Trump hints at ASH buy

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: BigTrain
In the long term, existing designs that never made it past either wind tunnel or proof of concept stages. There are several in that pile that would fit well, and since much of the development has been done, it would help keep costs down.

Which are your personal favourites of the "never left the drawing board/Plant 42/Groom" club?

That you can acknowledge, that is.

a reply to: Barnalby

About the only one i could is the -24. I do like that design though.

I would love to see the companion flying around. It's purty.

F19 even though was a never was a sweet looking sled.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Am I right to guess that NATF prototypes might have flown?

I'm guessing most of the designs out there date to the 1985-1995 timeframe.

a reply to: Barnalby

There were a few more recent, but not super recent.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I guess I could see something getting slapped together in the late 90s or the Bush years.

Friggin UAV's chewing up all the company demonstrator funds...

a reply to: Zaphod58

I heard there was some crazy ufo stories coming from saudi Arabia recently i wonder if our favorite tag alongs new sister was flying around.

a reply to: penroc3

It looks like it was a fuel dump from the Falcon rocket launch.

a reply to: Zaphod58

that base in the south of SA for all the drones im sure has had some interesting visits....but then again i dont know if i would be landing any high value assets is SA.


With whats flying around now i dont know why they dont let the nighthawks buddy out in to the light...... what i saw drifting around when Trump and Clinton were in town would be a perfect new sidekick

a reply to: penroc3

They have several bases in Africa that are perfect for high value assets. Very little population, zero discussion of operations. Even when we lost a SOCOM aircraft and crew, it barely made the news.

a reply to: bra1nwash

"These planes aren't difficult to fly."

The even fly by themselves but how about communications, systems, judgement, physical strength?

In war times the markets close. You need rare earths from china, would they sell it to you? You need chips from Korea, will you get them? If one of these super advanced microchip factories is levelled, ow long to replace it?

Its not so simple as you think.

a reply to: CrapAsUsual

So your solution is to rely on UAVs that can't do the mission, cruise missiles that are vulnerable, and older aircraft that can't deal with modern defenses?

And meanwhile, if a major war were to break out, they'd be going up against nations with reduced RCS aircraft, and hypersonic weapons.

originally posted by: CrapAsUsual
a reply to: bra1nwash

"These planes aren't difficult to fly."

The even fly by themselves but how about communications, systems, judgement, physical strength?

In war times the markets close. You need rare earths from china, would they sell it to you? You need chips from Korea, will you get them? If one of these super advanced microchip factories is levelled, ow long to replace it?

Its not so simple as you think.

This would be the case whether it is manned or not in your scenario.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Doesn't that smack of some form of espionage? At best a serious amount of incompetence.

Something is definitely wrong when things like that happen.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Hey now Zaph dont you know only America is building new weapon systems...

Hypersonics paw shaw.... decades away

a reply to: seagull

It may be a case of the tooling being useful for another program, so someone "borrowed" it, and left the boxes in place.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Oh, sure...make me take off my tin foil hat.

Yeah, that is, hopefully, the more likely scenario.

a reply to: seagull

That crap ain't cheap. They may even have taken it to work on the F-35 program. The aircraft that was damaged in Florida would be a great airframe to experiment on and see if they could repair an aircraft that badly damaged.

originally posted by: penroc3
a reply to: Zaphod58

Hey now Zaph dont you know only America is building new weapon systems...

Hypersonics paw shaw.... decades away

already in the sky

a reply to: Zaphod58

Don't tease us like that!

For some odd reason now, all of a sudden I'm feeling much more confident that the X-44 really did fly at some point...

I'll bet it's a killer 6th generation technologies testbed.