RIVET Design and Lockheed Martin UCAV + Northrop UCAV designs

Now, I had never heard of an aircraft design from Lockheed Martin by the name of RIVET 3, but it stands for reverse installation vectored engine thrust - RIVET.

This is a conceptual design art pic of it.



Now you may think 'so ? whats so special ?' and you would be right. It is not until you look at a concept Lockheed martin pushed forward as part of an unmanned strike design UCAV. Here have a look.



Now the similiarities are striking. All thats missing is a pilots seat. and yet we have the line drawings for the RIVET 3 that shows us a possible layout for the UCAV - internal weapons bay and all.



Now, could it be that this concept was valid, and that if this was to go further we could see lockheed Martin producing a convential looking UCAV but with STOL abilities and a payload in essence the same as a F-117 ? (two GBU-12s).

I find the idea appealing, especially as it seems that the plan layout for the UCAV is taken directly from RIVET and updated.

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On a seperate note but still staying within the firld of next generation aircraft, have you seen these beauties ? concept art again, but my goodness they are very nice indeed and worthy I feel of an audience.





and this beauty of a drawing showing a stealth refueller and a stealth UCAV at tank!



These are both Northrop Grumman designs and can be seen and read about at this link.

Air Force

I know I may not know a thousandth of what alot of you folks here do, but I really do enjoy tapping away and hopefully adding to your forum.

Regards, Dan.

Sorry, wierd edit...I was correcting spelling and reposted the whole thing below

[edit on 4-6-2008 by whiteraven]

I will never forget the first time I saw an Stealth bird....I never heard it, I saw a shadow on the ground and I looked up. WOW! Made me proud.

[edit on 4-6-2008 by whiteraven]

Got to love the high cutting edge black tech the USA can produce (so can the UK but on a different scale).

However i think the USA will reign supreme in aircraft tech for at least another 35 years if not longer.

What curls my toes is the stuff we "don't know about"!

Awesome stuff!