Mommy! Mommy! I saw UFOs blowing up evil-doers... http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviation/article/0,12543,365576,00.html <font size=5>Popular Science presents worldwide debut of Boeing's top-secret Bird of Prey </font> by Bill Sweetman Posted 12:00 p.m. EST, October 18, 2002 This morning, October 18, 2002, the Air Force and Boeing unveiled to a small group of selected journalists the Bird of Prey, a previously "black" or ultra-secret airplane prototype that was built and tested in the mid-1990s. The unveiling took place at Boeing's Phantom Works facility in St. Louis. Black airplanes—their existence itself is secret—are used to demonstrate high-risk technologies with a big military payoff, and a revelation like this is a once-or-twice-a-decade event. Most of these vehicles are tested at Area 51, the Air Force's secret flight-test center in Nevada. The Bird of Prey (it looks more like the Klingon Bird of Prey from Star Trek than any feathered creature) is a prototype for a very stealthy fighter or tactical bomber. Some of its features are also in use on Boeing's X-45 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) prototype. Stay tuned for a more detailed report early this afternoon, and read our January issue for a full-length analysis of the Bird of Prey. UPDATED 2:00 p.m. EST, October 18, 2002 The white-painted patch in front of the jet inlet on the newly revealed, previously top-secret Boeing Bird of Prey demonstrator is a dead giveaway: This stealth airplane owns not only the night but the daytime too. Senior officials at the October 18 unveiling of the radical prototype—named after the Klingon spacecraft in Star Trek, which shares its aft-set, cranked wings—acknowledged that the Bird of Prey was designed to be stealthy enough to survive in broad daylight. Today's F-117 and B-2 operate only at night. The white patch offsets shadows cast by the jet inlet, as part of a sophisticated camouflage scheme. Officially, Boeing and the Air Force say only that the airplane tested "new low-observables technologies," but it's more than likely that other techniques—such as lamps or luminous panels for eliminating shadows—were used as well. The jet also employs new technologies to reduce its radar signature, such as flexible covers that join the moveable control surfaces to the wings. These covers conceal gaps that might cause unwanted radar reflections. The Bird of Prey has made 38 flights since being secretly launched in 1996. Nobody's saying where the flights took place, but the best guess is Area 51, the USAF's secret flight-test center in Nevada. The Bird's innovative features are sure to inform the design of next-generation stealth aircraft, but the plane itself, having served its purpose, is being retired—which is why Boeing and the Air Force were willing to make it public today. Powered by a single engine from a Citation business jet, the Bird of Prey is pure prototype, with a maximum speed of 300 mph and a maximum altitude of 20,000 feet. Its take-off characteristics were "normal, but in slow motion," according to test pilot Joe Felock. Though its primary mission was to demonstrate stealth technology, it also allowed Boeing's Phantom Works—the company's special-projects arm—to demonstrate it could build prototype airplanes quickly and cheaply. The airplane was made from a small number of carbon fiber composite parts, and—amazingly, in view of its shape—had a simple all-manual flight control system without a computer in sight. <b>Does it bite? The Bird of Prey looks menacing even when safely confined in the Phantom Works' radar-cross-section test chamber, surrounded by radar-absorbing panels. The jagged edges of the cockpit canopy and the landing gear doors are aligned with the edges of the wings and body, so that any tiny radar echoes will be combined with the reflection from the edge. Courtesy of Boeing The radical shape suggests that the Bird's designers were driving for a combination of fast-jet maneuverability and ultimate stealth. The sharply drooped outer wings act as fins and rudders to stabilize and control the airplane. Unlike normal fins and rudders, though, they are blended smoothly into the wing. Courtesy of Boeing The Bird of Prey has an organic shape. Its seamless, curved top and bottom surfaces meet at a single sharp edge. The Bird of Prey's top-mounted air inlet is hidden from hostile ground-based radars, and the cockpit masks it from a head-on view. Courtesy of Boeing The Bird's plan-view shape comprises 12 straight lines. There's always a small radar reflection when a radar illuminates an edge at right angles: the straight-line shape ensures that this only happens at six well-defined angles. The radar might catch something on one sweep—but by the next sweep the angle has changed because the airplane has moved. The jet exhaust is a simple V-shaped slit with no moving parts. Courtesy of Boeing This patch caused a considerable buzz when it surfaced in the mid-1990s, but nobody was able to identify the aircraft associated with it--until now. Note the shape of the hilt, compared with the plan-view shape of the Bird of Prey. (Source: Steve Douglass, ProjectBlack)
I saw the most bizarre contrail about two weeks ago- so I started looking through all the black project type sites all interesting but filled with nonsense. What caught my attention was the various models SR-71 and the fact they were designed in 1958. This very old plane is still completely beyond the imagination in capabilities. Which brings me to the fact that if we could pull that off 40+ years ago imagine what their not putting out on display. The Bird of Prey is incredible, but if their showing us that imagine what still under wraps. cool thread
