Jun 122010
 

The last of the poorly described 1977 General Dynamics concepts, this time the Advanced Weapon/Airframe Requirements Evaluation (AWARE) design. This, to me, looks a whole lot like the British BAe Kingston P.1216 of 1982-83. In fact, the only obvious difference is that AWARE seems to have 2-D vectorable nozzles, whie the P.1216 had an advanced Pegasus-type three-poster VTOL engine.

aware.gif

To compare with:

hawkerp_1216_03.jpg

Hawker/BAe P.1216

 Posted by at 9:13 pm

  8 Responses to “General Dynamics “AWARE””

  1. This seems to be a case of “convergent evolution”. The idea being to put the engine exhaust(s) near the CG.

  2. “Convergent evolution” my shiny American ass… this is clear evidence of the British Conspiracy to steal Americas aircraft designs, and then never build them.

    We’re onto you…

  3. Yeah! And they stole this thing that Stark Industries built for SHIELD too:
    http://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/thumbs/6/68/Sky%20Captain%20b.JPG/1000x800px-LL-Sky%20Captain%20b.JPG

  4. Convergent evolution? Wander through Luft46 and compare some of the unbuilt designs to (mostly British) operational aircraft of the 50s.

  5. Flying aircraft carriers?
    US patent 1874423
    US patent 3003717

  6. And the Chinese take on the concept:
    http://op-for.com/ChiCom%20flying%20machine.jpg
    NASA really ripped off the Blohm und Voss P.202 concept with their scissors-wing design, and this thing actually does look a lot like the Arado E.555-9 design, though a lot smaller in size.

  7. Here’s that Arado design, which really does bear a freakish resemblance to it:
    http://www.luft46.com/arado/e555-9.gif
    On the other hand, I sometimes get the feeling that the Germans came up with every possible aircraft layout at some point during WW II. 😉
    Especially Blohm und Voss, whose designs looked like something out of Crimson Skies at best, and the result of severe mental problems at worst.
    Our F7U “Cutlass” navy fighter was supposed to have a lot of Arado influence n its design, but I’ve never noticed any close resemblance between it and any particular Arado design.

  8. Nice to see the difrection that aircraft would have taken, had it not been for stealth being invented and making everything ugly.

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