“During the flight evaluations of the YF-22 and the [Northrop-McDonnell-Douglas] YF-23 the Lockheed design was picked as the ‘winner,’ but this was despite the fact that the prototype airplane did not demonstrate stealth, did not have a working radar or avionics suite for testing, and did not supercruise. So, all that was really evaluated and ‘won’ the fly-off was an aerodynamic paint job,” said US aviation and stealth technology analyst Jim Stevenson.

Is he serious? Avionics suites were demonstrated using the Boeing airliner testbeds. The prototypes DID supercruise. They were RCS tested. Credibility of this guy…fading.

Which part of “Military Aviation” does this thread cover? Why do members on here contine to post this rubbish in the Aviation section?

Read the rules people….

[color=red]Exactly. Thread locked. Next offense is the fourth point for the thread starter as well. Serious political discussions may be handled in General Discussion.[/color]

Using afterburner to get through the sound barrier is not supercruising. That’s just supersonic cruise.

I thought Concorde had to use afterburners to accelerate?

They weren’t supposed to be one-way.

They’d have had IFR support and would have carried at least one internal tank in the forward bay (there was a tank which could be fitted in there once the bulkhead was slid forward to accomodate the ALCM rotary lancher). Were AGM-129s able to be carried internally on the Bone? If not then that’s the reason for supersonic certification.

Either a low or high level supersonic dash to the release point? If they want to hit targets deep inland they might want to be high and fast to minimize the reaction times of SAM or interceptor units along the periphery of Russia.

Good question. Top-end speed unloaded was a bit faster at Mach 2.2 compared to the BLACKJACK’s Mach 2.05, but once you add payload it’d have been interesting to see which would have been faster.

Family Guy is hilarious. The Simpsons was as good at one point but it has become a bit stale. Did you guys know that Cleveland is getting his own spinoff show? They’re also doing an Empire Strikes Back parody as well.