Lockheed unveils KC-Z concept

a reply to: aholic

You can use the boom to move the tail around somewhat, when it's extended. Any tanker is going to need some kind of yaw stability, which you'll get with sine kind of vertical fin.

a reply to: Zaphod58

HI Zap, I have seen on 2 occasions craft that look like this, or similar, but they did not have the wings. I believe we have totally new technologies yet to be brought forth. Some would assume that what I have seen to be out of this world technologies and perhaps that may have some truth to it, but the feeling I got was earthly technologies. Also they were black or dark grey in color not light. The last one I saw had the ability to hoover quite well and was silent. The other 3 were flying together and at the time I was in a Jacuzzi but could see the cock pit with 3 pilots driving. They were human and wore black jumpsuits. At the time I wondered if they were off worlders but over the years have figured that if anything they may have had time technologies.
Just my 2cents.

a reply to: Sammamishman

It's not a bad guess. Seems like LM is very happy sticking their overall Speed Agile concept. How many different variations have we seen now, including this one? 4? 5?

It's so so long overdue that the USAF have a capability like this and sad SOFA or CITIZEN never got what it needed.

I don't think we need to imagine very hard at what NG's model will look like.

They can't just have this as a base for a tanker: the development costs would be insane and then to spread that cost over a relatively small number of airframes would be silly. But I can imagine this large internal volume would make a decent next gen AWACS platform, probably some transport role, maybe even stand off cruise missile role. This type of stealthy shape with big internal volume would have a lot of use.

a reply to: Borys

A next gen arsenal plane. Able to head into contested space along with the F35/F22s and use their sensors to target air and ground targets

a reply to: Borys

Oh it will definitely have other roles. All USAF tankers do. From medivac, long haul troop transport, cargo etc.

I could see any new stealth type transport also having some basic C3 built in since it'll be interfacing with 5th gen.

a reply to: aholic

I have a feeling that this design will indeed have to fulfill many, many roles if they select it: it is such an breakthrough configuration, much like the B-2 was, that it will absorb huge amounts of money to get the design right, then as importantly to get the manufacturing and assembly process correct. The USAF will need not only to buy maybe 200 tankers at least like this, but perhaps as many modified to fulfill surveillance/AWACS, C4I, exec transport, cargo transport, medivac and likely some type of patrol/strike role...and then they have to get some tight fisted allies to buy a few to boot.

I do wonder about this BWB design: how flexible will it be to change its configuration to different roles in short order? Or will each plane have to be quite specialized and it won't be feasible to economically reconfigure it in short order? Can that capability be built in from the start?

Why would a tanker need to be stealthy? I had always assumed tankers stayed away from any hostile areas that may have enemy aircraft or SAMs/MANPADs

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

As I said in an earlier post, flexibility. It radically extends what a strike package can do if they're not having to fly all the way out of hostile territory to fuel.

a reply to: Borys

They're building some roles into it from the start, such as a limited strike role.

a reply to: Zaphod58

That seems smart, and like it'd be a perfect dovetail into further adoption of the type as something a little, er, "different" than just a tanker.

Imagine a C-130 or a proper C-141 replacement based off of this thing. Better yet, imagine an AC-130 based off of it.

I wonder what the odds are that this out of the blue KC-Z "proposal" is based off of something that's already flown. SOCOM DID build that big hanger out of the blue...

a reply to: Barnalby

Oh no doubt SOCOM has one or two of these C-130 "Advanced" in their bag. That's with a big wink wink nudge nudge.

originally posted by: CraftBuilder
Looks very 60s-70s.
...Thunderbirds are go!

It reminds me of the 'dart' fighters from Stargate Atlantis.

Is this thing manned? The model doesn’t look it. I know it may not be that detailed, but still...

a reply to: GD

Yes.

OK, it looks good, but looks don't matter when they start awarding the contracts (at least one would hope). But a LO tanker as a standalone project? Development costs would make per unit costs scary. I can't see them NOT taking the basic airframe and then seeing if it can be turned into an electronic surveillance, command/control, maritime reconnaissance, maybe even AWACS platform. If they can do that...maybe.

Come up with an extreme long range air to air missiles and some extreme long range anti-radiation missiles and we might have something here. Use the attacking aircraft to designate their targets and allow the attackers to carry more ordinance for taking out the target. Being able to tank close to the target means that they can carry less fuel, thus increasing their useful load.

So when does Boeings PR department start planting rumors about LockMart's design.