After the U.S. Air Force selected the F-47, DARPA disclosed that Boeing and Lockheed Martin each built a demonstrator aircraft for NGAD, which first flew in 2019 and 2022.
In another bit of information released after the U.S. Air Force selected the Boeing F-47 for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has now provided details about the origins of the program with a short press release.
Demonstrators for NGAD
“Under research and development contracts with DARPA, Boeing and Lockheed Martin designed two X-planes as risk reduction for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Platform,” mentioned the press release. “These aircraft first flew in 2019 and 2022, logging several hundred hours each.”
Boeing’s aircraft, which first flew in 2019, therefore appears to be the full-scale flight demonstrator that Dr. Will Roper, then Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, announced in 2020. “We’ve already built and flown a full-scale flight demonstrator in the real world, and we broke records in doing it,” Roper said during the Air, Space and Cyber Conference 2020.
First rendering of the F-47 shown as President Trump announced the NGAD award to Boeing. (Image credit: U.S. DoD)That was pretty much it as all the details were classified, leaving many questions unanswered, such as the manufacturer and the timing of development and first flight, the aircraft’s appearance and mission, unmanned or optionally manned capabilities, low observability and supersonic or hypersonic speeds. We now have an answer for at least some of the questions.
As for the second X-plane, the Lockheed Martin demonstrator which flew in 2022, this is the first time it is officially mentioned. However, the then Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall revealed in 2023 that a secret, multi-agency X-plane program paved the way for NGAD and, although he didn’t mention the number of demonstrators involved, it was understood they were more than one.
There have been reports that up to three demonstrator aircraft were involved in the program. With two of them being Boeing’s and Lockheed Martin’s X-planes, the third one might have been from Northrop Grumman, although the company decided in 2023 to not take part anymore in the NGAD program as a prime contractor.
A notional NGAD design which was released by Boeing during the development. (Image credit: Boeing)The activity of the X-planes
To describe the effort behind the two demonstrators, DARPA quoted the statement from Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David Allvin: “For the past five years, the X-planes for this aircraft have been quietly laying the foundation for the F-47 — flying hundreds of hours, testing cutting-edge concepts, and proving that we can push the envelope of technology with confidence.”
The current status and location of these X-planes is unclear, although it is possible they might still be active today and they are likely based at Groom Lake’s Area 51. Groom Lake has already been used in the past for similar roles, allowing to perform flight testing in secret without being noticed, although that nowadays becomes more difficult at times.
In fact, in 2022, an unidentified aircraft, whose shape reminded the notional NGAD designs available at the time, was spotted in satellite photos of the location. In October 2023, the presence of an aviation spotter on Tikaboo Peak, an 8,000 ft mountain located approximately 26 miles to the east of Groom Lake, led to the cancellation of a secretive test mission.
A rendering of a potential NGAD concept released by Lockheed Martin during the development. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)DARPA’s involvement
Closing the press release, DARPA mentioned how its involvement in the next generation aircraft began with its Air Dominance Initiative study in 2014, which resulted in the agency’s Aerospace Innovation Initiative. Two years later, the Air Force started its own Air Superiority 2030 program, which in 2018 evolved in the NGAD program as we know it today.
After the initial glamour, NGAD continued under wraps, almost unnoticed, at least until the surprise announcement by Roper in 2020. DARPA kept working silently, although the full extent of their work for NGAD is unclear, as it might involve multiple programs whose results might influence NGAD and the technologies it will feature.
“It is often only in future decades when DARPA’s disruptive impact can be unveiled – today, we’re proud to be able to share the 10-year DARPA research arc that has culminated in the F-47 program, defining the next era of American air dominance,” said DARPA Acting Director Rob McHenry after the selection of the F-47.
