They called it a Digital Century Series. I think we were meant to take the "digital" part literally.
This is the
Century Series along with experimental designs:
- North American F-100 Super Sabre - a swept-wing, single-engine, Mach 1.4, MTOW 15.8 t fighter - 2,294 built
- McDonnel F-101 Voodoo - a swept-wing, twin-engine, Mach 1.7, MTOW 23.7t fighter - 807 built
- Convair F-102 Delta Dagger - a delta-wing, single-engine, Mach 1.2, MTOW 14.3t interceptor - 1000 built
- Republic XF-103 - a stub-wing, single-engine, Mach 3+, MTOW 19.4t interceptor - mockup
- Lockheed F-104 Starfighter - a stub-wing, single-engine, Mach 2.0, MTOW 13t fighter-bomber - 2578 built
- Republic F-105 Thunderchief - a swept-wing, twin-engine, Mach 2.0, MTOW 24t fighter-bomber - 833 built
- Convair F-106 Delta Dart - a delta-wing, single-engine, Mach 2.3, MTOW 15,8t interceptor - 342 built
- North American XF-107 - a swept-wing, top-intake (!), single-engine, Mach 2.0, MTOW 18.8t fighter-bomber - 3 built
- North American XF-108 Rapier - a delta-wing, twin-engine, Mach 2.5, MTOW 46,5t incerceptor - 1 mockup
- Bell XF-109 - a tilt-rotor, eight-engine, Mach 2.3, MTOW 10.8t nonsense - 1 mockup
- McDonnel XF-110 - became McDonnelDouglas F-4 Phantom with 5057 built
Six full-production designs from five companies, each producing at least 800 aircraft. At the time there were other companies manufacturing other designs like Douglas, Grumman or Vought.
Let's compare with today. Outside of NGAD the American aerospace industry produces a single current design (F-35), three legacy designs from the 80s (F-15, F-16, F-18) and is working on one future design (B-21). They can't even put the F-22 into the mix because the production lines are gone. There are three companies with capabilities to lead a project and Lockheed Martin is officially selected as the "lead company" for NGAD.
I really don't think that you can get the same results as you got in the 1950-1970s period from an industry that exists today.
They can stage a few mockups but it won't be Century Series unless all the variation will be on the screen - hence "digital". You can't experiment in metal because there's nothing left with which to experiment. Lockheed struggles with F-35 delays, Northrop is rushing B-21 and Boeing can't do it because it only does legacy.
I think all that Century Series talk and all those demonstrations were a show to convince people who only understand donations and votes (and in that order) that F-35 won't do but NGAD will. If you ask me I'm expecting a rather conservative design with some future potential. I think the biggest challenge that USAF has to face is avoiding being cornered into another F-35 and concurrency hell. If they do that, at least they have a fighting chance.
Or maybe there is a "century series" just not for the manned part. Maybe it's all about companion drones. That would be plausible since already there are several potentially useful designs that could be developed further. It's just that staging a presentation of a digital century series of drones is not very impressive in the media which is why the politicians get the show but not the public.
