One of President Trump’s key priorities for his second term was rebuilding and re-arming our military, including making sure we have the best, most modern aircraft in the world. That may well be happening now, and in record time. The United States Air Force’s first 6th-generation fighter, the F-47, is reportedly on track for a 2028 test flight. That’s remarkably fast for a concept-to-cockpit development these days.
The advanced F-47 sixth-generation fighter remains on track to fly in the next two years, the senior Air Force acquisition officer overseeing the program said Feb. 25, as the service continues on its ambitious schedule to debut the air superiority-focused fighter by 2028—only three years after the contract was awarded to Boeing in March 2025.
“We’re doing exceptionally well,” Air Force Gen. Dale White told reporters at AFA’s Warfare Symposium. White serves as the Direct Reporting Portfolio Manager for Critical Major Weapon Systems, a new role that oversees the F-47 and other major Air Force initiatives.
By comparison, the development of the superb F-22 Raptor, the peak of 5th-generation fighter technology, took about 20 years. To be fair, the concept portion of the F-47 development has likewise been going on for some time.
Then-Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin first articulated the 2028 goal for the F-47’s first flight in September 2025.
Now, roughly half a year closer to that target, White said that the timeline remains on track. He also praised Boeing’s work to invest in the F-47; despite a rocky period in recent years with its commercial aviation business and KC-46 Pegasus refueler, Boeing so far appeared to stay ahead of problems with the F-47.
“Boeing has done a really good job of ramping up the personnel piece,” White said. “In the early phases of these programs … you typically watch the personnel ramp against the timeline and activities you have to get done. They’ve done very well with that.”
Of course, we won’t know what happens until the plane is actually in the air. That’s always the key; as the old test-pilot saying supposedly goes, “…it doesn’t have to go up, but it does have to come back down.”
Here’s what’s interesting: It’s projected that the F-47 will not only surpass the F-22 in stealth, but also in speed and range. I’ve known a few fighter pilots, and you’ll never find a zoomie that prefers a slow plane to a fast one – unless you’re talking to an A-10 driver, which is another matter entirely.
The Air Force has said the F-47 will have a combat radius of more than 1,000 nautical miles and be capable of flying at speeds greater than Mach 2. That would make the aircraft’s combat radius nearly double that of the F-22. Air Force plans to acquire more than 185 F-47s to match its current F-22 fleet, with the possibility of exceeding that figure.
Those are some pretty shiny projections.
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Of course, the key to the deployment of the F-47 will be how long and complex the logistical train will be behind the aircraft. Everyone loves to see the fast, charismatic aircraft, the roaring takeoffs, and the breathtaking maneuvers. But what we don’t generally see is the big tail: The people who maintain the aircraft, who fuel and arm it, and all of the people behind them, who transport the fuel, who build the weapons, who make the repair parts. Needless to say, the logistical tail for something like the F-47 is a lot longer and more complex than the tail was for the new fighter’s great-grandfather, the P-47 Thunderbolt.
I’m looking forward to seeing the first flight of the F-47 in any case. If the War Department and Boeing can make that target test flight date, that’s a big deal.
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s leadership, the warrior ethos is coming back to America’s military.
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