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Boeing F-32 Joint Strike Fighter


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I don't think there ever was one because it didn't get past the experimental stage. There was also something I didn't know: the Boeing team eventually revised the design to have the stabilators like in the painting. That was in an old t.v. program that I saw. I don't think that the Italeri kit had them. I could be wrong since it's been a long time since I saw one. Even if you had it, it might still take a lot of work to get it to look like the painting. Still, a very cool "what if"! That would look cool parked next to the suitability modified F-16XL.

 

As a side note, I did get to see the real X-32 at the Air Force Museum's restoration hangar a number of years back. That wasn't a small airplane! I was also incredibly impressed with the MiG-25.

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That thing wasn't just butt-ugly, it was fugly!

 

I remember when it did the fly off with the X-35, use to watch it taxi past my hanger/shop and fly around Pax River, that thing was uuugggllllyyyyy,

 

Here is the one that use to fly around Pax River;

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patuxent_River_Naval_Air_Museum#/media/File:X-32_Patuxent_River_Naval_Air_Museum_Full.tif

 

Did you know that thing couldn't even hover in it's current configuration, Boeing had to take the intake lip off just to get it to hover.

 

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2 hours ago, Chriss7607 said:

I thought it was more than the intake lip. I thought they had to take off the gear doors and other things.

Every time I saw it taxi by and when it was flying it had all it's gear doors, though I did see it several times go taxing by without it's lower intake lip.

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1 hour ago, Darren Roberts said:

I just want to know what the Boeing design team was thinking when they came up with overall design. The function may have been there, but the form sure wasn't! 

The planform of the wing was gorgeous! Intake not so much but that wing was fantastic!

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Back in June 2001 I was able to take a ton of detail photos of the X-32 in its hover configuration. From a quick look at the photos, the intake was removed from inches in front of the NLG well, creating a blunt front end . All of the landing gear doors were removed. In addition, a 'box' was added to the bottom of the fuselage to trap exhaust and create additional lift.

 

There was an excellent 2-hr documentary done several years ago. I can't remember if it was Nova or the History channel (I think the former) that did a pretty good job of explaining what the fly-off was examining. The X-35 with its swiveling exhaust and lift fan (a la Yak-141) was promising, but unproven. The X-32 's lift mechanism was based on the AV-8's configuration was more of a known quantity, and seen as a fallback if the X-35 flopped. The 'box' I refer to above basically duplicated the area on the bottom of the Harrier defined by the large strakes or gun pods on the sides and landing gear on the front and rear. A similar configuration would have been used on the X-32 had it gone into production.

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15 minutes ago, mrvark said:

 

There was an excellent 2-hr documentary done several years ago. I can't remember if it was Nova or the History channel (I think the former) that did a pretty good job of explaining what the fly-off was examining. 

Vark, it was Nova.  Seems  to pop up occasionally on youtube suggested video's.  "Battle of the x-planes" is the title. 

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The documentary is "Battle of the X-Planes" and can be found on YouTube - an excellent time to spend an hour or so during "sheltering in place". Many interesting details and tidbits throughout the film, such as the Lockheed tradition where the test pilot takes the car keys and wallets of the chief engineers with him during the first flight.

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2 hours ago, mrvark said:

Back in June 2001 I was able to take a ton of detail photos of the X-32 in its hover configuration. From a quick look at the photos, the intake was removed from inches in front of the NLG well, creating a blunt front end . All of the landing gear doors were removed. In addition, a 'box' was added to the bottom of the fuselage to trap exhaust and create additional lift.

 

Oh! I have to ask: did you also see details of the 'vortex flaps' on the leading edge? That's one system of which have never seen any details. It's probably not very exciting, but I would like to know how these flaps were actuated - hydraulic actuators, rotary actuators, siccors, etc. I'm very slowly 'building' a Chinese die-cast X-32, hence the question.

 

Rob

Edited by Rob de Bie
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15 hours ago, GW8345 said:

Every time I saw it taxi by and when it was flying it had all it's gear doors, though I did see it several times go taxing by without it's lower intake lip.

Ah, ok then. It's been a while since I heard much about the X-32. 

 

I'm positive that it was the Nova "Battle of the X-Planes show that I saw last year. I'd say it's worth watching. There were interesting things about both designs that I didn't know about but I don't want to ruin it for you!

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7 minutes ago, Rob de Bie said:

 

Oh! I have to ask: did you also see details of the 'vortex flaps' on the leading edge?

 

The leading edge flaps were retracted, so there was no detail of the actuators to be seen.

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However on first sight I thought it was a Stealthy Fury. With that intake lip reversed, compared to the original proto design, I must say it's growing to me.

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2 hours ago, mrvark said:

 

The leading edge flaps were retracted, so there was no detail of the actuators to be seen.

 

Thanks for checking! I've taken screen shots from the Nova documentary to show them. AFAIK they were tried once before on a experimental F-106. It's a pity nothing was published on this unique feature.

 

x32-26.jpg

 

x32-25.jpg


Rob

 

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