Boeing Bird of Prey

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Bird of Prey
Boeing Bird of Prey USAF.jpg
General information
TypeExperimental stealth testbed
Manufacturer McDonnell Douglas / Boeing
StatusOn display
Number built1
History
First flightSeptember 11, 1996
RetiredApril 1999
Preserved at National Museum of the United States Air Force

The Boeing Bird of Prey is an American black project aircraft, intended to demonstrate stealth technology. It was developed by McDonnell Douglas and Boeing in the 1990s. [1] The company provided $67 million of funding for the project; [1] it was a low-cost program compared to many other programs of similar scale. It developed technology and materials which would later be used on Boeing's X-45 unmanned combat air vehicle. As an internal project, this aircraft was not given an X-plane designation. There are no public plans to make this a production aircraft. It is characterised as a technology demonstrator. The Boeing Bird of prey didn’t have any direct influence on the development of the F-22 raptor or the B-2 bomber, however it did influence Boeing’s knowledge regarding “stealth shaping” and manufacturing methods tested on the Boeing bird of prey, which later on influenced F-22 and B-2 production work

Contents

Design and development

Boeing Bird of Prey concept art Bird of prey concept.jpg
Boeing Bird of Prey concept art

Development of the Bird of Prey began in 1992 by McDonnell Douglas's Phantom Works division for special projects, at Area 51. The aircraft's name is a reference to the Klingon Bird-of-Prey, a fictional class of starships seen in the science fiction franchise Star Trek . [2] Phantom Works later became part of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems after the Boeing–McDonnell Douglas merger in 1997.

The first flight was in 1996, and 39 more flights were performed through the program's conclusion in 1999. [1] The Bird of Prey was designed to prevent shadows and is believed to have been used to test active camouflage, which would involve its surfaces changing color or luminosity to match the surroundings. [3]

Because it was a demonstration aircraft, the Bird of Prey used a commercial off-the-shelf turbofan engine and manual hydraulic controls rather than fly-by-wire. This shortened the development time and greatly reduced its cost. (A production aircraft would have computerized controls.)

The shape is aerodynamically stable enough to be flown without computer correction. Its aerodynamic stability is in part due to lift provided by the chines, as used in other aircraft including the SR-71 Blackbird. This provided lift for the nose in flight. This configuration, which can be stable without a horizontal tailplane and a conventional vertical rudder, is now a standard in later stealth unmanned aerial vehicles such as the X-45 and X-47, tailless aircraft which use drag rudders (asymmetrically used wingtip airbrakes) for yaw control.

The aircraft, which had given the designation "YF-118G" as a cover, [4] was made public on October 18, 2002. [1]

Aircraft on display

Boeing Bird of Prey at the National Museum of the United States Air Force Boeing Bird of Prey - 1.jpg
Boeing Bird of Prey at the National Museum of the United States Air Force

The Bird of Prey was put on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio on July 16, 2003. It is now on display at the museum's Modern Flight Gallery above their F-22 Raptor.

Specifications

Bird of Prey exhibit at the National Museum of the United States Air Force Boeing Bird of Prey 01.jpg
Bird of Prey exhibit at the National Museum of the United States Air Force

Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 2003–2004 [5]

General characteristics

Performance

See also

Related development

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Boeing Unveils Bird of Prey Stealth Technology Demonstrator" Archived October 10, 2004, at the Wayback Machine . Boeing, October 18, 2002.
  2. ↑ USAF Museum literature
  3. ↑ "Now you see it, now you won't: Boeing lifts the veil on stealthy Bird of Prey". Jane's International Defence Review , December 2, 2002.
  4. ↑ Suciu, Peter (May 1, 2020). "Boeing's Stealth YF-118G 'Bird of Prey' Was Straight Out of Science Fiction". The National Interest . Archived from the original on January 2, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
  5. ↑ Jackson 2003, p. 580.
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