FB-22 continued...


Message posted by Magoo on August 10, 2002 at 4:26:41 PST:

As the other FB-22 thread was a couple of weeks old, I thought I'd start a new one.

I just read the Pop Sci article by Bill Sweetman on the FB-22. If nothing else, the illustrations are excellent and show incredible promise, however I can't help but think that anything operational that might come from the concept is at least 10-12 years away, unless it already exists in the 'black' world!

The F-22 has had a long and often painful gestation, and I can't see an FB- version being any simpler to perfect, although I concede that much of the software and avionics would be inherited from the fighter version.

Will a new advanced manned aircraft be viable in 2015, or will unmanned F-45Bs and F-47Bs be doing all the 'day-one' work by then, with more conventional aircraft doing the mopping up afterwards? I can't see them plowing billions more into an aircraft that will eventually be more than 80% different to its parent design (i.e. therefore giving little cost or operational advantage to basing it on the F-22 design in the first place), while UCAVs are advancing in leaps and bounds.

Magoo


Replies:



[ Discussion Forum Index ] [ FAQ ]