Lockheed Martin X-44 MANTA (Multi-Axis No-Tail Aircraft)

The few artist impressions i have seen of this craft along with the stuff i read that NASA put out on this planform seem to fit some of the sightings allot of people are seeing.

www.airwar.ru...

s1201.photobucket.com...

these are the closest one that i could find that would seem to fit the bill. Does any one have any interesting info on this canceled aircraft? I know they were looking at this and the FB-22 for a QUICK and cheap stop gap for the 2038 bomber, but i guess the LRS-B now fills that role.

why would they make a whole new clean sheet design (LRS-B) if they are just using off the shelf tech, and apparently have the X-44/FB-22 available at what seems to be less of a cost and less of a deployment delay.

a reply to: penroc3

The FB-23 would have been an F-111 size platform. With internal weapons to keep the stealth it wouldn't have had near the payload of the LRS-B.

a reply to: Zaphod58

If a smaller payload was all that was the difference, maybe a few tweaks to the bay could have helped that a bit? if your already using off the shelf tech and a perfectly good flying planform, i would think that would save ALLOT of money and time to get some bombers out there right NOW till the 2038 and maybe even the LRS-B come out? i think i saw a operational date around 2018

Any info on the X-44 MANTA? there doesn't seem to be allot out there on this, or maybe i just didn't look good enough?

What about the ZF-12B or the 42-X1C... wait, what are we talkin about?

those aircraft look familiar. where have i seen
before......