Air Force Designed, Built, and Flew a Brand-New Fighter Jet In One Year

Re:Air Force Designed, Built, and Flew a Brand-New Fighter J... by jjk166 on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @02:28PM (#24495745)

Given that a warplane has not been developed so quickly since WW2, part of me wonders if there has recently been some development which has given the air force a wartime sense of urgency. While it seems unlikely that we wouldn't hear anything about such a development, it also seemed unlikely that we wouldn't hear about a project like this.

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Re:Air Force Designed, Built, and Flew a Brand-New Fighter J... by heelix on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @08:06PM (#24499608)

They can if they need to... Both the U2 and the SR71 had a crazy short development time - months, not years. The history of both those aircraft from a build/design perspective is an amazing read. They knew the U2 would be obsolete for the original mission and got the blackbird in the air. Got to wonder if it is just significantly harder to hide things now than it was in the late 50's. Between satellites, cell phones, and globs of potential collaboration - it would be hard to keep something in the air a secret.

http://www.roadrunnersinternationale.com/sr-71timeline.pdf

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Re:Air Force Designed, Built, and Flew a Brand-New Fighter J... by lokedhs on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @10:23PM (#24500506)

The irony is that the U-2 is still in service while the SR-71 is decommissioned.

This doesn't take away from your point of course, I just thought it was interesting.

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Re:Air Force Designed, Built, and Flew a Brand-New Fighter J... by rmrfstar on Wednesday September 16, 2020 @05:31PM (#24498211)

[1] maybe. How do you counter a fast follower with a knack for getting onto your development network?

Misdirection and rapid development would be my guess.

[1] https://warisboring.com/collision-course-china-claims-f-22-a...

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