crockett, you're thinking of the x-35. it's similar to the f-22 in theory.

the x35 is the 'joint strike fighter' to be adopted by all joints of the military. it includes a model with foldable wings, and also a vtol model (yes, like the harrier).

a friend of mine is in the air force rotc, and they just had a session thingie about the jsf. it's toys and capabilities are mind-boggling. i won't go into detail, but it's quite amazing (if nothing else, the gadgets on the plane are just plain cool).

i think they're looking to implement the x35 in '05. not sure about the 22, it will probably be around fairly soon. it's about time, it's been in development for about 25 years, i believe.

fucking fast little bastards, they are.

Check this shit out

Awsome!:thumbsup

im really into war planes and X-35 will soon rock the airwaves.
check some pix :thumbsup

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita.../x-35-pics.htm

familiar with the electronics in that dirty little bitch? a-fucking-mazing. no wonder it costs so fucking much. it'll be like playing a computer game.

90 million bucks isn't even the half of it..
Do you guys know how much those things cost in fuel? I remember seeing a show on Discovery about the American Fighter jets.. something like 20 000 per hour of flight the fuel costs..

I mean I doubt those things log enough hours to make the fuel more than the actual cost of the plane, but still 100 hours = 2 million dollars in gas money

Sweet, Go USC :thumbsup

Also, according to the program on Discovery I saw last night, the Raptor has technology taken from the Harrier, but can not do vertical takeoffs and landings. The Raptor has an adjustable "tailpipe" that changes the angle of force, which in turn allows it far greater maneouverability such as tighter turns than any other fighter. It can also achieve supersonic speeds without engaging afterburners, making it much harder to spot in the night sky (afterburners cause a bright flare-up). Because of this, the Raptor also uses far less fuel than other fighters.

They also said this Raptor jet can perform so extremely as to excert greater G-force than the human body can withstand, and because of that some say that it may be among the last to be piloted by humans. Will we be seeing robot pilots or remotely-operated planes in ten or twenty years?

im into doing some research on the x-35 right now.
it will be the official U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, and the United Kingdom?s Royal Navy and Royal Air Force with an affordable and stealthy tactical aircraft for the 21st century.


Delivery of the aircraft is scheduled to begin in 2008 and is slated to produce a total of 3,002 aircraft for the US and UK armed forces.

cdsmith... you're talking about thrust vectoring. there are also several unmanned vehicles both in use and upcoming. from what i hear tho, there's no plan in completely removing 'the human element' from certain aircraft. they don't think that a computer could replicate a human under some circumstances.


the x35 is pretty sweet. almost all of the controls and electronics are displayed on (i believe there are 2) touch-screen displays. it removes almost all of the buttons from the cockpit.

the system also has a display in the pilot's helmet which displays everything the pilot sees. it's even built such that the pilot can see through the aircraft, providing essentially full 360deg vision. if the pilot looks at the floor, s/he sees what's under them as it were a window (but there isn't a window).

pretty crazy stuff. i guess it took a bit for the navy to adopt the plane tho, they don't much care for airplanes with one engine.

heh, also the non-US versions of the aircraft will have some 'hinderance' apparently in certain aspects of their operation (i believe mostly stuff like nav, targeting, that sorta thing). however, it's apparently software-controlled lockouts.

wonder how long it will take the brits to figure that out :)

nothing happening for me...but then again i'm not a man at all