Boeing Phantom Works unveiling on 19th?

[chopper2004]

Any thoughts on this early xmas present?



https://pbs.twimg.com/ext_tw_video_thumb/941337116004450304/pu/img/TsLB1RJX5Paz-Cq3.jpg


Cheers

[TURIN]

Well that's 2 minutes of my life I won't get back.Thanks.

[ORAC]

Boeing MQ-25 Stingray prototype.

[Just This Once...]

Latest gynaecology chair?

[Fonsini]

Military aviation is becoming more like a car show. Will 2 very attractive young ladies in bikinis be pulling off the black chiffon ?

[woptb]

Military aviation is becoming more like a car show. Will 2 very attractive young ladies in bikinis be pulling off the black chiffon ?. Is the ‘Black Chiffon’ a new super hero?

[George K Lee]

"Will 2 very attractive young ladies in bikinis be pulling off the black chiffon?"

Not in corporate America in 2017. Or in December in St Louis.

[keesje]

Navy MQ-25 Stingray would explain heavy nose gear.

https://news.usni.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/unnamed-5.jpg

[oxenos]

Boeing build Phantoms??????????????

[sandiego89]

Boeing build Phantoms??????????????


They bought McDonnell (Douglas) and kept the "Phantom" moniker, and a logo similar to the F-4 Phantom masked bandit.


Doubt it is as lean and mean as the original McD prototyping shop- the Lockheed Skunk Works has also blossomed in size, I am sure Kelly Johnson would be spinning in his grave if he saw the size and layers involved today.

[KenV]

Boeing build Phantoms??????????????
Boeing inherited the McDonnell Douglas Phantom Works when they merged with McD back in 1997. Phantom Works is Boeing's military prototyping organization. Boeing's R&D house (Boeing Research and Technology, BR&T) develops the raw technology for both military and commercial use (readiness level 1-4). Phantom Works then develops that tech further into an actual military prototype (readiness level 4-6). Each business unit (Commercial Aircraft, Defense Systems, and Global Support) then turns that into production products. Phantom Works has been compared to Lockheed's Skunk Works, but it is actually quite different.

[Wokkafans]

Looks like ORAC and Keesje were correct - MQ25 Tanker



https://twitter.com/BoeingDefense/status/943149494543241217

Boeing Shares Sneak Peek of Autonomous Aerial Refueler for MQ-25 Competition (http://boeing.mediaroom.com/2017-12-19-Boeing-Shares-Sneak-Peek-of-Aerial-Refueler-for-MQ-25-Competition)

[Lima Juliet]

This will please BEagle. All future tanker pilots now redundant only 10 years after their Navs...

https://theaviationist.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/MQ-25_high-res.jpg

...after all, the aircraft only has to pitch up and fly race tracks in a predicatble fashion trailing its hose(s) - how hard can it be? :E:E

http://www.animatedimages.org/data/media/157/animated-fishing-image-0138.gif

[riff_raff]

I believe the USN just released their final RFP for the MQ-25 back in October. Since they built a flight demonstrator before the RFP was released, Boeing must think they have a good chance to prevail in this effort.

[Dan Winterland]

Why does it need a landing light?

[Cows getting bigger]

So it can scare itself during a night deck landing? :)

[BEagle]

One wonders whether ol' Bubba Boeing will have more luck getting this drone to work than he has so far with the KC-46A Pigosaurus...

While the Navy has been reluctant about the specific goals of the program, the service’s basic requirements will have the MQ-25 deliver about 6800 kg of fuel 500 nautical miles from the carrier.

Which is about the same as 8 x 1000 litre drop tanks....

Presumably they'd launch at least 2 of the things together, with some non-bumping-into-each other system, in order to provide redundancy?

[VX275]

All future tanker pilots now redundant only 10 years after their Navs.
Presumably leaving the boom operator as the only intelligent life (?) left on board.

[Davef68]

Interesting shape. Appears to have forward swept rear flying surfaces

[KiloB]

Now, if only they would do a “B” model, we could use them as well😏

[Less Hair]

So will it do traps using the second wire every single time?

[unmanned_droid]

I posted this elsewhere, but, in the interests of discussion will repeat here.

-----

I think the idea is for the MQ-25 to disappear off downrange with the F18 so the F18 can carry more ordnance to just outside the contested environment, top up with fuel, go do war type stuff in the contested environment and then come back out to refuel and head home with the tanker. Therefore, the Tanker has to keep a very low profile to avoid becoming a target and a known point for the F18s to return to.

I wonder, if you flew formation juuuust right with regard to the radar threat, you could actually decrease the RCS of the whole formation by using the MQ25 as a blocker/absorber.

