Boeing QF-16
Overview 📷 Photo: U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. J. Scott Wilcox (public domain) The Boeing QF-16 is an […]
Experimental
Experimental/research aircraft
Convair Kingfish
Convair Kingfish never flew. Explore its Mach 3.2 design cruise, the difference from FISH and why the CIA chose the A-12, with original-source context.
Republic XF-103 Thunderwarrior
The cancelled Mach 3 interceptor with a combined turbojet-ramjet engine — Republic’s most ambitious paper aircraft, killed in 1957 without ever flying.
Boeing X-36 Tailless Agility Research Aircraft
A 28%-scale unmanned demonstrator that proved a fighter without vertical or horizontal tails could outperform a conventional design — paving the way for 6th-gen fighter concepts.
Lockheed XF-90
A late-1940s long-range penetration fighter that lost to the F-101 Voodoo. The only surviving airframe was nuked at Frenchman Flat in 1952.
Republic XF-91 Thunderceptor
The only U.S. fighter ever flown with reverse-taper wings and combined jet+rocket propulsion. Briefly held the title of first U.S. fighter to exceed Mach 1 in level flight.
Northrop YF-17 Cobra
The F-16’s losing rival in the Lightweight Fighter program — but in losing, it became the F/A-18 Hornet and one of the most successful carrier fighters in history.
Convair XF-92A
America’s first delta-winged aircraft — the testbed that paved the way for the F-102, F-106, B-58 and Convair’s entire supersonic-delta dynasty.
Sukhoi Su-37 Flanker-F
The thrust-vectoring Flanker prototype that wowed airshows with Pugachev’s Cobra and the “Kulbit” loop before its single airframe was lost in 2002.
Bell X-5
The first aircraft to change its wing sweep angle in flight. Two prototypes flew in 1951, proving the concept that later gave us the F-14, F-111 and B-1.