X-44 Manta: The Air Force’s Plan for a ‘Delta’ Stealth Fighter
Story by Brent M. Eastwood • Yesterday 10:25 PM
The X-44 Manta Design Was Ahead of Its Time – The X-44 Manta never made it past a design concept, but its short life influenced later stealth designs that may be taken up by the U.S. NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance) 6th-generation fighter. The Manta – an acronym for Multi-Axis No Tail Aircraft – was a delta-shaped stealth fighter that had no recognizable tail section. This design specialized in low observability flight – perhaps even more stealthy than the fighter that emerged from this process – the F-22.
X-44 Uses Thrust Vector Control
The X-44 goes back to 1999. Lockheed Martin was behind the design of the X-44 and Lockheed later partnered with NASA for its development. This was a single-pilot air superiority fighter that would have been 62-feet long. One of the main ideas behind the X-44 was thrust vector control which would grant it the kind of maneuverability that would overwhelm enemy fighter planes. Thrust vectoring means an airplane can change the angle of thrust to control altitude in an advantageous manner. This allows the airplane to change directions in a more aggressive manner.
X-44 Would Have Had Enviable Specs for Its Stretched-delta Design
The X-44 was considered a testbed to see how an airplane without tailplanes would perform. This meant the airplane had what Military Factory described as a “stretched delta-wing mainplane” with side-by-side turbofan engines – namely Pratt & Whitneys with 35,000 pounds of thrust. It was estimated that the airplane could achieve speeds of up to 1,500 miles per hour with a 49,000-foot ceiling.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/x-44-manta-the-air-force-s-plan-for-a-delta-stealth-fighter/ar-AA15p0D4?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=77f81c42ba784fcab2ddda15fb663dba
