On March 21, 2025, US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the selection of an aircraft proposed by Boeing Corporation in the long-running US Air Force competition for a promising sixth-generation fighter under the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program. The new fighter received the official designation F-47, which, according to an official statement from the US Air Force, is an homage to both Trump himself as the 47th president of the United States, and the well-known American fighter of the Second World War, Republic P-47 (F-47) Thunderbolt. It is reported that Boeing will receive a contract worth more than $ 20 billion for the Engineering and Manufacturing phase of the Development (EMD) of a new fighter aircraft, which is expected to enter service in the 2030s.
The official image of the promising American sixth-generation fighter Boeing F-47 under the program of the U.S. Air Force Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) (c) the U.S. Air Force
According to the statement of the Chief of Staff (Commander) USAF General David Ellwin, prototypes of the F-47 will "fly" under the current US administration of President Trump, that is, before the beginning of 2029. It is stated that since 2020 and to date, NGAD competitors have already built several experimental demonstration aircraft (X-planes), which have already flown for "hundreds of hours" during the tests. In a statement, Ellwin said that:
"The F-47 is truly the world's first sixth-generation manned fighter aircraft, designed to dominate the most combat-ready enemy and operate in the most dangerous threat environment imaginable. Over the past five years, X-planes has been quietly laying the groundwork for the F-47 for this aircraft - flying hundreds of hours, testing advanced concepts, and proving that we can confidently push the boundaries of technology. These experimental aircraft demonstrated the innovations needed to develop the capabilities of the F-47, ensuring that when we set out to build this fighter, we knew we were making the right investment for America.
While our X-planes were flying in secrecy, we were consolidating our air supremacy - accelerating technology, refining our operational concepts, and proving that we could realize this opportunity faster than ever before. Due to this, the F-47 should be airborne to fly during the administration of President Trump.
In addition, the F-47 has unprecedented maturity. Although the F-22 is currently the best air superiority fighter in the world, and its modernization will make it even better, the F-47 is a leap forward for an entire generation. The maturity of the aircraft at this stage of the program confirms its readiness to dominate future battles.
Compared to the F-22, the F-47 will cost less and be more adaptable to future threats - and we will have more F-47s in our combat lineup. The F-47 will have a significantly longer range, increased stealth, will be more stable in combat, better supported, and have higher availability than our fifth-generation fighters. This platform is designed with a mindset of "built to adapt" and will require significantly fewer personnel and infrastructure to deploy."
The appearance and characteristics of the F-47 fighter have not been disclosed, but the official "mixed" fragmentary rendering images show an aircraft with a large cockpit, a front horizontal tail (?) and a characteristic broken wing. It is unclear whether the aircraft has a vertical tail. In general, the reliability of these images is not yet known. It is stated that the F-47 aircraft is a specialized fighter for gaining air superiority and should act in this capacity as a successor to the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor fighter.
The Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) advanced fighter program has been implemented by the US Air Force since 2014, starting with the Air Dominance Initiative of the US Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to study promising concepts of air superiority systems in the 2030s for the US Air Force and Navy. Based on the results of this research, the head of the procurement department of the US Department of Defense, Frank Kendall, launched the Aerospace Innovation Initiative (AII) program in 2015 to develop experimental X-plane demonstrator aircraft to demonstrate and test advanced fighter technologies. In 2016, the US Air Force continued DARPA's research with its promising Air Superiority 2030 (AS 2030) program, but although it indicated the need for a "family of systems" of aviation complexes, however, it actually focused on the development of a promising unobtrusive fighter to gain air superiority under the designation Penetrating Counter-Air (PCA). In 2018, the AS 2030 program was renamed NGAD.
In September 2020, it was announced that the first experimental X-plane had begun flying under the NGAD program (perhaps it was a Boeing aircraft). In total, experimental X-fighters of three different projects were reportedly built by 2023 (as can be understood, represented by Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman corporations competing in the program) - apparently, in the same way as it was with the Boeing X-32 and Lockheed Martin X-35 aircraft at the first stage of the creation program. JSF fighter jet (F-35). It is reported that one of the NGAD X-planes made its first flight in 2019, and the other (apparently built by Lockheed Martin) in 2022.
On May 18, 2023, the US Air Force published a secret request for proposals for a contract for the design and production phase of EMD prototypes under the NGAD program. As already noted, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman initially participated in the NGAD program with their projects, however, Northrop Grumman withdrew from the competition in July 2023. Initially, the final selection of the contractor and the project for the program and the conclusion of a contract with the contractor for the EMD stage were scheduled for 2024, but in May-July 2024, the administration of President Joe Biden actually suspended the program for another "revision of the aircraft concept." The NGAD program was eventually resumed at the end of December 2024, which was apparently facilitated by the re-election of President Trump, who supported it (it was during his first term that the most important stages of the program in 2018 and 2020 started). As a result, it was Trump who approved the final choice of Boeing's proposal in the program competition.
The choice of Boeing's proposal may have had an industrial background, since Lockheed Martin is heavily loaded with the production of the main American fifth-generation fighter, the F-35, while Boeing is actually completing development and production programs for the fourth-generation F-15 and F/A-18 fighters, thereby freeing up significant design and production capacity.
The F-47 fighter is to be equipped with two new type engines, created on a competitive basis under the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program specifically for the NGAD aircraft. In August 2022, the US Air Force awarded five leading American aerospace companies framework contracts worth $975 million each for the development of promising NGAP engines on a competitive basis - GE Aerospace (General Electric), Pratt & Whitney (in partnership with Raytheon Technologies), Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. The contracts include the development, construction and testing of prototype engines and run until July 2032. In fact, the last three corporations act as "integrators", and the choice of a promising engine should be made from two projects - GE Aerospace HA102 and Pratt & Whitney HA103, made according to an adaptive three-circuit scheme. In early 2025, the U.S. Air Force expanded contracts with GE Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney to $3.5 billion each for the development and testing of engines for their NGAP projects.
Another official image of the promising sixth-generation American fighter jet, the Boeing F-47, under the USAF's Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program. According to a number of assumptions, this may be the appearance of Boeing's experimental X-demonstrator aircraft under the NGAD (c) program of the US Air Force.
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US President Donald Trump officially presents at a briefing at the White House the promising sixth-generation American fighter jet Boeing F-47 under the USAF Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, 03/21/2025 (c) Reuters, AP and AFP
