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Silverbolt

Boeing unveils new F-15 Silent Eagle

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http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2009/q1/090317a_nr.html

 

more here:

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/...generation.html

 

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewl...tealthy-f-.html

 

i wish my airforce could have this eagle

OMG :blink:

Impressive, when i thought the Strike Eagle were the Last version of this bird, Boeing appears with this....

Edited by Silverbolt

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My mouth has been stuck open since I saw the first picture. If Boeing made a single seat version, USAF could replace F-15Cs with this. Be a cost effective Raptor.

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Beat me to it.

 

I was talking about one of my modeling projects with an aeronautical engineer friend just a few days ago, specifically about the angles of horizontal stabilizers. Anyway, long story short we ended up discussing stealth characteristics and how a 90 degree angle between the horizontal and vertical stabilizers is the worst possible setup as it produces the highest radar return. His example was the F-15, and today the first thing I noticed in these pictures was the redesigned vertical stabilizers.

 

Also, when can we expect a TMF release? :biggrin:

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Wow - didnt see that coming

 

Internal AMRAAM carriage - good

Stealthy coating - good

same frontal RCS as the exported F-35 - find that VERY hard to believe!!!

 

potentially export customers could go for this over the SuperBug

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Holy Cr@p that is the coolest thing ive seen all week. Props goes to the guy who decided to make the Eagle stealthy.........we need to have this badboy ingame (nuffsaid)

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I haven`t seen this coming, first I saw the pics I asked myself.. ok nice but what`s new, then on the second look I saw the internal bays.. damn nice... and interesting concept...

 

I think we need a new Eagle in the series...

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Ooooh pretty! Calling all modders, lol! Seriously though I could see myself flying this thing in the skies of WOV

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Wow - didnt see that coming

 

Internal AMRAAM carriage - good

Stealthy coating - good

same frontal RCS as the exported F-35 - find that VERY hard to believe!!!

 

potentially export customers could go for this over the SuperBug

 

I would say present or upcoming operators of the F-15 are the ones who could go that way. I'm not even surprised if Singapore decided to go this way right now.

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Could it be that the Supa Honet is losing the sales game to Sukhoi and other manufacturers, and Boeing is feeling the pinch?

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Could it be that the Supa Honet is losing the sales game to Sukhoi and other manufacturers, and Boeing is feeling the pinch?

 

That's because most of the ones that can buy the SH are going for the JSF. For others it is a matter of being able the buy the SH as an SH, not an enlarged Hornet.

 

We could have bought them, but a lot happened and I don't think that we'll ever buy them after the switch of Prime Minister, since the incoming PM likes French hardware. A lot.

Edited by kct

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Hmmm, interesting indeed. Imgine if a silent F-16 was initiated ot keep the Viper series going? Definitely for the export market.

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The USAF would be wise to look into some new-build F-15s. There will never be enough F-22s to support all of our commitments.

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This wouldn't be too hard to implement in game...I'd be curious as to what the tails look like...the pics really don't show it that well.

 

Interesting, the missile bay appears to be a pass through...

 

FC

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It's not a V-tail! The fins are just canted out....

 

A V-tail is something like on a YF-23.

 

Upon closer inspection, it looks like the vertical stabs are otherwise the original shape...even the horizontal stab looks the same (dogtooth and everything).

 

You know, it's interesting also that the internal bay carriage (with trapeze rails yet) is removeable...I'm not sure how often that's been done.

 

What's kind of surprising is the research done on the ACTIVE wasn't added to this design. Even if you didn't want canards because of the gun, I would think the 3D nozzles could be added with little to no change to frontal RCS.

 

FC

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It's not a V-tail! The fins are just canted out....

 

A V-tail is something like on a YF-23.

 

Upon closer inspection, it looks like the vertical stabs are otherwise the original shape...

 

Wuh really? Talk about optical illusions, let me check it out again.

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The Silent Eagle poses the same threat to the F-35/F-22 that the Super Phantom and F-4X posed to the F-15.

No matter how cost effective, the improved F-4s were not what the USAF wanted and McDonnell also was more interested in selling new Eagles.

McDonnell was the contractor for the F-4X Mach 3 Phantoms, and they quickly decided not the threaten their own sales by making an F-4 that was in some ways better than the F-15.