ETA, so it has a kind of spade nose with a bevelled lower body (with what looks to be a retractable camera)and a smoothed double bubble type of upper forward fuselage. The big bay (weapons or fuel or sensors?) door doesn't have low RCS edge features like we're used to seeing and there doesn't appear to be any turbulator vanes at the front of the bay to help with separation. In fact, given the panel gaps on the lower body and wing root joint it doesn't look like a very low RCS vehicle from underneath.

[KenV]

Why does it need a landing light?The light is not so the UAV can see the carrier, it's so the LSOs can see the UAV when it's on the approach. While the LSOs can't "talk" the UAV down like they can a pilot, they can give it a wave off command if there's a foul deck, the arresting gear isn't rerigged, or there's some other problem necessitating a wave off. The light also provides illumination on the deck after landing, so the folks controlling the thing on the deck can see the guidance from the yellow shirt (plane director). On the deck the UAV is not autonomous and is always under direct control of an operator.

[Lonewolf_50]

Thank you Ken, for saving me the trouble on that one. I am pleased to see that the long standing problem of CV tanking assets is finally being addressed. About damned time.

[glad rag]

Be smart when its finished....

[ORAC]

Boeing have won the MQ-25A Stingray competition.

Alert 5 » Boeing wins MQ-25A competition - Military Aviation News (http://alert5.com/2018/08/31/boeing-wins-mq-25a-competition/)

https://dod.defense.gov/News/Contracts/Contract-View/Article/1617374/

The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Missouri, is awarded a ceiling price $805,318,853 fixed-price-incentive-firm-target contract to provide the design, development, fabrication, test, verification, certification, delivery, and support of four MQ-25A unmanned air vehicles, including integration into the carrier air wing to provide an initial operational capability to the Navy. The work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri (45.5 percent); Indianapolis, Indiana (6.9 percent); Cedar Rapids, Iowa (3.1 percent); Quebec, Canada (3.1 percent); Palm Bay, Florida (2.3 percent); San Diego, California (1.5 percent); and various locations inside and outside the continental U.S. (37.6 percent), and is expected to be completed in August 2024. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds in the amount of $79,050,820 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured via an electronic request for proposals; three offers were received. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity (N00019-18-C-1012).

[glad rag]

So California gets to stir the hardner then...

[Saintsman]

With an arial refuelling requirement, I'm surprised that Boeing have won this based on their recent history.

[ORAC]

With an arial refuelling requirement, I'm surprised that Boeing have won this based on their recent history. Off with the fairies?

[KenV]

With an arial refuelling requirement, I'm surprised that Boeing have won this based on their recent history.Really? You see a technological connection between the KC-46 and MQ-25? And you see an engineering and industrial connection between Boeing's commercial aircraft operation in Seattle and Boeing's military aircraft operation in St Louis?

[melmothtw]

Really? You see a technological connection between the KC-46 and MQ-25? And you see an engineering and industrial connection between Boeing's commercial aircraft operation in Seattle and Boeing's military aircraft operation in St Louis?

So, 'One Boeing' only when it suits them then.

[BEagle]

"If it's Boeing, it's not going"....to be delivered on time or budget.

[tdracer]

"If it's Boeing, it's not going"....to be delivered on time or budget.

Actually the 737 MAX was pretty much on time and on budget, as was the original 777 (and at least so far, the 777X is looking pretty good).
If you're going to start disqualifying manufacturers due their having a project that's late and/or overbudget, you'll have a awfully short list to choose from.

[Pure Pursuit]

"If it's Boeing, it's not going"....to be delivered on time or budget.

The A400 would appear to be a tad over budget, late, not operating at the required spec and a complete waste of money. As for Voyager.... 😂

Boeing everyday for me I’m afraid.

[SASless]

Three Wire is the target!

[KenV]

So, 'One Boeing' only when it suits them then.

Hey, it all depends on how you define "One Boeing". And as an FYI, "One Boeing" does NOT mean one pay scale, one retirement program, or even one set of company holidays. Pay scales vary hugely by region and country. The commercial group (legacy Boeing) has a different retirement program than the defense group (legacy McDonnel Douglas). And here in San Antonio we get fewer company paid holidays than they do in Seattle (commercial) or in St Louis (defense). Further, the notion that technical problems in Seattle with a commercial derivative program (an airliner turned into an aerial tanker with a whole host of other non tanker related functions) somehow must mean problems in St Louis with a clean sheet design of a pure tanker drone is (I'm sorry, there's just no polite way of saying this) simply absurd.

[Wensleydale]

Joy of joys. As well as ignoring all of the ACO procedures when a new carrier joins an operational theatre, the USN will now be able to do it with drones with no look out!

[KenV]

Joy of joys. As well as ignoring all of the ACO procedures when a new carrier joins an operational theatre, the USN will now be able to do it with drones with no look out!

To what are you referring with "ACO"? I don't believe you mean Aircraft Certification Office, which is what I'm familiar with.