I Really Had To Share Those Pics

[Archibald]

I was checking latest post of the Secret projects board when I saw that someone had resurected an old thread on the LHX - ARH-66 Commanche forerunner in the 80's.
http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/inde...ic,1062.15.html

and in page 2 of the thread, those FREAKIN' pics catched my eyes.





According to Overscan, they represent, well, imagine a F-16 and a V-22 (an Osprey, no typo) have a night together.
Result would be a folding-tiltrotor supersonic fighter.

[Lord Darth Beavis]

DUDE!  That is a frakkin' cool set of pics!  I had the book those came from, pre-Katrina, IIRC.

*sigh*  So many books to buy, so little money...  

[Supertom]

It kinda reminds me of Burt Rutan's ARES, which I thought would have been really neat if the Air Force bought it:



I also loved the asymmetric layout of the air intake on the port side and the 25mm gun on the starboard side.

[Gary]

I was thinking the exact same thing, about how it reminded me of Rutan's attack bird. Shortly before Rutans airplane a whacko in Canada built a prop attack aircraft, a slow dodgy thing with a ton of armour and his belief that his idea was too simple, too cheap and too comon sence for the airforce to buy. While perhaps the case in Rutans aircraft, that guy was pure whack job.

Are the pods on the wingtips for VTOL? Are the props spinning or folded back? Cool idea.

[Archibald]

Are the pods on the wingtips for VTOL? Are the props spinning or folded back? Cool idea.

The props just fold back into the wingtip pods 
Yes this is a cool idea, albeit certainly unpracticable outside the whatif world of course! The second pic is currently my desktop.
Looks more Comics than Boeing advert doesn't it ?