kool kitty89
Senior Master Sergeant
Stumbled on this video:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glUPxed2hLA
Bothered to dig a little further, found this old thread Stavatti SM-27M COIN Airplane
but currently:
http://aviationweek.com/awindefense/return-javelin-stavatti-enter-t-x-competition
Aviation Week was fooled before on this, but it seems like far more tangible progress has been made here, though their T-X competition prototype looks a bit suspiciously similar to a modified T-38, and I'm honestly not sure if it's practical to compete with the old T-38, let alone develop the base platform into a light attack/strike aircraft. (honestly, given how cost-effective the old F-5 platform is, or more modern derivatives like the F-20, or a further development thereof, I don't really see this being competitive either ... unless Northrop-Grumman and everyone else fails to even compete)
Still interesting to see this totally paper (or digital) only concept/think-tank start-up making more progress. I'm not sure if the recent options for crowdfunding have helped their development, but I've certainly seen fundamentally far less feasible designs getting massive backing. (I mean what's the Hyperloop at now ... over 100M in total investments?)
OTOH if they are literally using the T-38/F-5 (N-156) platform as inspiration, that's hardly a bad idea as long as they avoid IP theft litigation territory. (it's possibly the most cost-effective modern combat aircraft platform to have seen production, and got so much right that it really is hard to ignore as at least a conceptual starting point) Plus you'd probably want to avoid the fly-by-wire advancements of the F-20 if you had a rugged, simple, damn-near-foolproof attack/strike platform in mind. (albeit probably more competitive in the SU-25 or Harrier's mission profiles than the A-10's, though potentially with much better air to air capability in within visual range scenarios)
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glUPxed2hLA
Bothered to dig a little further, found this old thread Stavatti SM-27M COIN Airplane
but currently:
http://aviationweek.com/awindefense/return-javelin-stavatti-enter-t-x-competition
Aviation Week was fooled before on this, but it seems like far more tangible progress has been made here, though their T-X competition prototype looks a bit suspiciously similar to a modified T-38, and I'm honestly not sure if it's practical to compete with the old T-38, let alone develop the base platform into a light attack/strike aircraft. (honestly, given how cost-effective the old F-5 platform is, or more modern derivatives like the F-20, or a further development thereof, I don't really see this being competitive either ... unless Northrop-Grumman and everyone else fails to even compete)
Still interesting to see this totally paper (or digital) only concept/think-tank start-up making more progress. I'm not sure if the recent options for crowdfunding have helped their development, but I've certainly seen fundamentally far less feasible designs getting massive backing. (I mean what's the Hyperloop at now ... over 100M in total investments?)
OTOH if they are literally using the T-38/F-5 (N-156) platform as inspiration, that's hardly a bad idea as long as they avoid IP theft litigation territory. (it's possibly the most cost-effective modern combat aircraft platform to have seen production, and got so much right that it really is hard to ignore as at least a conceptual starting point) Plus you'd probably want to avoid the fly-by-wire advancements of the F-20 if you had a rugged, simple, damn-near-foolproof attack/strike platform in mind. (albeit probably more competitive in the SU-25 or Harrier's mission profiles than the A-10's, though potentially with much better air to air capability in within visual range scenarios)
