The US Secret Aircraft That Made Everyone Go Crazy When It Was Released 

I was an engineer on this program in Wichita KS. This jet was a slow ugly plane that nobody wanted. It's like an F-18 and a Cessna 172 had a one night stand. The head of Textron at the time thought it was a great idea and somehow imagined a huge market for it. For months and years the marketing department told Textron what they wanted to hear - "Yeah we're SO CLOSE to selling a bunch of these jets to XXX...." For some reason the orders never materialized but Textron kept pushing it. Their frustration at a lack of sales was taken out on the development team. I don't think I've ever been in an office setting with such horrible low morale. This program is another perfect example of some idiot with an MBA who doesn't understand aircraft and won't listen to the common sense of the people who actually know better.

Lol, Dark Skies is doing commercials now? I worked at Textron while they were building it and it wasn’t a secret, and nobody wanted to buy it. The Scorpion was absolute failure from a business perspective.

More updates: In February 2018 the Scorpion was eliminated from the USAF's Light Attack/Armed Reconnaissance aircraft competition, in favor of the Beechcraft AT-6 Wolverine and the Embraer A-29 Super Tucano. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson described the AT-6 and A-29 as "most promising". In 2021, Textron's CEO says other programs have been prioritized above the Scorpion in its defense business.

I worked for Textron Aviation on the Scorpion Program in the Engineering Dept. It was way over budget and behind schedule and during its first flight. We all had to go back to work because they couldn't get the engines to start. A month later, almost all of us got laid off. Simply a commercial aviation had no business building a light fighter jet that was already crowded by so many other companies. Since than I moved to Fort Worth and working for a true defense company... Lockheed Martin delivering 6th Gen; F-35 fighter jets around the world!!!!

Its interesting how "cheap light attack/ISR" has become a niche in the aviation world. We should get a video on the AT-802U Sky Warden that JSOC just bought. A crop duster converted into an attack plane. Almost as versatile as a helicopter in terms of where it can land and take off from, but with the higher reliability and capability of a fixed wing aircraft. I think that is low key going to be one of the coolest aircraft one could fly in the US military.

Dude if i was rich id totally buy one of these. Personal jet with big stable wings on a budget? Yes please

Cool concept but with no armor, light payload, no main gun, and low speed and ceiling, this plane just won't fit the bill for any kind of offensive or defensive action in 2023. It's like an unstealthy F117 stealth bomber.

When I was a crew chief on fighters we could get a new F-15 for $19 million and the F-5E Tiger II's I worked on were $5 million each. Days long past.

I'd hate to say this but the area of the market they were trying to corner was taken over by Drones.

I worked on this project installing testing equipment. They were hoping the USAF would seek a dual role as an attack and a trainer. They failed to realize the standard to be able to withstand a 6.5 G climb. This aircraft could only handle a 6 G climb. It was rushed and haphazard. They hired people off the street who had no prior aviation experience. I only knew about FOD and took accountability because of my experience as an aircraft electrician in the army. I’m thankful no one got hurt. They would spend a full day cleaning out rivets and whatever else. Backwards from the “clean as you go” method.

Bring back the F-20 Tigershark and the YF-23 airframes with upgraded engines, electronics, and avionics.

I know the Scorpion, it´s an interesting design, i hope for the creators that it will see success. Would be a shame if it just dies out.

This plane has definitely not gotten much coverage. Thanks guys.

I've always liked the look of the Scorpion, it looks like a mini Tomcat to me, in a "we have a Tomcat at home" kinda way.

The same reason the F-20 Tigershark was never built may sink the Scorpion. It won’t be used by the US military so foreign governments won’t be satisfied with “substandard “ jets.

Part of this jet was designed in my hometown. This jet has been around for a long time at least 10 years it’ll go somewhere when the war kicks off

It's an interesting aircraft to be sure. That said, a better name would have been "Scorpion II," since - as far as I know - the first US aircraft of this name was the Northrop F-89.

I wouldn't call it a US secret aircraft, as least not in the national security sense. It's more of a commercial project secret, so the competitors don't get any proprietary information. It's common practice in many industries, from aircraft to sports apparel.

At the very least, it would make a great jet trainer, but I feel that it has a lot of promise.

