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In a message dated 12/20/2004 1:01:19 PM Central Standard Time, micallahan@worldnet.att.net writes:
<< Yeah, I was very suspect of the droop nose and the big windshield
myself. Not only that, why in the world would this "pilot" have her name on
the side of a prototype and why doesn't it have the usual twelve foot tall
letters of the model number (YF/A-37)? Forward swept elevons? I don't think
so. The clincher was the bottom pic with the guys in the foreground manning
a big movie camera. Mike C.
>>
Not so fast there boys. That is an Air Force camera team. It won't be an "F" anything until after acceptance testing is completed. It will be a YF something until then.
The canopy is the new Buckey strand reinforced Pyrex glass structure. The nose raises up to streamline at cruise (mach 3.8 without AB) it droops for landing like the Concord. The forward swept horizontals and the lack of verticals is part of the shock wave management system. The rudder works split strakes at the wing tips to replicate rudder feel. There are rudder pedals so you can overpower the computers for air shows and such. Normally the feet are in stirrups in the front of the seat pack.
The whole nose is the escape pod. Developed and tested to 40,000 feet by Rutan's Scaled Composites people. The escape pod is flyable and has a range of 50 statute miles. Powered by powdered nitril rubber and nitrous. It has auto pilot and will auto track to the nearest friendly area before deploying the chute. A picture of this thing got out, so they made up the movie story to cover it. Now DOD has to front the movie to throw off the bad guys. It's been flying between Tonopa and Groom Lake every night for a year. There is a guy on that mountain every night with a 16" reflector telescope who says a C-5 leaves there at dusk and this thing lands blacked out around midnight. His guess is that they either take it close by to launch it, or they can launch it right out the back door of the C-5. Pretty cool stuff.
The one on the carrier was the third airframe. The first was the structures test frame so it got bent and vibrated through two lifetimes. It will be repaired and shipped to the AF Museum In Dayton next year. Although it can launch from a carrier it is not what the Navy wanted. So the Naval version will have more wing area and a slightly lower cruise speed, and carry more ordnance. Air frame three is all Air Force
The first flight test airframe is back at Lockheed Burbank for repairs after a fueling fire in October. This will be the follow on to the F-36, the one that can hover. The F-36 replaces the F-22 that just formed its first squadron. Some folks say this one can not only hover, but can leave unimproved locations with full fuel and ordnance load,
by using dropable assist rocket motors in tubes along side the lift fans. Same fans as the F-36. During this carrier event they were just firing those rockets one at a time and filming the effect on the airframe from the epoxy based nonskid surface that is used on all carriers. Also they placed various support equipment nearby to see what effect that would suffer.
How do I know this?
I don't. I just made it up. If you felt real proud there for a minute, Keep right on feeling proud.
This kind of stuff is in the works right now. The looser in the flyoff that the F-22 won is now at the Air Force Museum and it has the rudders laid down almost flat just like the movie plane. The YF-23 I believe. It is just beautiful. Long and snake like. And it flew real well. Just a bit too pricey. The F-36 really does hover, and is the replacement for the F-22.
There is an F-22 at the Museum also. The one that crashed I suspect. Worth the trip to Dayton. One of the top three airplane museums on earth.
This and much more, is coming soon to an air show near you. God bless America.
Lynn E. Hanover
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