Sixth generation fighter prototype secretly fielded for USAF

Almost sounds like a "Skunk Works" type of aircraft build. Those always seem to fly well and work as designed.

In this day and time.... With all he Blabber mouths... how did they keep this a secret for an entire year.... Great Job...

"The NGAD, in contrast, was first designed and tested digitally before it was physically built." Not sure on that point, having worked in those industry(s) since the F-22 development in the 80's , everything is mocked up digitally and extensively analyzed and tested before anything is 'physically built'.... Hopefully the NGAD shares more of the F-22's flight characteristics, and none of the F-35's.... For reference, remember the SR-71 was designed in the 50's when most planes had reciprocating engines and a cruise speed of about 250kts....... It flew well beyond mach 3 and 80,000 feet......

hope it doesn't take 15 years to get it right like the F35... oh wait, the F35 still isn't quite right.. and, after all this time I bet the Chinese and Russians know more abut the F35 than we do...still, if this is a "skunk works" project maybe it will go a lot faster... seems the AF always wants to add unproven tech and gold-plate everything... hope this one pans out quickly for our fly boys and girls!

Send your old junk up here to Canada!!
We are still crashing our Widow Makers!!

The Have Blue program tested, built and flew the F-117 in secret, even if it took more than a year. With the advent of digital design, there is no reason why such could not happen for a new aircraft, and in less time.

Has to be skunk works, and i expect it to be splendid. Chinese and Russians ought to be more than a little concerned. The secrecy is unusual- no warning, no bragging in advance, so we all get to see the wisdom of the new means of design, production, testing and deployment. Maybe the nickname "zorro" would be correct....

Does anyone actually believe this? It take a committee at least a year to come up with the specifications. Then once the prototype is started the brass will change their mind on what they want. I'm highly skeptical that this is true.

Stealth Fighter and Stealth Bomber were also built in secrecy.

Can't wait to see how this thing looks like. Who knows, it may help explain a lot of the late "UFO" sightings LOL

"The NGAD, in contrast, was first designed and tested digitally before it was physically built."

As someone else here has said, "in contrast" is a crock of feces. They should rephrase with something like "using the latest software/hardware technology.

This thing better be UAV-able or it will be obsolete before it is produced in numbers. UAVs have the potential ability to loiter for a longer amount of time AND sustain maneuvers that humans cannot endure.

With technology where it is today in 2020 it would be almost unfathomable that we would seek to build another manned fighter aircraft when that cost could be better spent on increasing a UAV's capabilities. And we're not talking drones here, we're talking about human decisions still being made, but just being made in an air-conditioned safe room somewhere with X-Box controllers instead of from within the cockpit whilst enduring G forces.

Did anyone else notice the movie clip is mainly of NAVY operations of Navy aircraft?

It’s good to see that people can still keep secrets.

As to the technology, digital modeling and simulation capabilities have been growing dramatically across the board, so it’s reasonable to assume that they have done so in the aerospace world.

Remember FS 1.0 on the IBM PC in the mid 80’s? Compare to recently released FS 2020...and that’s with a video game on a PC. Imagine the power of equipment in a lab with networks of specialized computers!

The better you can model, the less flight test is needed, and the fewer problems will occur during that flight test.
Also, it’s a lot easier to keep a simulated flight out of public view than a real one.

Bottom line is that I find this very believable.

So they're already building the replacement for the F-35. Good. Now maybe they'll get those pieces of junk off the line and work on something that can fight.

Hopefully we just stole the design from the Chinese ...

Hope the cost per flight hour is better than the F-35. At $44,000 per flight hour for the F-35 plus the cost to build, about $89.2 .million this sounds like it might actually be more cost effective.
https://www.pogo.org/analysis/2019/11/deceptive-pentagon-math-tries-to-obscure-100-million-price-tag-for-f-35/

Wouldn't be surprised at all if this 6th gen thingy is triangle-shaped.

Why Area 51, groom lake, skunkworx which is the publicity shot venue for nutters? What about Area 6 where the real secret stuff is.

US announce new jet.
rusha and china spies expose theirselves trying to find new jet.
rusha and chana spend billions to start new jet program.
US sits back and watches what rusha and china build.
US reverse engineers rusha and china design.
pay backs are heck.
paul gilpin goes on amazon. buys sixth generation jet. prime delivery.

Why not. They aren't paying for it. Just add it to the deficit. Brilliant...

Russia and China are already looking for some American that will take a million or two to sell out the country and get the plans. After all this is the USA and nothing matters but money that I get in order to buy a big house and a M-B.

You may recall that Putin recently gave the Turks a new missile defense system last year. It is designed to identify and destroy F-35 fighters. It came out before the F-35 fighter did! Look on the bright side. The F-35 looks pretty at air shows and might be able to do a job in some primitive 3rd world countries. Let's hope this new fighter is a little more 'unannounced'.

One year from the drawing board to flight testing? Yeah, right.