Future of Engineering

By 2018, the Air Force says, it wants a new bomber to replace aging B-1Bs and B-52s — likely something that can fly 4,000 miles and carry 14,000 to 28,000 pounds of weaponry. Rivals Boeing and Lockheed Martin Corp. have teamed up to bid on the job. They're expecting competition from Northrop Grumman Corp., although that company has made no formal announcement that it will bid.

The Air Force still is considering exactly what it wants in the bomber, but Boeing began brainstorming a couple of years ago, and Davis even has a scale model of a prototype on the conference table in his office. Boeing has been testing different ideas and capabilities in the 70,000-square-foot Virtual Warfare Center battle simulator on its campus in Hazelwood, and figuring out what it would take to build the craft most effectively.

They're also starting to think about what comes after the Super Hornet. The Navy is beginning to think about how it will replace its main fighter jet in a few decades, and Boeing is studying what kind of technology that plane, called the F/A-XX, will require.

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Labels: Logistics-Transportation-Engineering