Re: Just have to ask this.


Message posted by JoeinTX on May 28, 2008 at 21:50:56 PST:


Just a couple of things.

The cost of modern conventional aircraft has grown over the last decade or two.....the $15 million bare bones F-16 of 1980 is now a $40 million dollar rig. The F-15E/K/S of today is roughly an $80-100 million airplane....remember, the B-1B of 1981 was a very controversial $100 million per copy strategic weapon at the time. Northrop's private offer to restart production of the B-2 in the late 1990s resulted in a simplified airplane in the $650,000,000 dollar range. The Super Hornet is the Navy's cost-effective jack-of-all trades today in the $60 million range.

The figures above are just to illustrate that, while a lot of money has been outlayed for aircraft design and production, the cost in development and production of the most common aircraft types we see today have grown marginally equally. Throw in the cost of working with advanced materials, software, electronics, and training over and above that necessary for the known aircraft in service......sheesh.

I believe N-G received around $2.6 billion for advanced aircraft development over the last few years....that could all have been easily sucked into producing one airworthy, near-production "Next Generation Bomber" mule should that speculation prove correct for an example. Do realize that a sizeable amount of the money being parlayed into "black" projects is dedicated to things such as materials, computer modeling, avionics, testing, etc........not necessarily producing a lot of flying airplanes.


There is no doubt that the USAF/DOD/etc. has demonstrated an ability to develop and produce a small airplane fleet in secret......SR-, Nighthawk, etc. But, it has shown a tendency more often to produce limited or one-off types to prove technology. So, hangers full of secret squadrons all around the country and globe containing wonder planes....not likely. One type here or there doing some testing? More likely because they've demonstrated a tendency much more in this direction.

There probably aren't enough hangers or runways at Groom or TTR (and certainly not Dugway or wherever else) to contain and support any sizeable, operable collections of varied "secret" squadrons with routine missions and responsibilities. It would look to be primarily single types, small collections, and models working on a schedule to not conflict and compromise one another.


In Reply to: Re: Just have to ask this. posted by Roadeye on May 28, 2008 at 12:48:29 PST:

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