Slashdot Mirror
Boeing Bird of Prey Stealth Fighter
An anonymous submitter writes: "Revealed: Boeings new secret stealth bat-plane! For years stealthchasers (those guys who sneak around secret USAF test bases in search of secret aircraft) knew the Bird Of Prey existed. They knew it was being tested over the secluded Nellis Air Force Base ranges in Nevada. They knew what hangar it was being secreted away in at Nellis (on the northeast corner) and they even managed to obtain a squadron patch depicting the aircraft itself!... but the government still denied its existance until today. At a ceremony at Boeing's St Louis plant their super-secret Bird Of Prey batplane was revealed today for the world to see and marvel at. You can view exclusive photos of it at popsci.com and projectblack.net."
... it's a plane, it's...
(bombs exploding everywhere)
[Tango 2 to Mother Hen, The egg is in the basket]
mechanicos ergo cogito
How many Pepsi points do I need for this bad boy?
:P
These guys can find out about secret jets, get proof of there existance, all the while the government denies its existance.
Yet, I can't even find matching socks.
Cool looking plane, but it does make one wonder if the fabled "Project Aurora" (spaceplane) also exists. Goodness knows the shape is similar to some of the stories that have been put out there about it (for example, here).
So is it Romulan or Klingon?
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
Two sites using the same exclusive pictures. Giving the word "exclusive" an entirely new meaning...
it's not exactly a tail-less aircraft as some have said
e le ase/q4/high_res/dvd-226-5.jpg
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2002/photor
as you can clearly see in that picture (very high res, modem users beware!), the tail is beneath the plane, instead of the traditional spot, on top of the plane
it is pretty small, though
-- This Sig is currently under construction
Didn't the U.S. military did something similar in revealing officialy the F-117
shortly before attacking Irak the first time?
A message from the system administrator: 'I've upped my priority. Now up yours.'
I can now proudly proclaim I am a Star Trek fan in public!
The bird of prey is so damned cool even the military tried to mimic it... all you star wars fans were crazy! Lasers in space... HA! Klingons RULE!
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
to revinvent themselves. Notice the PopSci article makes more of statement about prototype development and not the physical aircraft itself which it built with speed and at reduced cost. The Phantom Works is Boeing's answer to Lockheed's Skunk Works which was made famous by the SR-71 which it produced went from drawing boarding to aircraft (and subsquently speed records) in 18 months.
With Boeing losing so much ground in the commerical markets to Airbus it really needs to prove to the USAF and the military at large that is a prime contender.
Quite frankly this is an expensive PR campaign whose prime audience is not the commerical markets, but the U.S. and NATO military.
For starters, your wife actually did have that affair.
I was always under the impression that the Bird of Prey was a Romulan design, as first revealed in the TOS episode "Balance of Terror". I don't recall the Klingon version appearing until "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock", and the canonical explanation was that the Romulans and Klingons had entered into a sort-of free-trade agreement for sharing technology....
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
In a multibillion dollar aircraft:
Nananananana BAT-PLANE... BAT-PLANE... BAT-PLANE!!!... OVER. *pssh*
I have to go out to Nellis for work occasionally. Last time I was there they had two B-2 Stealth Bombers parked near the runway. Seeing one of those things from the back, I am convinced they are the cause of 95% of saucer-shaped ufo sightings in the last 20 years.
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
Boeing has a news release with other photos, details, and a movie. The movie is downloading real slow right now though. They've got an image of the plane on their home page, so it's being hyped up quite a bit.
It did look pretty cool, though.
The highlight of the ceremony however, was the free ice cream they gave us all.
This space for rent.
It's a good start, but until they can make a plane that care survive a slashdotting, then I'm not riding.
Insightful: 76, Off-Topic: 379, Flamebait: 24, Funny: 152, Interesting: 201, Underrated: 55, Troll: 9, Total: 896
In case you are unaware, when the first proposals were made by the engineer responsible for the B2 stealth bomber, everyone said "Theres no damn way that thing is leaving the ground. That thing can't fly." I have to say, the Bird of Prey looks even more so like this. I am curious as to how it generates the lift required with such small wings. Usually, if you look at any aircraft, the wings are atleast 1/3rd - 2/3rds of the entire size of the craft (size comparison wise). The wings are tiny, along with the fact that they are nothing like traditional wings with the sharp angle mid-wing. You could say its wide, which helps, but I do not think this is the case as the bottom of the fuselage, according to those pictures, does not seem to have any characteristics required to generate lift. I think I speak for us all when I say seeing a video of this thing in action would be pretty impressive, and no doubt interesting. Due to the more narrow design, it looks as if its manuevering capabilities are much greater than that of the B2, which made VERY wide turns. Anyone have links to further details?
