What plane is this?

Hi, I saw what looked like a commercial passenger jet heading toward Sea-Tac, or Boeing field in Seattle a couple of days ago. The unusual feature on this jet that caught my eye, were forward wings/canards over or slightly behind the cockpit. They looked almost like Harrier wings with the outboard landing gear farings. I tried a google search, and came up empty. I'm sure someone here can help me figure this out. I'd love to see pictures if anyone has some.

Thanks, Chris in Seattle

Reply to
Chris
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A Beechcraft Starship maybe?

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Martin

Reply to
centennialofflight

That's not it. It was more like a 757 size craft.

Reply to
Chris

It could be the Boeing 757 F/A-22 Raptor testbed - a modified 757 with canards over the cockpit....

See :-

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Hi,

Reply to
Ken Duffey

That's it! Thanks Ken. My wife thought I was seeing things. It sounded kind of strange too. Had more of a "military whine" to the engines. Kind of like a C-141 or a C-17. Do they use different engines on it?

Reply to
Chris

Reply to
Steve Collins

Farleyjet Fruitbat?

;-)

Reply to
Enzo Matrix

I'm sure what you saw was the aformentioned Boeing jet but alongside the Legendary Fruitbat ;) for oddness I had a Piaggo Avante 180 fly over the house the other day into BWI. Looks something like a Starship with a tail

Picture here

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Allen

Reply to
Allen Epps

Those are actually F/A-22 wings, not a "modified" anything.

Was used for full scale aeroelastic developmental testing of the F/A-22 wing...and a bit more, form the look of it.

Surprised to hear it's still flying...

Reply to
Rufus

Rufus,

I don't want to get into a slanging match - but I don't think I said 'modified' wings - I merely said it was a modified 757 (true), with canards (also true).

The fact that the canards are actually F/A-22 wings is in addition to what I said.

It was the 757 that was modified, not the canards.

Anyway, back to the job in hand - like you, I was surprised that it is still flying in that configuration ??

I would have thought that any contribution it had to make to the programme would have been finished by now ??

Maybe not.............

Regards

Ken

Rufus wrote:

Reply to
Ken Duffey

I'm surprised too now that I know what it was. Maybe they were just moving it to another airfield? What purpose would it possibly serve now?

Chris

Reply to
Chris

I think I was actually responding to something someone else said...no harm, no foul. Not to mention that after I posted I suddenly recalled that they may be an XF-32 wing, and not an F/A-22 wing as I called it.

Anyway - as I was briefed on the operation of that jet, they aren't "true" canards in that the 757 doesn't need them to fly. The 757 is just a test platform for full-scale aeroelastic testing of the wing mounted over the cabin. In any event, I agree with you.

The goofier thing is that there IS what appears to be an F/A-22 radome on the nose of the test bed now...I don't think it was originally configured that way. So I guess they have turned it to the latest test program? I know Boeing has a 33% share in F/A-22, and also has the contractual lead for flight test.

Reply to
Rufus

They used it to test the radar/avionics installation in as close to an actual operational configuration as they could. Since vital parts of the electronic countermeasures suite reside in the wings, they had to use them, and just above the cockpit is a close to their real position in relation to the radome as they gould get with the 757.

Incedentally, that's the first prototype 757. Boeing likes to use #1 aircraft for other flight test work for as long as they can...

Reply to
Jessie C

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