"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
07/24/2015 at 13:00 • Filed to: Aircraft, Wikihunt
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"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
07/24/2015 at 13:00 • Filed to: Aircraft, Wikihunt | 4
| 1 |
I’m having fun in the Wiki rabbit hole today, specifically looking at aircraft and would you look what I found.
This is the McDonnell Douglas/General Dynamics A-12 Avenger II. The A-12 was a proposed stealth carrier based attack jet meant to replace the A-6 Intruder bomb truck, and it was almost built!
It was a folding wing, internally stored all weather stealth bomb truck.
Despite its weird look, it wasn’t actually that much bigger than an f-14 in width and folded up neatly in the space of an A-6.
it had a moderate weapons loud out and decent range, plus air-to-air capability (which the A-6 didn’t have) and the benefit of being invisible to anything except Coloradans with the munchies.
The program was shit canned in 1991 as the Navy couldn’t give Dick Cheney a good enough reason to build it. The circumstances with the cancellation (and the subsequent demand from the government that they return their 2.8 billion dollar investment) was such that McDonnel Douglas and General Dynamics took the government to court. As of January of 2014 the situation was finally settled with each contractor only owing the government 200 million each.
Can you even imagine what it would be like if they had built it though? Strange stuff.
Part of the full scale mockup is currently on display at the Fort Worth aviation museum in Texas.
punkgoose17
> HammerheadFistpunch
07/24/2015 at 13:45 |
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I wish they built this. It would be so cool!