USAF Mods Necessity

[Daryl J.]

Carbon fibre Albatros D.V parasol winged fighters,   oooh-rah!


:f16:
Daryl J.

[jcf]

Carbon fibre Albatros D.V parasol winged fighters,   oooh-rah!


:f16:
Daryl J.

With Toyota engines.    

[jcf]

Age is rather meaningless as military aircraft design pretty much reached a plateau in the 1970s. Stealth, along with material and electronics improvements, has made some difference but it is a matter of incremental rather than revolutionary change. Thirty plus year old designs can compete quite well in most arenas.

As Jennings pointed out it is also a matter of airframe hours versus chronological age, the other thing to remember is the high level of the engineering and construction that by the late 1960s had become the norm with jet aircraft, properly maintained some designs could last almost indefinitely.

There is no pressing need for an 'all new' fleet, and any attempt to create such an animal would no doubt result in the waste of massive amounts of money and the creation of some absolute dogs.

Cheers, Jon

[Shasper]

The B-52 & A-10 are testiments to the way an aircraft *should* be designed (ie with alot of airframe hrs built in due to almost over-building). All you need to do for these types if shove new electronic guts in & strap-on new engines. If the wheel aint broke then why try to fix it?

Having said that, if for whatever reason the JSF didnt make it (not turning this into a rant here guys, **just a hypotheses**), I could see the AF getting blk 52+ or blk 60 Vipers, maybe with some core stuff from the F-22 or F-35 thrown in for good measure. The EC/RC-135s will need replacing soon, along with the E-8s (now that the E-10 is FUBARd), I think a 67 or Trip-7 based design would work, along with some of those nifty E-767s as a AWACS replacement.

After that, there aint too much except the B-1/B-2, Beagle replacements.

Shas B)  

[elmayerle]

If the USAF buys F-16E/Fs (Block 60 F-16s), it could get *real* interesting because the development of those was a strictly commerical transaction between LM Aero and UAE, the USAF was not involved and would likely have to pay some sort of royalties to UAE.  Heck, they're still in a mod program to bring all of their Block 50/52 aircraft up to the level of the late-model Block 50/52+ aircraft such as those sold to Greece, Chile, Poland, et al.

[GeorgeC]

Three critical elements required to solve this problem - money, money and errrr... money.

[Archibald]

Oh Mr. Jennings...I think we need an A-380 bomber profile...

HA!  Scarebus Industrie can't even seem to get their fecal matter consolidated enough to deliver a simple passenger airplane.  And today I read that they've officially shelved any further work on the A380F (from which said bomber would undoubtedly be derived).  Saying you're going to deliver in 2006, then saying "Uh, le woops... regrettons - we cannot deliver your aeroplane until 2012" isn't a good way to win friends and influence people

Do I detect a slight hint of schadenfreude in the air??

J

         

[B777LR]

MY idea of the USAF in 10-20 years:

250 F-35A
100 F-35D (2 seater)
40 EF-35A (ECM)
100 F/A-35E (2 seat strike fighter)
200 F-22A
100 F-22B
50 E/F/A-22C (2 seat strike, ECM fighter/bomber)
75 KC-767B (GEnX engines)
50 KC-777LRF
3 VC-787/VC-27 (AF1)
3 VC-777-200LR/VC-28 (AF1)
3 Sonic Cruisers/VC-26 (AF1)
30 E-767B (GEnX engines)
250 C-130J
50 C-130L
50 AC-130J
5 AC-130L
200 C-17A
30 B-1E
50 B-1F
100 B-2D (new builds, upgraded, longer range of 21000 km)
35 Su-35 (aggressors)
20 of those airborne laser thingies
1000 AQ-4E Global Hawks
60 X-45 J-UCAVs (more to be delivered)
200 HH-47
200 US-101
400 CH-53K
200 AH-53K
150 HH-53K
30 E-10A
20 B-52X (4 Rolls Royce RB-211s, 2 man crew, glass cockpit, winglets)

And the RDAF:
30 JAS-39
15 EH-101
5 C-130L
5 C-130J
2 C-17B
5 C-27L
20 EMB-314 Super Tucano+
15 Future Lynx
10 NH90
2 737 BBJs (for when mary decides to visit australia)
3 C-604 Challengers (VIP jet)

[Archibald]

3 VC-787 (AF1)

nope, future of AF1 lies in the Sonic Cruiser (if only I managed to paint it   )

[B777LR]

3 VC-787 (AF1)

nope, future of AF1 lies in the Sonic Cruiser (if only I managed to paint it   )

Actually, he sonic cruiser, like the 747, cant land at smaller airports in the US, thus 787 had to be aquired for these flights  

[frank2056]

I remember seeing a picture of a B-52 model with Star Trek nacelles under the wings. It was a funny commentary on the longevity of the B-52.

It was either a 1/72 Monogram B-52 with the nacelles from the 18" AMT Enterprise, or a 1/144 scale model with the nacelles from the original 3 ship adversary set.


Frank  

[B777LR]

Had the E-10 (J-Star) been produced, a AWACS follow on & the various RC/EC 135 replacements would have followed.

Shas B)

One E-10 will be delivered in november. But only 1.  

[Shasper]

Thats a negative Ghostrider, the AF canned that program last month, they're now going to try and shove the new array into the E-8

Shas B)  

[elmayerle]

A small correction, B777LR; the F-35B is the stovl variant for the USMC and RAF.  Any two-seater would be at least a F-35D (*chuckle* this would follow the 'numbering convention' we joke about at work: A for Asphalt (CTOL), B for Beach (Stovl), & C for Carrier (CV) - to this we'd add D for Dual).  I suspect they'd use the larger wing of the F-35C for a two-seater to keep the wing loading as low as possible with the extra weight of a second seat.

[GeorgeC]

Any two-seater would be at least a F-35D (*chuckle* this would follow the 'numbering convention' we joke about at work: A for Asphalt (CTOL), B for Beach (Stovl), & C for Carrier (CV) - to this we'd add D for Dual).

Would that be a 2-seat version of the A or the C?  I guess a dual version of the B might  be a bit noisy in the rear seat