Anyone recognise this Aircraft?

Whilst snooping on the US airbases using google earth I came across a white painted A/C parked on a ramp at the Skunk Works.

I first thought it was a F16 painted white but then I noticed it apparently has a cranked double delta mainplane! Now the F16XL had a cranked delta but that had no tailplane but this does, possibly even a twin tail but that could just be a shadow I was seeing!

It could be a F15 or a F22 but I am not 100% sure what it is!

If you type in 34 37'08.78" N and 118 05'03.10" W that should take you straight to it. There is also a F117 nearby and across the main runway there is a B2 out in the open!

I would post the picture but I cannot seem to save the image in the right format for ATS to accept it....Help!

Have a look and tell me it is a F15 or F22 painted white as I am just not sure!

Sv Out.....!

Havent got google earth (dialup)
but hopefully
someone will post picture soon

Could be the X-32? Bit fuzzy!

Absolutely definitely the Boeing X-32A demonstrator

Having looked at the image a bit more and played around a bit with it on photoshop I also think it looks like the X32 but I am not quite sure the tailplane design matchs up with the pictures I have seen of the two prototypes.

It looks more like the artist's impression's I have seen of the proposed production version that would have been built if it had won the compertition.

Whats it doing parked at the Skunk works anyway?

I thought they (the X32 prototypes) had been donated to aviation museums?

Waynos, can you talk me through how you got the images off google earth( idiots guide please!) as I have been having a bit of trouble doing it!

Thank's

Sv Out....!

Boeing have a site at Palmdale too (used to be NAA / Rockwell)...

I think it's this...


more similar view....



[edit on 1/1/06 by Dew]

[edit on 1/1/06 by Dew]

Just been doing a bit of digging and it turns out the X32A is in a museum but no mention of the X32B so I can only assume that the image is of the X32B awaiting disposal outside the Boeing Phantom works at Palmdale.

I did not know that the Skunk and Phantom work's were so close together!

Sv Out....!

I still say that is one of the ugliest aircraft ever to fly.

Glad it did not win the contract so i do not have to look at it for the next 20 years or so

Dew, You took the words out of my mouth!

Sv Out....!

Remember the google earth images can be quite old (years).

from Wikipedia....

U. S. Air Force Plant 42 is a federally-owned military aerospace facility in Palmdale, California where aerospace contractors share a common runway complex, and either lease building space from the Air Force, or own their own building outright. There are eight separate production sites specially suited for advanced technology and/or "black" program projects. Currently the most well known contractors at Plant 42 are Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.

[edit on 1/1/06 by Dew]

Two versions of the X-32 were built. One with a delta wing design and another with a more conventional tail.

Hey SV - the 32B has been transferred to Pax River Museum, wherever that is!



edit: oh it's the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum!

[edit on 1/1/06 by Dew]

[edit on 1/1/06 by Dew]

Its the X-32A, not the B. The reason is that the A has the extended wingtips while the B does not, take another look at Dew's photos, the top one is the X-32B VTOL version and the lower image (looking from above) shows the A which is the one in the photo.

SV The way I got the imag ewas by using 'screen capture' on paint shop pro. This makes it easy to snatch any image you can get on your screen. Do you have the programme?

Jetsetter - no you are mistaken, the two different versions were the CTOL X-32A and the STOVL X-32B which were both tailless deltas.

The version with the conventional tail was the proposed F-32 production model but this was never built.

[edit on 1-1-2006 by waynos]

Notice the difference in wings,

Here is the X-32A



This is the X-32B

You took the words our of my mouth again waynos. I new what it was the second I saw the picture. I remebered noticing the difference between the two planes about 8 months ago when reading through a PMK mag. So yes to agree to waynos the plane pictured is the X-32A (the first demonstrator)
.

Originally posted by Dew

is it me , or from that angle does it look similar to an A-12 Avenger?

Not really, er, trapezoidal delta wing with extended tips, twin fins, single engine, single seat canopy, and not forgetting big deep ugly fuselage none of which feature on the Avenger which was a pure flat near perfect triangle with a canopy on the front, looks wise.

lol


all right - but for a moment i thought - `hey look an avenger`

then reality struck me home i i kinda realised im smoking something



[edit on 2-1-2006 by Harlequin]

sigh look at that plane so clean so smooth .... looks like a plane that a country like the US should be flying not freaking 1960's navy aircraft. I swear the amount of stuff that people come up with then end up getting canned due to political crap or the armed forces backing out of is getting higher and higher. gone are the days of hell go ahead fly it and lets see what it can do.

Do you think the A-12 could be America's entry in the 'Lets see who can throw away the most amazing warplane' competition against canada's Avro Arrow and Britains TSR 2? Maybe France could enter the Mirage G.8 or Mirage 4000?