Boeing was the contractor proposing the re-engined Super Phantoms, but everyone still wanting to operate F-4s was only willing to spend money on avionics updates knowing that no amount of thrust was going to make old airframes into modern dogfighters.

 

As in the past, I would expect the USAF to do everything in its power to ensure the F-35 wins every contract rather than risk damaging its own plans/budgets for F-22/F-35 aircraft.

A really cheap but effective "Silent Falcon" would absolutely destroy the F-35 market... since Lockheed makes both, you can be sure there won't be any chance of such an in-house F-16 variant unless the F-35 program fails to make sufficient sales.

 

Given the present state of the world, we didn't really need the F-22 and could have gotten by with something like the Silent Eagle.

But the development money has already been spent.

We should buy as many F-22s as possible to drive down the unit cost and provide plenty of spares to operate them for 30+ years the way the Eagles have had to serve.

Of course, the number of F-22s being ordered keeps going down and the unit price keeps going up.

As long as the government is handing out billions of dollars to save industries, they should buy 1 F-22 for each Eagle the USAF has had and 1 F-35 for each F-16.

That would keep a lot of people employed in good paying jobs and give us the USAF a strong fleet of young aircraft.

In some ways, the end of the Cold War ultimately led the US to its current economic situation with massive decreases in spending on both arms and research and development.

 

I can imagine a day when every US citizen has a college degree (just like high school diploma now), but seeing as how there will be few or no engineering and manufacturing jobs, all these people educated at government expense will be standing behind a cash register, flippling a burger, or greeting people at the entrance to Walmart...

Instead, we could continue developing and building the world's best military tanks, artillery, ships, subs, and aircraft, employing millions of people to design, test, build, and operate all of this...

 

Nahh, lets just tax the rich and give handouts to companies and individuals that can't balance their bank accounts.

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What's kind of surprising is the research done on the ACTIVE wasn't added to this design. Even if you didn't want canards because of the gun, I would think the 3D nozzles could be added with little to no change to frontal RCS.

 

FC

 

Probably because of the trade-off (especially in terms of cost) associated with using a TVC engine. No idea about the F-22, but the Flankers flown by us and the Indians did report rather low mean flight time between downtimes.

 

Another interesting thing is that using the -E's CFT as a basic idea means that the FAST pack system would achieve the very objective the idea was came up with in the first place.

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Well, they are working on Eagle v2.0s at the moment, if I heard that correctly.

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I have a feeling that many many nations would opt for the silent eagle over the F-22/35. It is maneuverable fast and capable. It also now gives stealth capabilities at a far cheaper price. I would not be surprised if many of the nations waiting in line for the F-22/35 would switch to the silent eagle instead. Israel would in a heartbeat (instead of the F-35 or possible F-22 contract)

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It's not a V-tail! The fins are just canted out....

 

A V-tail is something like on a YF-23.

 

Upon closer inspection, it looks like the vertical stabs are otherwise the original shape...even the horizontal stab looks the same (dogtooth and everything).

 

You know, it's interesting also that the internal bay carriage (with trapeze rails yet) is removeable...I'm not sure how often that's been done.

 

What's kind of surprising is the research done on the ACTIVE wasn't added to this design. Even if you didn't want canards because of the gun, I would think the 3D nozzles could be added with little to no change to frontal RCS.

 

FC

 

It sure would enhance the maneuverability, but the Mud Hens I've seen flying around don't seem to have too much of a problem as it is, so they probably figured it wasn't worth it.

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There are many USAF Eagles getting AESA radars, yes, but the rest of the plane is staying untouched.

 

This looks like Boeing trying to make the "not quite rich enough or cleared to get Raptors" crowd. They could redesign the canopy seam, too, but it looks like they didn't. I wonder what the criteria were for how far they would go changing it? They don't mention any intake blockers like the Super Hornet has, and I would think the F-15 would be in big need of those.

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Ok, so we've got 2 threads about this now...

 

As I stated in the other one, just canting the vertical tails will do little to make it stealthy aside from broadside. In head-on engagements nothing has changed. An intake blocker ala Super Hornet is badly needed to fix that.

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