Key Points and Summary – The Air Force says Boeing’s F-47—its sixth-gen NGAD fighter named partly as a nod to the 47th president—is already being built and could fly by 2028.
-At the Air, Space & Cyber Conference, Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin stressed speed, while SecAF Troy Meink unveiled a rendering and teased Chinese analysts.
NGAD F-47 Fighter. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
-The push complements B-21 Raider testing—aircraft #2 is now focused on weapons and mission systems—and continued investment in semi-autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft.
-Boeing rolled out a promo video as St. Louis workers, who’ve been on strike, celebrated the award earlier this year. For USAF leaders, NGAD is the centerpiece of future air dominance.
The F-47 Has a Message for the Air Force: Almost Time to Fly?
Back in March, the Air Force announced that it had awarded the contract for the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) Platform to Boeing, and along with it, the announcement that it would be called the F-47. The name was chosen, at least in part, as a tribute to Trump as the 47th president.
“Nothing in the world comes even close to it, and it’ll be known as the F-47,” President Donald Trump said of the fighter at the time.
Now, just six months later, the Air Force says the jet is already being built.
Although reports back in 2020 already noted that some sort of F-47 demo plane was already flying, so the news is not unexpected given the timelines and research already done.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin announced Monday at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference that the first F-47 airframe is already being built, and that the fighter will be “ready to fly” by 2028.
NGAD. Image Credit. Lockheed Martin.
Per Aviation Week, when the F-47 was announced, it was declared that the aircraft would fly by the end of Trump’s term.
“It’s the platform that, along with all of the rest of the systems, is going to ensure dominance into the future. We’ve got to go fast,” Allvin said Tuesday, per Air and Space Forces.
“We’re ready to go fast. We have to go fast,” the general added.
Also at the conference, per Aviation Week, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink showed a rendering of the aircraft and appeared to taunt China about it.
“I expect some of the Chinese intel analysts are spending a lot of time looking at this picture,” Meink said in his speech. “Good luck.”
Wielding the Hammer
Also in his keynote speech, Allvin discussed the need to build semi-autonomous collaborative combat aircraft, as well as continue work on the B-21 Raider.
The second B-21 Raider to take flight was spotted last week, with Northrop Grumman telling Air and Space Forces that the second bomber will be used to “test weapons and mission systems for the new bomber.”
The general also touted the Air Force’s work in the June military operation that struck Iranian military sites, Operation Midnight Hammer, which used more than 125 aircraft in total.
“We’re following through on ensuring and advocating for the readiness that we need to be able to fight today to demonstrate we can pop the jab, and we can put them on the canvas,” Allvin said in the speech.
On Monday, Boeing posted a 30-second video to X, showing a rough rendering of the F-47, and the slogan “Dominate the skies of tomorrow.”
“Meet the [U.S. Air Force’s]sixth-generation fighter, the F-47, bringing next-gen technologies to ensure air dominance for decades to come,” the video’s caption said.
Cheering the Award
According to Defense News, Allvin also showed a video from this spring of Boeing employees in the St. Louis area cheering when they learned that Boeing had received the contract and would be building it.
“Those aren’t people who just show up to work,” Allvin said of those workers, per the report. “Those are people who are committed to do something great for the nation.”
Those workers, of course, are currently on strike, and have been for the last seven weeks. According to Fox 2 Now, striking union workers have approved a union-crafted offer to end the strike; however, Boeing officials rejected the proposal later that day.
F-47 Lockheed Photo. Image Credit: Lockheed Handout.
“It’s unfortunate that union leadership led its members to vote on something that isn’t real,” Dan Gillian, Boeing’s Air Dominance Vice President and General Manager and Senior St. Louis site executive, told the TV station.
It doesn’t appear that the strike has slowed down the momentum of the F-47 construction. In early September, Boeing announced that it would begin hiring replacement workers.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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