Since the late 1950s, most of America’s warplanes have been given names that indicate a threat, like the F-4 Phantom and the A-6 Intruder, or animals like the F-14 Tomcat, the F-15 Eagle and the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

On Friday, the country’s 47th president, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth by his side in the Oval Office, announced that the U.S. Air Force’s newest jet would be the F-47.

What kind of moniker the F-47 will get was left unsaid.

The president said 47 was “a beautiful number,” but offered few details, other than that Boeing would make the new jet and that it would be considered a sixth-generation fighter.

Elon Musk, who is one of Mr. Trump’s closest advisers, has said the Defense Department should be buying drones instead of the potentially more expensive fighter jets.

The Air Force chief of staff, Gen. David W. Allvin, was also in the Oval Office and said later in a statement that the F-47 was “a monumental leap forward in securing America’s air superiority for decades to come.” He added that the F-47 would be “the most advanced, lethal and adaptable fighter ever developed — designed to outpace, outmaneuver, and outmatch any adversary that dares to challenge our brave airmen.”

Mr. Trump said that an experimental version of the plane had been flying for almost five years.

An image that appeared to be an artist’s rendering of an F-47. The Air Force chief of staff said it would be “the most advanced, lethal and adaptable fighter ever developed.” Credit…Haiyun Jiang for The New York Times

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