Oh and another tidbit, this f-19 concept is kind of old.

I had a toy of it when I was a little kid back in the mid 1980s.

If the toy has been out that long, how much time do you think they have had to think through concepts like that?

Sure they could, of course they could be signifying stuff through movies, but it's a pretty pointless conversation as its been done to death.

That's from a movie.....a fictional movie.......

Let me reinterate, a movie......

You want to see a real Navy stealth go start googling A-12. Cheney Cancelled it in the early 90's.

Try boeings new designs it sure looks like one ive seen they are working on now....maybe its already in production i dont know.....
They are very similar from my memory......

Personally, I feel that when you look at the problems the US is currently having keeping the F-22 serviceable, and even moreso in getting the F-35 into an acceptable serviceable condition, with it suffering delay after delay, problem after problem, it kind of shows the notion, that there are even MORE futuristic and advanced planes being secretly operated, up for being the baseless fantasy that it really is.

I echo Waynos comments on the F-22 and F-35 issues, and personally think that it's unlikely that anything being tested these days would wow us here.

Take a look at the Boeing Bird of Prey, that was released to the public a few years ago - looked cool, but basically nothing futuristic in it. No fly by wire, a civilian jet engine, no advanced materials and it was slow - so what was the point of it? To test a few specific things. And that's what I think they have out there.

The B-2 was developed in the open - it's still highly classified, but it's point, means and existence was made public early on. Same goes for the F-22 - infact much has been made of the F-22s development, it's been quite the film star. As has the F-35.

The only active jet that was really kept secret while in USAF service was the F-117, and even that was made public before it's first active mission. All of the jets from the 50s onward that were kept secret while operational were the property of the CIA, the USAF have been very open.

So why have Area 51? Heh, that's a question that I just had to ask myself after the above - and it's fairly simple. The DoD still needs a place where OEMs can integrate, fly and test stuff - Area 51 lends itself to be the perfect controlled environment for that. It doesn't have to be a whizz bang fantastic new airframe, it can be something as simple as a low drag surface on a wing, or a high powered electronically scanned array radar, or a new countermeasures system. All things you would like to keep the details of very secret.

It's worth noting that Groom Lake closed it's longest runway when the SR-71 was retired - because up to that point Lockheed still did a lot of stuff with the airframe at Groom Lake.

Quite right. I actually wanted to edit my post (but was too busy until it was too late) to add that this doesn't mean I think secret things aren't being tested, of course they are. I do think though that interested people attribute too many sci if like attributes to these projects than is reasonably credible given all the other problems that plague the aerospace ndustry. It is a very tempting thing to speculate about. The effects shots in that movie are quite convincing though, shame the rest of the movie was so risible