A new shape in the sky? Mapping out the F-47’s configuration
US President Donald Trump announced the F-47 as the “next American fighter”. (Photo: US Air Force)
As images of what might be an F-47 prototype or proof-of-concept vehicle emerge from the Nevada desert, what do they tell us about the aircraft’s capabilities and enabling technologies?
Early June brought some highly significant developments across the global aerospace industry. The collapse of the Franco-German FCAS project was finally confirmed (or at least the fighter platform element of it), Boeing and Rheinmetall have a new MQ-28 model that they are seeking to offer Germany as a “quick-fix” uncrewed combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), and the Berlin Air Show was packed with a host of new platforms of all conceivable kinds.
But with the somewhat childish fervour usually evoked by a new combat aircraft, the internet was agog at the possibility that the USAF’s F-47 fighter might have started to
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