Boeing has started production of the first F-47 sixth-generation stealth fighter for the U.S. Air Force. The goal now is for that jet to make its first flight sometime in 2028.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin provided a brief update on the F-47 during his keynote address at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2025 Air, Space, and Cyber Conference today, at which TWZ is in attendance. In March, President Donald Trump personally announced that Boeing had been selected as the winner of the competition for the crewed fighter component of the Air Force’s broader Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) initiative. The NGAD effort also includes the development of new Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drones, as well as advanced jet engines, weapons, electronic warfare suites, sensors, networking ecosystems, battle management capabilities, and more.
“After years of work, hundreds of test hours, 1,000s of man-years in the lab, the President announced the F-47,” Allvin said. “It’s the platform that, along with all of the rest of the [NGAD] systems, is going to ensure dominance into the future.”
“We [have] got to go fast. I got to tell you, team, it’s almost 2026. The team is committed to get the first one flying in 2028,” he continued. “In the few short months since we made the announcement, they [Boeing] are already beginning to manufacture the first article. We’re ready to go fast. We have to go fast.”
The Air Force has only previously said that the F-47 was expected to make its maiden flight before the end of Trump’s current term, which will conclude on January 20, 2029. Multiple secretive flying demonstrators helped pave the way for the F-47, as well.
Details about the F-47 program and design of the aircraft itself remain highly classified. At the time of writing, there continue to be only two official renderings of the jet, which Air Force officials have said do not necessarily fully reflect what the plane looks like in real life, for operational security purposes.
“Just love looking at this picture,” Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink had said during his own keynote at the conference today, which came just ahead of Allvin’s speech, referring specifically to the F-47 rendering seen below. “I expect some of the Chinese Intel analysts are spending a lot of time looking at this picture. Good luck trying to dig something out of there. Pretty careful about that.”
The inclusion of prominent canard foreplanes in the two renderings has been a particular topic of discussion since March. Canards could give the design a boost in maneuverability, but are conducive to extreme degrees of low observability (stealth) to radar. TWZ has previously explored the matter of the canards, and what else can be seen in the renderings, in detail, while also noting that certain aspects could be deliberate misdirection.
The Air Force has said the F-47 is expected to have a combat radius in excess of 1,000 nautical miles and be able to reach speeds above Mach 2. With that range, the new sixth-generation jets will offer a roughly 25% boost in operational reach, at least, over existing U.S. fighters. How fast the aircraft will be able to cruise without its afterburners engaged (supercruise), and with what level of efficiency, remains unknown.
The F-47 has otherwise long been expected to feature next-generation all-aspect ‘broadband’ low-observability (stealthiness), including a significantly reduced infrared signature on top of a low radar cross-section. “Spectral warfare” and “spectral dominance” have been major focus areas for the entire NGAD initiative, as TWZ has previously detailed. Air Force officials have also talked generally about the fighters having next-generation capabilities that will leverage the rest of the NGAD ecosystem, including the ability to control future CCAs.
It’s also worth noting that Boeing has been in the running for the Navy’s F/A-XX next-generation carrier-based fighter competition. A rendering that the company recently released of its F/A-XX proposal has unsurprising similarities to what has been shown to date of the F-47, as you can read more about here. The firm also previously made major investments to expand its operations in St. Louis, Missouri, to prepare for sixth-generation fighter production.
The Air Force has said it plans to acquire at least 185 F-47s, which would be in line with the original vision of the aircraft as a successor to the F-22 Raptor. However, questions have been raised about whether that figure might change going forward, and there has been talk about the potential for multiple versions to be built in incremental developmental cycles. The F-47’s expected unit cost is also unclear, but past projections have put it in the realm of three times the average price of an F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, or upwards of $300 million based on publicly available information.
Speaking today, Allvin did underscore that the F-47 was just one part of broader modernization efforts to ensure the Air Force maintains its edge against any potential opponent.
“The adversary is not taking a knee. They’re not stopping and saying, ‘well, maybe the U.S. slows down, we’ll slow down too.’ Maybe we can take a knee, and that’s not what they’re doing,” he said. “As we look into the future, when we develop all of the next-generation capabilities, we can’t get enamored with the platforms. It’s not just the weapons and the weapon systems. We’ve got to understand systems over platform. It’s the things that links them together that makes it work.”
That being said, the Air Force clearly sees the F-47 as a key part of its future force structure, especially with an eye toward a potential high-end fight against China in the Pacific.
The Air Force is now moving steadily closer to this next generation of tactical airpower with the first F-47 being built ahead of an expected first flight some three years from now.
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