extremely, extremely quite and very very fast aircraft these days. SOme that can even be both at the same time.

a reply to: Sammamishman

I've done it from the cockpit to the boom pod on a KC-10. It's scary as hell because they have rollers in the floor. Takes good situational awareness to put your feet down on the walkway between rollers while running.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Which is what gets measured when you're talking airspeed. So technically, if you were to measure airspeed at that portion of the plane, that part of the plane would be going supersonic, while the rest of it isn't.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

There's been a lot of research into making a quiet boom, it's been done before and I suspect that's as far as the research will go (officially) lol

a reply to: ATBspirit

Oh no I know it's been done before. Seen it with my own eyes.

Don't know how they do it, but it's pretty cool when they do do it.

what is interesting is not the refueler speed we all knows its speed is like airliner speed but what is realy interesting is estimate the speed capability of this triangle, in futur the timing of intervention will be surely the key , with UAV or manned craft , the speed will be equal to the stealth this days ( for my opinion). The refueler I imagine can't follow the supersonic jet, for a complete mission a need of a lot of refueler must be require in different pass of the flight no ?

a reply to: darksidius

It depends on the engines, and the type of speed you are talking about. The SR-71 could see close to 20 refuelings depending on the mission.

New engine technology has significantly improved fuel burn numbers and will significantly reduce that number.

Ok Zaph, I speak for exemple about a F-22 raid with the supercruise capability for the classified "others" no idea , the story about a F-117 companion is very interesting , there is a lot of speculation on the web about that, may be an ennhanced F-15 ? there is a need for a air-air capacity with stealth attack plane.

a reply to: darksidius

Personally I think the AF needs to replace a bunch of the F-15 fleet with the SE. We need the F-35, there's no getting around that, but at least a partial fleet of F-15SEs would go a long way in reducing fleet replacement needs.

Is it possible that the Wichita style craft or something in this type can have a supercruise capacity like the F-22 ? the power of the new engine like the F-135 or F-119 in a conception of 4 engines surely could push a plane in the order size of the B-2 well beyond the speed of sound for long period ?

a reply to: darksidius

Sure. With some of the new technology it wouldn't be hard to do. Not saying it does, but it's possible for it to.

a reply to: Zaphod58

If they can figure a way to get the cost per unit down, how about more F22's?

Yes sure actual engine have a lot of capacity, it will be interesting to see what engine will be chose in the futur Platform like LRS-B or F/X.

a reply to: Sammamishman

Right now, good luck with that. They'd have a hell of a time doing it. They have to restart the line. LM kept the tooling so that's not bad, but you're looking at a cost jump for awhile.

a reply to: darksidius

Most likely they'll go with a new version of the F119 or F136. They're both good engines, and would work well with a larger platform.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Yeah, I knew it was a long shot (unless war breaks out with a peer state), which is too bad cause it's a nice plane.

originally posted by: Sammamishman

originally posted by: BASSPLYR

Also if the plane is traveling say .99 Mach and you sprinted from the aft to the nose if the cockpit would you be traveling faster than Mach ?

I think if you ran from the boom to the nose someone would yell at you.

This cracked me up

originally posted by: sputniksteve

originally posted by: Sammamishman

originally posted by: BASSPLYR

Also if the plane is traveling say .99 Mach and you sprinted from the aft to the nose if the cockpit would you be traveling faster than Mach ?

I think if you ran from the boom to the nose someone would yell at you.

This cracked me up

Ahh pallet surfing in flight!

a reply to: boomer135

When I worked in a warehouse we used to ride the pallet jacks around like scooters. Kind of hard to steer though...

Back to the topic:

How does a pilot even get involved with one of these dark black projects? I mean, do they even have family or fellow airmen friends? They obviously can't tell anyone what they fly...No one else on post asks or is suspicious of these flyboys?

And wouldn't the F-22/F-35 guys be jealous of them??

Is there any way to find the recordings of F-117 pilots communicating with someone from an "unknown aircraft" apparently from Gulf War? I try to find it but I have no luck.