"What can a thoughtful man hope for mankind on Earth, given the experience of the past million years? Nothing." -Bokonon
Now we know what those people saw in Alaska! (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/10/ 17/1219240&mode=flat&tid=134)
-- Cheers!
stealthchasers (those guys who sneak around secret USAF test bases in search of secret aircraft)
During the cold war they would have been known as spies. However, in the present they are classified as terrorists.
Sneaking around secret USAF test bases in search of secret aircraft is a great way to have your citizenship status abruptly changed to "Enemy combatant", enjoying all of the privilleges that such a title brings.
but is it the prototype model that can shoot while cloaked, and if so does that mean the pilot has to have an eye patch bolted to his face?
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
The F-117 was first used in combat in Panama in December of 1989. The Pentagon admited it existed in November of 1988.
But note the project timing, 1992-1997. This may have been a test vehicle for Boeing's bid for the Joint Strike Fighter program. (Boeing lost to Lockheed-Martin on that program.) Boeing built two announced test aircraft for that program, the X-32A and X-32B. Those were aimed at the carrier-landing and VTOL requirements. The Bird of Prey may have been a third test aircraft, to test stealth aspects.
For years now I've been hearing that stealth fighter technology is the "American Maginot Line"... all those billions of dollars have been invested in it, yet it was designed only to defeat the radars used by the former Soviet Union. I've heard that it can easily be made obsolete by using lower frequency radar, or heat-sensitive infrared radar systems. In any case, the enemy need only make a comparatively tiny investment in radar to render any form of stealth techology useless.
The Bird of Prey looks pretty, but I'm worried that it will turn out to be a costly debacle. Does anyone who knows more about this than I do than I care to comment?
really? even better! it runs in the family!
Just raise the taxes on crack.
There is an article here from Popular Science (Nov. 2000) which is about the 'Bird of Prey' aircraft. They article says that the aircraft has a 'switch blade' wing design. Of course, this is all from the hear say and rumors of the time ;-) Still a fun read.
;-)
Here is another 'version' of the article with more diagrams and speculation
It may be more intended as a spy-plane than as a fighter. A better guess might be a bomber. With today's weaponry, it doesn't take a bomb of huge size to make a large crater.
The name "bird of prey" indicates it to be a hunt-and-destroy type aircraft as well.
A last thought is, of course, that perhaps it has something really cool like a "frickin laser beam", or perhaps some photon torpedos?
Side note: How many people who make these things grew up having a lower sense of limits because of star-trek etc. If one day we have an actual cloaking device and warp drive, it will probably be made by trekkies or ex-trekkies.
America's most powerful weapon.
You are, of course, referring to the DaisyCutter?
No, it's the K10 b*tchslapper - killfrog.com
I've set up a mirror of both the projectblack story and the quicktime movie of the plane in flight. http://www.msu.edu/~brownd41/mirror/batplane/index .html
You mean the U2... in the 60s... which wasn't necessarily stealth, but simply because it could fly higher than any missile at that time (or at least they thought... until Russia shot one down!)
Also, regarding your post in general, it's kind of an ignorant statement. Your opinion is a popular one. Why do we need to continue spending? Why waste the money? There is no war out there to fight anymore!
WRONG, there is always a war to fight. Spending money on technology NOW prevents wars in the future. Spending money is what caused the USSR to fall (they ran out of money quicker than we did). Smart weapons must be delivered somehow. You can not launch a "smart weapon" from the U.S. and expect it to hit Baghdad. You need to have a platform to launch it from.
In the specific case of the "Bird of Prey", it is a concept only... says so in the Popular Science article. Concepts are used all the time from our friends in Detroit (ever been to a big auto show) to CPU manufacturers. Concepts are to prove something can be done... which then lead into more useful items later on.
As with much military technology, lessons learned from this concept vehicle could possibly make it into everyday life.
"at least our new robot masters will look cool"
:)
Actually, from the PopSci article (emphasis mine):
"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.
In this day and age, this fact impresses me more than its radar invisibility.
So, this will be the plane we use to fight back against the robot masters.
Hmmmm, WB has a new show called "Birds of Prey." Boeing acknowledges existance of their new fighter "bird of prey." WB.com says hope comes in the unlikely form of a trio of beautiful and relentless heroines, so I guess these Dawson's Creek kiddies are going to fly around in these badass jets stopping evil-doers, (just like our military, I'm starting to get the idea)
:)
Who says WB shows are lame!
