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That doesn’t really line up with how defense aircraft (or defense anything, for that matter) are financed and designed. Aircraft designs are created as part of
by elil17 7y ago
That doesn’t really line up with how defense aircraft (or defense anything, for that matter) are financed and designed. Aircraft designs are created as part of a response to a Department of Defense request for proposal and design details are kept highly secret (they won’t even file patents to ensure that no details about the aircraft are leaked). Then the craft are tested from military bases to prevent people taking pictures. Also, a defense craft wouldn’t be seeking FAA approval (the FAA isn’t authorized to regulate military aircraft)
- inamberclad 7y agoMaybe in the cold war, but these days there are plenty of repurposed civilian aircraft. They just swap out the avionics with some nicer things, add good cameras, and have a useable and proven platform. The airframe details are self-evident enough that they may not be worth keeping secret.
- walrus01 7y agoNot all, necessarily, they may have created the design with a HALE market as one of several market possibilities. Companies have self funded r&d projects to build things and then try to sell them to defence markets before. Scaled composites did it with their Ares, and so has embraer with their turboprop ground support plane. Here's an example of a retrofit of a COTS platform for bespoke sensor platform use. https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/19921/these-secretive-us-specops-spy-planes-are-getting-new-sensors-and-anti-gps-jamming-gear https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/19921/these-secretive-...