Northrop X-47A once a manned design

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Empire

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The X-47A Pegasus sure looks like it was taken from a manned design. Also Northrop sure got the UCAV designed, built, and flown very quickly. By my estimates it took Boeing close to 5 years to get the X-45A designed to flight testing and thats with Bird of Prey experience factored in. It only took Northrop 3 years from contract to first flight for the X-47A.
CammNut has stated in the topic Boeing X-45C Phantom Ray, X-46 UCAS/ UCAS-D page 1 when talking about the Boeing X-45N and I quote "The hump ( on the x-45n) ahead of the inlet is reminiscent of Northrops X-47A Pegasus, which was based on a manned tailless aircraft design developed around the time of AFRL's FATE studies" end quote. So I think FATE was in the 1996-97 time frame. That statement doesn't say it was part of FATE just developed around that time, could there have been a secret study for a tailless replacement for the F-117 that the Bird of Prey was also part of??


Is there any information on this manned version of the X-47A or the program it was from?
 

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As I recall it TOOK FOREVER to get the X-47B into the air. -SP
 
Empire said:
The X-47A Pegasus sure looks like it was taken from a manned design. Also Northrop sure got the UCAV designed, built, and flown very quickly. By my estimates it took Boeing close to 5 years to get the X-45A designed to flight testing and thats with Bird of Prey experience factored in. It only took Northrop 3 years from contract to first flight for the X-47A.
CammNut has stated in the topic Boeing X-45C Phantom Ray, X-46 UCAS/ UCAS-D page 1 when talking about the Boeing X-45N and I quote "The hump ( on the x-45n) ahead of the inlet is reminiscent of Northrops X-47A Pegasus, which was based on a manned tailless aircraft design developed around the time of AFRL's FATE studies" end quote. So I think FATE was in the 1996-97 time frame.
Is there any information on this manned version of the X-47A or the program it was from?
Click to expand...


The X-47A was designed and built by Northrop Grumman and Scaled Composites. The design grew out of earlier FATE/ICE studies, but was otherwise not directly related to FATE/ICE.


The X-47A was internally funded by NG. One of the primary objectives of the project was to demonstrate that NG could quickly design, build, and fly a proof of concept aircraft.


Empire said:
That statement doesn't say it was part of FATE just developed around that time, could there have been a secret study for a tailless replacement for the F-117 that the Bird of Prey was also part of??
Click to expand...


I don't see how that is connected to the X-47A. Can you elaborate?
 
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The X-47A was designed and built by Northrop Grumman and Scaled Composites. The design grew out of earlier FATE/ICE studies, but was otherwise not directly related to FATE/ICE.
Click to expand...

I'm saying in the statement by CammNut it sounded like it wasn't part of the FATE program, so maybe it was another secret program that the design came from. So it grew out of FATE studies but was not directly related. OK Did they test the design manned? or was it just a study.
Talk about rapid prototyping that was fast design, build, test, write software, debug software, first flight. To me seems like they had done a lot of that already possibly in the manned version CammNut mentioned.
Maybe another Technology Demonstration program.
 
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Empire said:
The X-47A was designed and built by Northrop Grumman and Scaled Composites. The design grew out of earlier FATE/ICE studies, but was otherwise not directly related to FATE/ICE.

I'm saying in the statement by CammNut it sounded like it wasn't part of the FATE program, so maybe it was another secret program that the design came from. So it grew out of FATE studies but was not directly related. OK Did they test the design manned? or was it just a study.
Click to expand...

Most of the FATE/ICE work focused on unmanned or optionally manned designs.
There is no information to indicate that FATE/ICE directly resulted in manned test aircraft. There may have been unmanned demonstrator aircraft related to FATE/ICE.

Empire said:
Talk about rapid prototyping that was fast design, build, test, write software, debug software, first flight. To me seems like they had done a lot of that already possibly in the manned version CammNut mentioned.
Maybe another Technology Demonstration program.
Click to expand...



X-47A was rolled out in 2001 and did not fly until 2003. There was press coverage of the first flight, but there is no public information about subsequent flights (if any).


Again, I am not seeing the connection to the F-117 or Bird of Prey.
 
In regards to the F-117 and BOP I guess I was just hoping there was a secret replacement program for the F-117. It would be nice to see something based off the BOP or this X-47A design that was manned. Thats all.


The X-47A looks like it would be a good manned design! Add a cockpit, enlarge the air frame a little, add bomb bays, and a stealthy exhaust, oh well a guy can dream.
 
Empire said:
In regards to the F-117 and BOP I guess I was just hoping there was a secret replacement program for the F-117. It would be nice to see something based off the BOP or this X-47A design that was manned. Thats all.
Click to expand...

The F-117 was intended to fly for many more years. The fleet went through a series of upgrades not long before the order to retire was issued. It's very unlikely that there was a replacement program other than the F-22 or JSF.
Empire said:
The X-47A looks like it would be a good manned design! Add a cockpit, enlarge the air frame a little, add bomb bays, and a stealthy exhaust, oh well a guy can dream.
Click to expand...


While the configuration was very RF stealthy, the payload was not very good and the takeoff and landing speed was high. X-47A was advertised as a proof of concept/demonstrator vehicle for the UCAS-N requirements - which it was not well suited for. The differences between the X-47A and X-47B addressed those shortcomings while sacrificing some of the RF signature. A manned X-47A may not do very well.
 
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For fun, here are some very quick, dirty and somewhat disproportionate mockups of what it might vaguely have looked like with a cockpit - the intake curvature of it's side profile is actually extremely similar to the F-35's cockpit:



 
Dragon029 said:
For fun, here are some very quick, dirty and somewhat disproportionate mockups of what it might vaguely have looked like with a cockpit - ...
Click to expand...

Well done indeed !
I'm already curious, when and where your work will turn up as a prove of "the manned concept
demonstrator", probably mentioned then as the cause of several "mysterious sightings" ! ;)
BTW, the lates AI issue has an artist impression showing a Boeing F/A-XX both in a manned an
unmanned version.
 
Jemiba said:
Dragon029 said:
For fun, here are some very quick, dirty and somewhat disproportionate mockups of what it might vaguely have looked like with a cockpit - ...
Click to expand...

Well done indeed !
I'm already curious, when and where your work will turn up as a prove of "the manned concept
demonstrator", probably mentioned then as the cause of several "mysterious sightings" ! ;)
BTW, the lates AI issue has an artist impression showing a Boeing F/A-XX both in a manned an
unmanned version.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I made sure I added subtle "Faked by Dragon029" watermarks onto both images for that very purpose - if you see them reciprocated elsewhere for the wrong reasons, feel free to point them out ;)
 
Hi Dragon 029 great work!!!


I Have a post in the Alternate History section called Thought experiment Boeing Bird of Prey where I have tried to draw a cross between a Bird of prey and a X-45B to make an operational BOP. I was wondering if you could try to photo shop the two designs together?


Thanks Empire
 
No worries Empire - unfortunately there weren't many images online of the BOP and X-45B that aligned, but there was one pair that made good enough candidates, and so here is the end-result:

0Y9k01x.jpg
 
oh my god !!! Dragon 029 that is sweet looking. Thank you i've been obsessed with the BOP for years. I think it was a big mistake on the governments part not to make a fighter bomber out of the BOP design. If you don't mind I'm going to add it to my post I mentioned earlier.
 
Great concept aircraft,i love the x-47a,it looks so real.




best regards


Pedro
 
Superb @Dragon029 the X-47 could be a 6th/7th generation fighter in that 2nd picture.
I have a strange fondness for the X-45 and that BX-45-OP hybrid has a real air of menace with that front. Nice one.
 

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