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Scorpion Jet Program Makes Progress
The test pilots have brought the Scorpion as high as 30,000 feet to speeds up to 430 knots true airspeed. G forces of +3.7 G and -0.5 G have been imposed on the airframe and the stall speed has been shown to be below 90 knots calibrated airspeed. In addition, the test pilots have done engine shutdowns and restarts in flight and have demonstrated a low-speed aircraft interception with a Cessna 182, which can be seen in the accompanying video. (www.flyingmag.com) Altro...
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Get some strong armor on that thing and some guns/ missiles and it make make a better A-10 replacement than the F-35 Fiasco.
I think the weight of doing that would pretty much turn it into a real dog.
Sure, all that weight will change the airplane's characteristics. It would certainly need the highest thrust engine they fit into the plane.
But in its' current unfortified state (and without all that weight) it is demonstrating the kinds of maneuverability and flight characteristics, that could make it a great ground support vehicle.
Part of me suspects that no matter how they'd do it, a good A-10 replacement would circle back to being in essence fairly close to a modernized A-10 with newer avionics.
That plane (A-10) has always fit that role (ground support) extremely well.
Maybe there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Just make A-10s again with newer avionics.
But maybe, this Scorpion jet platform could be the platform for making a new A-10 replacement, that would be much less expensive than the F-35 Fiasco. Certainly the additional weight would have to be considered.
They could make an armored prototype with stronger engines and put it through some flight tests to determine whether it would be a feasible project. A low-cost feasibility test project would be worth it, if it were to provide the opportunity to create a modern and effective, but lower cost, ground support aircraft.
But in its' current unfortified state (and without all that weight) it is demonstrating the kinds of maneuverability and flight characteristics, that could make it a great ground support vehicle.
Part of me suspects that no matter how they'd do it, a good A-10 replacement would circle back to being in essence fairly close to a modernized A-10 with newer avionics.
That plane (A-10) has always fit that role (ground support) extremely well.
Maybe there's no need to reinvent the wheel. Just make A-10s again with newer avionics.
But maybe, this Scorpion jet platform could be the platform for making a new A-10 replacement, that would be much less expensive than the F-35 Fiasco. Certainly the additional weight would have to be considered.
They could make an armored prototype with stronger engines and put it through some flight tests to determine whether it would be a feasible project. A low-cost feasibility test project would be worth it, if it were to provide the opportunity to create a modern and effective, but lower cost, ground support aircraft.
Besides all the other upgrades, the strong point of the A10 is it's gun. The plane was literally built around that gun and lot's of our military purchasing/development have forgotten that, having never been around it. Ask any grunt that has been around and seen what it did to an enemy position. Enemies would be the best to ask but most are not around to talk about it.
That suggests that it may be best to update the A-10 with newer avionics, and make a new batch for this next century.
yep