Seems like the new trainer T-7A Red Hawk can be adapted to these roles.

Does this aircraft bring anything new to the world that is not already covered by many others; some quite old ? E.g. Super Tucano, Saab 105, Cessna T37/A37, Pilatus PC-21, BAe Hawk, Alphajet, Alenia M-346, KAI T-50,..... I think the list can be a lot longer.

I never heard of this aircraft until I found this video. Evidently it suffered a fate similar to the Fairchild T-46.

It almost reminds me of what a modernised A-10 would look like.

It would make a good COAST GUARD plane for the coastlines

The Scorpion looks like it is made for Hot Shots 3!

Interesting and very versatile airframe.

It peaked my interest the moment I saw the compact shape and Harrier-like overhanging bubble cockpit.

I wish they also implemented swing-wing version of this aircraft. It will essentially be mini-F-14!

First Dark Skies video not to have a film clip of the wrong aircraft in the wrong theater. Thought for sure they show B-24s over North Africa or an F-84 in Korea.

It was a good idea. But it suffered the same fate as the F-20 Tigershark. As for being a secret. Wichita, KS. is a city of over 400,000. This jet flew directly over the largest city in Kansas many times.

It gives me a faint image of a Cessna A-37 Dragonfly

When you ask your mom for an FA-18 but she says you already have one at home.. The FA-18 you have at home.

Its like a F-14 and F18 had a baby.

“Cheaper than upgrading an A-10 or F-16” USAF: “you had my curiosity but now you have my attention”

L-159 should be at the same cost per flight hour if not less.

That jet looks like an F-14 Tomcat when its wings are fully forward in dogfight mode. Did they basically build a Tomcat that’s stuck in dogfight mode?

"sees a market for up to 2 thousand" The problem is that noone is sane enough to actually go for this SMART concept. Seriously, even just reducing your "advanced" number of aircraft by 10-20% and replace them with an equal cost of this aircraft would allow a huge increase in both training hours for the pilots as well as having a larger airforce overall which is a great advantage. . In many ways, this plane is basically a modern version of the SK-60/SAAB-105 trainer/light strike. It's a great concept, but the question is whether buyers will be able to overlook the lack of bling to just get something that WORKS and that they can fly ALL THE TIME.

Man, it looks so nice

Great aircraft. I hope one day it might be revived and find its place...

If they beef this up a bit and give it the ability to act as a missile truck. It would be perfect for the national guard. It would free up huge amounts of budget for other air services. Then if deployed the guard aircraft can be used to truck missiles for more capable combat aircraft and perform air patrols over less contested areas.

I wonder if a stripped-down racing version could be made for the civilian market.

I wish Burt Rutan's/ Scaled Composites ARES "Mud Fighter" had made it to production. Great little battle craft. Light, cheap and effective.

Now, if only the powers that would permit enlisted and lower NCO's use it; they'd have volunteers beyond belief...including a certain slightly over-the-hill 19 delta! Great Video, and Thanks!

It reminds me of the F-20: an excellent machine that NOBODY WANTED because it was obsolete, despite achieving all published goals. I doubt that there is any serious market for such an aircraft.

Scorpion is a cool jet! Saw one in person, static display at an airshow.

Looks like a revisit to the T-38/F-5 and T-37/A-37 Dragonfly concepts

It looks like the T-7A Red Hawk.

Content like this is getting better and better as everybody gangsta until we all die.

A glorified training aircraft. You describe it and the work on it as if you were talking about reverse engineering a flying saucer.

Amazing how private industry can design, build, and fly a advanced fighter, less expensive than a gov. There's a lesson somewhere in this.

*( MASTER LAYANGAN )* saya suka model pesawat tempur ini.👍👍🇲🇨

It's a shame they never put this into production this could be an excellent jet engine trainer for someone switching from propeller and turboprop to jet engine aircraft I'm amazed no one wanted it 🤔 I also love the fact that kinda looks like a mini F14 😅 I think it's kind of ingenious to use off-the-shelf parts for a fighter aircraft

*It's about time we made something cost effect and mass produced!!!*

this aircraft wasnt very well hidden from public, I used to see this aircraft while being developed in Centennial airport in Denver. AFAIK it never was finished except for the first model.

