Author: Rainbow Kursk
The "Star Wars" series of movies can be said to have influenced generations of people, and in the sixth generation of fighters currently announced by the United States Air Force, the shadow of the space fighter in "Star Wars" was actually seen, and it is obvious that the designer is a standard Star Wars fan!
Recently, the biennial procurement report submitted by the U.S. Air Force for the first time appeared a new concept map of the "Next Generation Air Superiority" fighter (NGAD), opening a corner of the mystery of the U.S. sixth-generation fighter development program.
According to the report, the development of the NGAD fighter is aimed at developing an integrated air combat platform with multi-domain perception, highly sensitive communications and penetrating air superiority, further strengthening the Air Force's air superiority combat capabilities, and eventually replacing the F-22 Raptor fighter, which is the pioneer of the fifth generation fighter. According to the US media and related observation reports, at least one prototype or demonstration aircraft has been manufactured for test flight.
Image: U.S. Air Force "Next Generation Air Superiority" fighter (NGAD) concept art.
This time, the US Air Force directly released the new concept map of NGAD in the procurement report, allowing people to have a more intuitive understanding of this sixth-generation aircraft.
As we can see from the concept art, the Air Force version of the NGAD is a huge wing-body fusion diamond fighter that looks like the Rebel T-47 Snow Fighter that appeared in the Star Wars Episode II: Empire Strikes Back movie.
Image: T-47 Snow Fighter from Star Wars Episode II: The Empire Strikes Back.
The T-47 was a small flying craft used by the Rebels on The Star Of Hoss.
It was converted from the T-47 flying boat and made significant changes to be able to adapt to the icy climate of Hoth.
The T-47 was loaded with two front-firing laser cannons, followed by a harpoon gun firing high-intensity towing cables, operated by two people, a pilot, and a tail gun shooter with a face facing back.
From the appearance, it looks very much like a flying squirrel gliding on all fours. The "Next Generation Air Superiority" fighter (NGAD) announced by the United States this time is also a flying wing structure like this flying squirrel.
Image: Cross-sectional view of the T-47 Snow Fighter.
Back to the "Next Generation Air Superiority" fighter (NGAD),
The aircraft's bubble cockpit is located in front of the fuselage, and the large engine intakes on both sides are placed above the wings.
The most unique thing is that the two vertical tails can be folded down and flush with the main wing, so that the aircraft can be deformed in both the state of having a vertical tail and no vertical tail, which can be said to be another huge innovation after the variable swept wing in the field of aerodynamic layout.
This design is also similar to the wing variant design of the Resistance T-65B X-wing Starfighter, which also appeared in the Star Wars movies.
Image: The X-wing fighter organic wing opens and closes in two modes, and the next generation of the US military fighter also adopts this design.
Science fiction is people's "fantasy" about the future development of science and technology, but this fantasy is not a fantasy of imagination, but an inference made in line with certain laws of scientific development under the current cognitive conditions.
In fact, there are many products of science fiction that are finally realized, such as submarines, airplanes, moon landing plans, etc., which once existed only in science fiction works.
And now, even the weapon design in "Star Wars" has slowly become a reality, making science fiction fans and military fans feel very emotional!