Boeing revealed a 6th generation fighter concept in a short video released by the Phantom Works division, dedicated to advanced projects.
The video highlights the need for digital solutions for the design and production of new generations of military aircraft, something that Boeing has used as in the T-7A supersonic trainer project.
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Unmanned aircraft such as the MQ-28 Ghost Bat and the MQ-25 Stingray, a carrier-based aerial refueling plane, are shown in the clip.
It is in a short two-second excerpt that a conceptual fighter appears that resembles the characteristics expected by the replacement for the F-22 Raptor in the US Air Force (USAF).
At first, the video shows the structure of the hypothetical stealth plane and then a brief rendering in flight.
As with several other layouts shown in recent years, Boeing’s fighter has no tail. The air intakes for the two engines are behind the cockpit while the wings have extensions around the fuselage.
The engine nozzles are not vectorable like the Raptor. The lower part of the aircraft is quite flat but the computer graphics do not provide details about the position of a possible weapons compartment.
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Next Generation Air Dominance
Publishing artistic concepts of advanced aircraft is common among U.S. military aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.
Most of the time they are just drafts on the real projects developed by them. In this case, Phantom Works emphasizes digital design capability, an indispensable requirement to accelerate development and allow for updates in a short time.
The US Air Force is moving forward with the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which will give rise to the 6th generation fighter in the coming years.
The stealth aircraft has already had a conceptual model tested in flight, but the USAF has so far not clarified how it was built and by which company.
What is known so far is that Northrop Grumman will not participate in the competition to choose the future supplier of the aircraft, leaving Lockheed Martin and Boeing as likely candidates.
Via The Aviationist