That's what the Philippine Air Force exactly needs.

It looks like a cross between an F18 and an A10.

"A Cessna One Eight Two" 😂

Kind of reminds me of an Su-25.

This feels like the spiritual successor to the "Super Tweet".

The Textron Scorpion is literally an American manufacturer going "What if we duplicate a plane that is already readily available for under $10 million, and make it cost $20 million because no government is footing the development bill?" The Scorpion is an Aero L-159 ALCA but less capable and more expensive.

Brother your giving this jet a f22 worthy title

That is one beautiful aircraft.

Well, at least now I know why everyone is crazy. Thanks for the enlightenment!

Probably late to the party but I'll say this anyway. Reminds me of the F5. More or less same production schedule off their own backs, lightweight, can throw it around, fast enough and can carry whatever you want. Unfortunate this aircraft was overlooked. The F5 and its descendants were, and still are, such great planes.

Top secret? Well, after this video, it ain’t top secret no more!

Too vulnerable to current ground anti-aircraft, manpads, etc.

Bravo to the team that pulled this off. It reminds me of the breakneck pace that the A-12 and SR-71 was developed. You have achieved what the folks developing the F-20 Tigershark could not. A cheap workable fighter for those countries that need such a beast. They dont need a modified commercial aircraft as many have tried before, they need a purpose built machine. You folks have done Wichita Kansas proud and honored the great aviation heritage that flows thru your community. As a member of the original prototype YF-22A design team i salute you.

Looks a lot like the T7A trainer. With swept wings instead of straight, a slight redesign of the engine air intakes, and more powerful engines this plane could be a real contender for smaller or poorer countries to have a light attack fighter.

It's looking to fill a gap for which there is no new aircraft requirement - doomed to failure because there are more capable, albeit more expensive, aircraft already in service that could do that role if necessary. The cost of introducing another, less capable aircraft, far outweighs the lower costs of the new aircraft.

You can achieve outstanding results when the government is kept out of it.

Absolutely fabulous Textron

Must not have made it - it wasn't at Paris Air show - obviously not super sonic with that wing configuration, and with those inlets, its open to a lot of issues including compressor stalls. Very successful development plan but not a great idea to spend development money prior to market research. Kind of like a drone with two pilots. It would make a nice trainer for Air Force, and non carrier landing Navy.

I'd buy one!

I wonder why Textron is not promoting this to the Philippine and other smaller air forces allied with the US. Countries like Malaysia, Thailand and others in Southeast Asia that are under the US protection could do very well with this jet.

I know that I absolutely did in fact go certifiably crazy when this aircraft was released! But I'm MUCH better now.

They made it as cheaply and as quickly as possible? Then I’m sure there will be no problems with it in the future.

There’s a lot of misinformation about Scorpion, beginning with the notion it started as a single engine aircraft. It did not. Scorpion started as an all-composite rebuild of the A-37B Dragonfly, with updated avionics, Martin-Baker ejection seats, conformal tanks, the center fuel tank converted to a HUD-enabled 20mm cannon, and refurbished J85-GE-17A engines, because that was the only motor that would fit in 17-inch vertical nacelles. The SECDEF/IA had two Brigadiers in the room when the original design was proposed. They loved the mission but not the side-by-side configuration. In one week the design was reworked as a tandem stepped cockpit. It looked like a small A-10, all composite to defeat metal fatigue. The original build plan was a $135M JCTD with Air Combat Command and AFRL. Epic Aircraft, Bend Oregon, was going to produce the five prototypes. They went belly up. Obama took the JCTD funding in his 4th-5th round of Pentagon cuts after 20 Jan 2009. That left private industry. What got the program rolling was a personal declaration by a member of the Joint Chiefs to the senior executive team that the ANG needed to recapitalize and couldn’t afford F-35s. Norty Schwartz, AFCS and chief of the USAF high-fast mafia, took the ANG’s recap funding for use on the F-35, so the original build went from 350 units to zero. By then, the company was committed. The CEO of Textron was visionary-all respect to him. But the original composites team, composed of the number one commercial composites AC builder (Dieter Koehler), and former LMCO composites experts (built the F-16, F-22, F-35 and led by Lee McKague) was replaced by Cessna composites guys, who had absolutely zero useful experience in composites. The JV founders planned to bring Textron up to date in the composites world with this program, but the Cessna-heavy management team fired them all. Stupidest move in the history of aviation. The prototype turned into black aluminum, gained weight and lost capability. It was still vastly superior to any single-engine turboprop “solution” anywhere in the world, including the Super Tucano, Wolverine, or that ridiculous Skytractor dressed up like a war machine. A lot of good people worked hard on this but were beaten by terrible management, petty politics, and ultimately, the high-fast mafia. Noble airplane with fabulous capability (could loiter 4+ hours 100 nm from base w/o refueling, with 6,000 lbs bomb load. Could prosecute two EO/IR missions simultaneously. Max ceiling 45,000 feet. Airliner speed but could fly as slow as a Cessna 150.) Ultimately a very sad chapter in the idiocy of the USAF.

