Image: DoD via The Warzone
Today, Boeing announced that it had won the multi-billion dollar contract (starting at around $20 billion) to develop and supply the Next Generation Air Dominance Fighter for USAF. The new aircraft will be designated F-47. Technology demonstrators for the aircraft have been flying since at least 2020. We take a look at this exciting news, the likely technologies, unusual features and possible names.
Announced at a White House press briefing, Trump noted, “An experimental version of the plane has secretly been flying for almost five years and we’re confident that it massively overpowers the capabilities of any other nation.” Within minutes of the announcement of the F-47 designation, wits online were wondering whether it was a discrete dig at the 47th President and whether it stood for ‘Fuck-47’. It is, in reality, more likely a sycophantic move. The designation F-47 had been previously used for some late and export models of the wartime P-47 Thunderbolt, though any thoughts that this could mean the aircraft could be called the Thunderbolt III are unlikely, as the Republic heritage is now within today’s Northrop Grumman. Artworks of what is suggested is the F-47 are hard to understand; they appear to show a conventional stealth fighter forward fuselage, with extended leading edge, canards or engine intake sections in the shoulder position and what looks like an odd anhedral angle on the inner wing section (more on that later).
Boeing created the Boeing Model 15 in 1923, followed by a series including the ‘Peashooter’. They specialised in bombers such as the B-17 and B-29 in the war. In the post-war years, they concentrated on airliners and bombers. The merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, who had a wealth of fighter experience with the F-4 and F-15, put Boeing in the fighter business again. Boeing was the company name when the Super Hornet, a radical reworking of the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet (originally a Northrop design), first flew as a McDonnell Douglas aircraft but was carrying a Boeing badge by the time it entered service. Boeing worked on several advanced F-15s, notably the F-15EX for USAF. If the demo aircraft was the Voodoo II, as some have reported, then Voodoo is a possible name for the aircraft, Phantom III would also seem a contender. Generally, a US military aircraft is named in recent years, is a reused name of an aircraft with a good reputation that was created by the manufacturer or a company that the manufacturer has absorbed. Boeing contains McDonnell Douglas, and could fairly claim Phantom, Voodoo or Eagle III (or IV). some may fairly ask when they last ran a clean piece of paper combat aircraft design, though considering the massive development time of any combat aircraft, even Lockheed Martin contains few engineers or project managers present for the early years of the F-22 and F-35.
Credit: DoD via @Fighterman_FFRC
The teaser images obscured the wings, which may mean nothing or could point to an unorthodox wing configuration. The pronounced dihedral of the inner section is reminiscent of..
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