9/20/2004: New stealthy fighter prototype [er, movie set]

[Undertoad]

xoxoxoBruce sends this along. His correspondent says

I had not heard about this aircraft. Looks like Joint Strike Fighter competition. The plane in these pictures is air vehicle number 1, a prototype on board the USS Washington for catapult fit checks. Not yet made public, the F/A-37 is a super cruise stealth fighter/bomber/interceptor with a 4000nm range. Top speed is classified, some where in the Mach 4 plus range. Awesome! Also, there is no phase interval for this plane. It has a 10,000 hour life airframe and engines that require replacement only at failure or signs of trouble. Notice: There's a lady in the cockpit.

I've reduced the image size for these, but you can click on them to see the original larger-size images. (Yeah, I wish I had the time to do that every time for IotD.)

[glatt]

Amazing. It's got a very unusual shape. It looks like the wings can change position like the B1. They seem to be swept back for speed in the top picture, and pushed forward for maneuverability in the bottom picture. Hard to tell though, with the camera angle.

[shadow1961]

Wow...it looks too cool to be true, like almost maybe kinda like a movie?
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...raft/fa-37.htm
That's a super-hot pilot though...

[glatt]

Ha! Too funny. That pilot does look a hell of a lot like Jessica Biel. Maybe because it is her.

[lookout123]

wow that is pretty cool looking but the military has generally conceded that swing wings are not the best way to go.

EDIT: note to self, follow all links before commenting. it is movie.

[neuf]

That's funny - I didn't even see the film crew in the photos until I read the comments about it being a film set.

[Undertoad]

D'OH!

Well this is about the third-fourth time I've been head-faked... sheesh. I'll update the title and let the comments stand as yet more proof of IotD's inability to fact-check and ability of its readers to correct it.

[Uryoces]

Chasing down AI-controlled rogue FA-37's? Shit 'Toad, send in Firefox. It's over a Edward's being tested, poked, and prodded. Just remember to think in Russian.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hoo Boy. I should have checked that but he's never let me down before, so I got lax. Sorry UT!

No wait,..it was a test,..yeah that's it, a test to see just how good you people are....wait'll i get my hands on tha.....

[Uryoces]

'Toad, I don't care if it is faked, it's still a cool IOTD.

[xoxoxoBruce]

From Break the Chain; Often, in cases where photos from a movie set are leaked to the public, the pics were either taken by a member of the film's crew and shared with movie buffs via e-mail or blog or the filmmaker intentionally released the photos and the bit of back story to build buzz for their picture (anybody remember a little phenomenon called The Blair Witch Project?). However, in this case, the Navy is the source. The photos were taken by U.S. Navy Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Tyler J. Clements on board the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln and released by the Navy's PR department. The Navy is not, however, the source of the misleading back story most often accompanying the photos.

[Bitman]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

4000 nanometers? That's not very useful, even for a movie set. And ya, I've always had a thing for Jessie, ever since she, um, 'matured' on that TV show.

[xoxoxoBruce]

nm= nautical miles, which is common on Navy aircraft ratings. :p

[tw]

Actually it is a very badly designed fighter. Pilots learned even in Nam that a cockpit without fully round visibility is not a very good fighter. This fighter is the classic example of a bad fighter design. OK for a bomber. Bad as a fighter.

4000 nm. Lets not forget what F-18A/B fighter bombers could do when American aircraft carriers had no offensive abilities. 200 miles. IOW the F-18 could not even attack outside of the carrier's defensive perimeter. Without mid air refueling (which means a nearby friendly land base), the carriers had no offensive ability. 4000 nm is excessively fictional.