To be honest this has a lot of potential use in my country, we still face local threat of rebellion and extremist terrorist which they usually don't have ground-to-air defense and this Aircraft is cheap which is better to use on them.

MODULAR WINGS?!?!?!?!?! we can make it the next F14 Tomcat.

Looks like the logical evolution of the antique A-37 Dragonfly. The countries that use to operate thar plane (mostly emerging ones) can be interested in this new itineration

This would make a great PSS subject!

I like the concept. Good looking bird

Smart design. Thanks for the video

The point is generally missed with this aircraft and other light attack / ISR platforms. Admittedly the theatre in which it could have been utilized to its maximum has expired (Afghanistan/Iraq). Theatres that had no significant air to to air threat and little in the way of ground to air threat. The time these should have been demonstrated has passed. However, the benefit this aircraft brings to the table is generally overlooked. You can utilize a fleet of these alongside top tier platforms like the F35. In effect utilizing the F35 for air superiority and initial neutralization of ground based threats. Following this the Scorpion could easily slot in and provide the required ISR and light attack to maintain dominance. Essentially this would cut down on the cost of acquiring a greater volume of expensive to acquire and operare top tier jets. Further to this, a nation with a fleet of Scorpions would be able to consistently and affordably contribute to joint operations with partner nations operating more expensive platforms. I think the one machine to do all approach of the current military mindset fogged the possibilities of this platforms potential. The future with all one type of aircraft is risky.

In uncontested airspace all good and well But as the Ukraine/ Russia conflict has shown us, even without traditional air fighters the airspace is highly contested, from man pads to major SAMS systems making it so. This concept just will not survive in modern aerial warfare, in the modes it is designed for. I suggest that sales of this aircraft reflect this reality. I do like the use of off the shelf components. I think it is one of the building ways of the future. Cost and speed of construction becomes paramount in the future. Another way to go is repurposing commercial aircraft, the ubiquitous crop duster is a perfect example of this. I would hate to be the pilot , your life expectancy would be measured in hours not even days

In no way was this secret. It was a private venture that unfortunately didn’t pan out

is it going to have a cannon ?? seems like they skipped over a pretty vital part of a "patrol" and light support craft....

The T7 RedHawk is going to dominate this part of the market (IMHO).

Hmm, good timing

saw one of these flying in wichita last year, it was a great sight to see!

Civilians would love them also

It’s a su 25 frogger

Gosh, i would love to have one in my garage!

Battle hardness of a cessna 150, difficult to decide which plane to fly?

That thing is so badass... like a modern F-14 Tomcat, but lighter, more agile, and with tricked out weapon systems. Border Patrol needs a squadron or three.

It looks like a modern high-tech A-37 Dragonfly, without the internal minigun. I wonder how capable it could be on improvised airstrips (grass, soft terrain). With two jet engines, I also wonder the cost per hour. It's very interesting.

Seen this plan many times flying around Wichita, Ks during its early testing days. No secret there.

Looks like a good aircraft for the Border Patrol.

Has is any submarine fighting features? Can it be used to patrol over sea as such?

Interesting a/c. Cost-effectiveness and versatility. Those are two things that are necessary for a military a/c but, will the US military approve a designation for it so it can be exported?