Got it. Thanks.cky7 wrote:Ron,
I accept my post was badly written. FOAS was to look at tornado replacement and replica was to gain exprience in stealth. Though replica is similar to the jsf proposal I think there are differences in the wing in particular, though it seems clear the designs are related, whilst the main result of replica seems to have been gaining substance to cement Bae's place in the f35 team, surely there's a good chance the shape chosen would bear a fair bit of similarity to the thinking on what the manned strike aircraft element of FOAS would look like? Not guaranteed I know but I think it makes sense (then again things have made sense to me before and been totally wrong!)
The pylon tests to which I was referring were the ones about a year ago, years after the replica program had completed and I was just wondering if anyone ever heard why they'd been testing it again. Obviously zero chance of a development program or anything involving that shape. At the time I wondered if it was a test of some new radar tech to see how much better results it gave rather than replica's stealth but that's just a total stab in the dark....
Another theory is that the more recent pylon testing was to re-calibrate the test facilities i.e. see if they got the same results as previously.