What's out there...Air power

[[JiF]KellysHero]

So I'm watching "Secrets of Future Airpower" on Discovery HD. They are talking about the F22 Raptor as well as the F-35, but what's really out there? The F117 and B1 were in service for quite some time before they were introduced to the public, so I have a feeling the F22 and F35 aren't the end all be all. The last rumor I read about, and this was a while ago, was about the "Aurora", a hyper-sonic plane that was being developed. The only 'glimpse' of it was a series of sonic booms caught by seizmic sensors at one part of England followed by a series of sonic booms caught the same way a long ways away a very short time later.

So any other rumors or thoughts?

[[JiF]Ziggy]

Well, there's the "Polecat" but that's a UAV. Then there is also the "A-17" but of course there's no real evidence of it's existence. However, if you just look back to what was current when say, the U2 or SR71 were flying and compare that to what we know is flying now, then the stuff we *don't* know about is likely to be amzing indeed

[[JiF]Sly Gambit]

So I'm watching "Secrets of Future Airpower" on Discovery HD. They are talking about the F22 Raptor as well as the F-35, but what's really out there? The F117 and B1 were in service for quite some time before they were introduced to the public, so I have a feeling the F22 and F35 aren't the end all be all. The last rumor I read about, and this was a while ago, was about the "Aurora", a hyper-sonic plane that was being developed. The only 'glimpse' of it was a series of sonic booms caught by seizmic sensors at one part of England followed by a series of sonic booms caught the same way a long ways away a very short time later.

So any other rumors or thoughts?

If there's anything 'out there' that is under development it's going to be either an unmanned bomber or much more likely a reusable 'space delivery vehicle' which might include your 'Aurora'. The biggest concern right now for the air force is space deliver and space defense. There's absolutely no need to create a new, manned bomber and the public would go apeshit if they did. Keep in mind all of the current fleet were conceived to face off against the USSR. Anything in development today would be focused on China or low-key regional flareups. If China and the US went toe-to-toe it's entirely too easy for them to take out our sats and for NASA or the AF to be unable to replace the lost sats quickly enough. That has to be the #1 concern for the AF.

There might be a program to replace the SR-71 as a manned/unmanned long-range recon to act as a 'backup' to satellite systems since most wargames with China include scenarios where they blow out our sats pretty quickly. That probably includes test vehicles that include scramjet tech and other new ideas but the airforce isn't going to waste money putting any of them in production when they are having trouble finding the scratch to put F22s in the air..