New X-Plane announced! X-56A

[piginapoke]

I wonder how long it will take for a model to appear. Not much details yet, so let's see.


USAF Reveals Latest X-Plane: X-56A | AVIATION WEEK


New X-Plane Will Test Light Structures | AVIATION WEEK

Cheers

Robin

[mchale]

There will be more UFO sighting in and around area 51 now

[Texman]

Just because it was just announced, does not mean its new. Coming from the skunkworks, I would bet it has been around for awhile now.

[billy.leliveld]

Nice Robin, thanks for the heads up

[Texman]

My apologies for neglecting the thank you!!

[murphyaa]

I don't want to sound negative, but another unmanned flying wing? Wake me up when they develop a new fighter. Preferably with 3 engines in a triangular formation at the rear, and wings in an inverted Y :-P

[John Bowden]

I agree with Murph............ sheez, no one can come up with a new idea these days..............blah, blah, blah, flying wing....... blah, blah, blah, no pilot.............. kinda reminds me of when those guys said that a plane did not need a gun, and missile would kill everything "beyond visiual range"

Yeah right.............

You know if they are letting NASA use it, its been around for awhile........ those guys can not keep anything secret........... way, way too many contract workers and too many press cameras.

Oh........ these are my opinions, please save negative comments until we can meet face to face..........ok? And thanks for the post and link....... I had not seen it yet or just over-looked it.

john

[murphyaa]

Another negative thought. I have a book on aviation history that was written in 1977. Reading it, I've come to realize that there haven't been any new breakthroughs in flight since then.

Vectored thrust? The Harrier (mentioned in the book)
Fly by wire? F-16 (Also mentioned in the book, though they show the prototype and mention "future orders"

They even mention unmanned flying drones. (Though they call them automated flying vehicles).

Is it just me, or has aviation gotten kinda...boring?

[billy.leliveld]

I'm with you Aaron, if you count back from 2012 the same number of years from 1977, you end up in 1942, so in that period we had jet-planes, rocket planes, the soundbarier,the space program, flight to the moon, Sr 71's U2's,
And in the last decade we abandoned commercial super-sonic flight and the space-shuttle, ok there was a thingie that went Mach 7, but it got lost...and we are still waiting for mr Branson to get into space...That JSF doesn't seem to be doing what it should, I wouldn't say boring, but different.....
We need more of these kinda guys;
http://www.nfb.ca/film/defender

[HMCS]

I dont like to brag,.. but I can sustain over 20g's while playing flight sim!