I miss the pictures!

Did Google Earth Just Unveil Lockheed’s Mysterious Mach-6 Spy Plane? (PHOTO) post #4528

This object is presumably a RCS test article because itˋs on an RCS test range, not on an airfield.

There are three main reasons why there has been a requirement in the past for a two seater.
1. Trainer
2. Information Management
3. Situational Awareness

1. Trainer – 5th gen fighters to date have been easier to fly than their predecessors so type-specific airborne training has not been needed.

2. Information management (aka RIO) – In the days of Federated sensors that fed raw data to the crew, a RIO was needed to sift through the data, compare information, and manage the systems. Modern computers can do that automatically now.

3. Situational Awareness – In previous generations it was difficult for the on-board systems to determine what was around the fighter, both in the air and on the ground. It required a 2nd crewman to help build a picture of the battlefield and present it to the crew. Modern systems like FLIR, HMDS, EODAS, datalinks, etc allow that information to be gathered, classified, and presented tot he pilot without the need to manually process it.

Sorry, but I think you forgot the main reason:

– costs

Flying at 20 degrees

In AIR International July 2015 I read in there F-22 Raptor supplement on page 55:
“It can cruise at 40’000ft at Mach 1,2 with the nose heading 20 degrees off the course of travel …”

This is difficult to understand for me. What do you think about that?
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Would be delighted to see the source of that image. Thx in advance!

But first thing that come in mind is the lack of the Rocket accelerator and the 3D layout of the engines arrangement.

Last but not least, it’s a SCramjet

Picture is from Aviation Week, here

I think the original article by Sweetman mentioned of a technology for integrating Turbofan+Scramjet in the same engine.

Sweetman, at least in his book, supossed a RBCCE (ROCKET based combined cycle engine) not TBCC like in this SR-72 project

This has been discussed weeks befor in this forum, see here:

please use the search engine before open a new thread of an old topic!

Switzerland to pay less for Grippen than Sweden

according to the swiss paper Tagesanzeiger (here), Switzerland will pay 100 M SFr. for 1 Grippen, opposit to Sweden which will have to pay 115 – 130 M SFr. (depending on equipement).