Satanists get good grades too...suspiciously good grades
<jedi>This is not the classified aircraft you are looking for.</jedi>
Damn, I was hoping this was about the über-large, super-low-speed, really gigantic, maybe-helium-inflated, possibly-heavy-duty-troop-transport aircraft previoulsy reported (several times) on Slashdot.
Now, that would be killer. I'm really very disapointed here.
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.
A few things dont make sense to me though, I thought it was flying low because it *looked* to be quite large, but I hardly heard any sound (meaning it could have been far away), but from my perspective it was traveling very slow meaning it would have to have been far away to keep a minimum airspeed [paralax motion]... so I dont know :)
Religion is a gateway psychosis. -- Dave Foley
I've heard more stories about strippers playing with his "lobes" than I care to.
And you call yourself a NERD! No self-respecting geek could get enough Star Trek related erotic stories! Sheesh...
GMD
watch this
Oh.. wait.. never mind, the page loaded.
Last time I was there they had two B-2 Stealth Bombers parked near the runway. Seeing one of those things from the back, I am convinced they are the cause of 95% of saucer-shaped ufo sightings in the last 20 years.
Actually the cause of 95% of UFO sighthings is that people are fucking idiots.
GMD
watch this
the F-22 is what we can deploy and have deployed right now.
Not quite. There are only 6(?) airframes so far. No operational squadron. The initial base has been decided, but they're not there just yet.
"Flying turd"? Let's see you do better with a slide rule, jackass. That plane is a MIRACLE. It totally revolutionized the force calculus of air power, and it's a master of ragged-edge-of-the-envelope engineering.
Show some respect. The Skunk Works turned in a revolutionary, extraordinarily capable, STUPENDOUSLY RISKY airplane on a shoestring budget. We need more engineers like that.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
It's easy to look at the matte grey and assume it's a fighter, but a trip to Boeing's press release tells a different story.
The aircraft has an operational ceiling of 20,000 feet, and a cruising speed of 260 knots (mach 0.4). It's weight is 7,400 lbs. that's less than half the weight of an empty F-16 and a sixth that of an F-14. The weight alone doesn't mean it can't be a fighter, but it's no good for any sort of mixed-use, because of its minimal load capacity.
It's also an unlikely choice for surveillance because of its low ceiling. the U-2 was good because anti-aircraft munitions couldn't reach it. The SR-71 was good because they could outrun missiles. This thing, as stealthy as it may be, is a sitting duck as it patrols below its 20,000 foot ceiling, putting along at 280 knots.
No, the point of this aircraft is that it proves new design and fabrication techniques. the prototype was built for $64 million, soup to nuts, and that's a huge deal. Boeing financed the design and production out-of-pocket, and my best guess is that they did it to rpove to the DoD that they could come up with innovative designs, fabricate and test them cheaply and quickly, and maintain a veil of secrecy while they do it.
After losing the F-22/23 battle to Lockheed Martin, Boeing has to rebuild cred with the DoD as more than a missile and satellite maker. My guess is that this is their 'see what we can do' project for the military, since the Skunkworks facilities were't working on much else nowadays.
Kevin Fox
Weren't the first stealth aircraft announced just before Gulf War I? There was speculation at the time that we just needed an excuse to test new weapons in real combat.
If you read the article, you'd know they're announcing it because they're retiring it. It was only a prototype , a technology demonstration if you will. We won't be producing these jets.
Bzzzzt. Try again
I don't the US is too worried about us though, particularly as Lockheed Martin is a joint venture partner in the project...
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Okay, for those that haven't paid enough attention (i.e. didn't actually go and read the article,) here is the short of it:
Now, what this means:
This aircraft was made by Boeing so they could make sure that developmental technologies would work. They did this because they had other contracts with the DoD that would benefit from this technology. As the press release says, technology from this aircraft was used in development of the X-45A.
This is very common for defense companies. They know that they need to work on some piece of technology to get their DoD project working right, but they already told the DoD that they had said technology. So what do they do? They develop the technology in secret (seperately from the DoD project,) do it cheaply, and do it with in-house money. This way, the DoD project gets its technology, and they don't have egg on their face from the fact that they didn't actually have this technology developed in the first place.
Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com."
The purpose of that site was not known.
A little birdie told me this,
current keyhole resolution: ~30cm or 1 inch (!)
Surely you mean 30mm. Or maybe NASA did the metric conversion for this too...