F/B-38

[Spey_Phantom]

pictures are expected tomorow  B)

Back History

after the retirement of the F-111 in 1995 and the SR-71 in 2001, the USAF didnt seem to satisfied with the low altitude strike capabilities of the F-15E and the recce capability of its Global Hawks. both of them were not fast enough, didnt have a verry large range and were to unreliable for there roles.

in 2002, the US goverment set up a request for a decent, high speed, long range fighter-bomber, that would have the penetration capability greater then the F-111, the speed of the SR-71 and a range of up to 50000 miles without refeuling. besides that, it would also have to have decent air-air capability, something the F-111 lacked. 5 companies submitted there designes, but in 2004, the Northrop-Boeing proposal was selected to fullfil the requirement.

Northrop looked back to the swing-wing capabilities of the F-111 and the F-14, while boeing looked at a long, pen shaped, stealthy fuselage. the project was originaly named XBP-552, but later recieved its operational designation F/B-38 "Penetraitor". the first prototype took to the air in 2007, and the first exaples entered service in 2010, over 350 aircraft were build of witch 20 specialised RF-38 "Blackbird II" recce aircraft for spy flights à la SR-71.

The Model

build out of the rear fuselage of the crappy1/144 Minicraft Mig-23 and the front fuselage of the 1/144 revell TF-104. The tailplanes of the model were taken from my sparesbox.

Capabilities

max Speed: Mach 3.01
min speed: Mach 0.3
Range: 48900 miles
max altitude: 200000 feet
weight empty: 50000lbs
weight full: 80000lbs

[K5054NZ]

Sounds (and looks) like a brilliant idea! Bring on tomorrow, I want to see the build!  

[B777LR]

   

Its a typical menacing beutiful design from nils, of course incorporating belgian roundels and a starfighter!      :ar:        :f16:  

[John Howling Mouse]

I wanna know how you get the nearly 50,000 Mile range out of it!!!

Nuclear-powered?

[anthonyp]

I wanna know how you get the nearly 50,000 Mile range out of it!!!

Nuclear-powered?

Moonshine!  I bet it's Moonshine!

I like the looks of it, though.

[Spey_Phantom]

I wanna know how you get the nearly 50,000 Mile range out of it!!!

Nuclear-powered?

actually if you look at the pictures, you can see that the americans managed to get back at there russian reverce engineering friends, by reverse engineering the Klimov RD-31 with TVC, but the perfected it by adding a Feul Reconcumpion Filter(FRF) witch makes the engine drive at a normal pace but with 70% less feulburn.

the pictures are in and here they are, the model is painted in USAF markings and the swing wings are fully functional.