Lockheed Martin recently revealed a single illustration of what *may* be LockMart Skunk Works thinking on a Sixth Generation fighter for the 2030 or later timeframe. It wasn’t revealed in a report or press release, but instead in a calendar. It’s unclear whether this is a serious design effort or is just some computer generated doodling.
The design is jam-packed full of aesthetic neatoness. It appears to be a supercruising stealthy fighter, substantially more sleek than the F-22. It is a manned design, which has caused some quarters to get rather irritated at the whole idea, since the assumption is that a sixth-gen fighter will almost inevitably be an unmanned vehicle, either remotely piloted or autonomous. But as the recent RQ-170 landing in Iraq incident showed, unmanned aircraft do not seem to be entirely bug free (Conspiracy Theory Moment: “The Air Force made the UAV land in Iran to make sure that pilots keep their jobs.”)
I can’t say whether the fighters of the 2030-and-beyond period will all be unmanned, or whether there’ll still be some manned ones. But I can say that it’s damned sad that the next fighter isn’t expected to be available for twenty years.
Anyway, the illustration (which can be seen at the first link above) shows the design from an angle that does not well display the planform, but mostly from the side. Still, seemed like a design screaming out for a three-view. I gave it a shot… I like the side view, but I’m underwhelmed with my top views (there are three, since I’m very uncertain of the planform).
