Forum: General F-22A Raptor forum

1st503rdsgt wrote:

count_to_10 wrote:

1st503rdsgt wrote:

count_to_10 wrote:

madrat wrote:

The F-117 had as many sensors as one needs in a light attack plane, even a TFR that retracted in stealth mode. It was a little more complex than people probably give it credit.

I didn't think it was capable of delivering LGBs.

That's the only thing they ever dropped. No JADAMs back then.

I thought they couldn't fit a laser designator on it.

I'm listening if ya gotta source. There used to be a rumor that the USAF had another stealth aircraft to do all the designating (some old PM issue I read when I was a kid).

Yeah, I've heard that, too. It doesn't sound too far-fetched, but who knows Neutral

F-16.net Sponsor

Question is about X44 [Link pending approval] Sad

southernphantom wrote:

Yeah, I've heard that, too. It doesn't sound too far-fetched, but who knows Neutral

There was an interview with Tom Clancy about 10 years ago that aired only 2 or 3x during a short period of time in which he talks about his secret sources inside the Pentagon telling about 2 manned systems and 1 unmanned that are still under lock and key. Mysteriosuly that interview is nowhere to be found, even on the everlasting Internet.

What do you think all the aeronatical engineers at northrop, boeing, an lockmart are doing? they ain't all working on ungrading the legacy fleet or jasms and other new ordinances. I'm sure there have been enough 1-off demonstrators to fill the Smithsonian as well... We only know about Tacit Blue and Bird of Prey. But with our illustrious leader, maybe there's absolutely nothing in existence anylonger that should be kept under lock and key. Sad

mutant_guy wrote:

Question is about X44 MANTA... Sad

Apologies mutant_guy.

To everybody else, this is why I stress staying on topic. Going off topic or hijacking a thread to talk about something else is not only rude, but can really discourage those that are interested in discussing the topic at hand, in this case the X-44 which is related to the F-22.

Stay on topic and related to the F-22.

The X-44 is theoretically very similar to the FB-22, which was basically an F-22/F-15E/B-1B 'regional bomber' thingummy. It was a flying-wing Raptor with no vertical stabilizers, and was basically cancelled maybe half a decade ago. I suppose that, with its frontline companion cancelled, the X-44 just wasn't viewed as practical.

Not enough benefit/cost ratio. It happens to a lot of X-series concepts. With an experimental plane, you have to expect to learn enough from the experiments, which has real-world applications you can benefit from, to justify the expense of the experiments. A custom-built plane custom-derived from what was already a very expensive model even in mass production is just a very inefficient way to do experiments that could be done other ways and don't seem likely to yield especially useful results. (Making a plane tailless has known benefits, but we've already been doing that for decades without VT, and if the difference between VT maneuvering and maneuvering with movable surfaces is all you want to see, you can do that with far cheaper planes.)

I thought they snapped a picture of this thing during its maiden flight over Belgium?

There was originally a program for an air superiority fighter (successor to F-15C) and a fighter bomber (successor to F-111/F-15E). The F-22 and YF-23 were entrants for the former and planes like the FB-22, FB-23 and X-44 were entrants for the latter. To cut a long story short, the cold war ended, financial circumstances happened and cuts were made and the F-22 became the one-size-fits-all stealth fighter.

Forum: General F-22A Raptor forum

Why X44 MANTA Cancelled or didn't complete Maiden Flight?