Crazy Airplane

[Atkins]

Anyone ever seen this plane before? Its called the Bird of Prey. Supposedly it is a testbed for UCAV technology, and it was a grey project until 2002 when they released it. Absolutely crazy looking!:eek2:
http://www.danshistory.com/birdprey.jpg
http://www.aerofiles.com/boe-bird.jpg

[kicken250x]

UCAV? that thing looks pretty sic! is it one of the millitarys new deals?

[Killa250ex]

SweeT! Any specs on it?

unmanned? if it is then it wont work

[MOFO]

Originally posted by MixMasterMike
unmanned? if it is then it wont work

of course it wont work 100% with our current technology, but thats why its called a "test bed". Someday there WILL be unmanned planes such as this.

[Jersey450R]

Kinda looks a little like the old Blackbird.

[tater_kamik]

no vert stab like the b2, kinda has some cues from the f22, definately sic! probably has the radar signature of an ant...

[Atkins]

People, its not unmanned. In the last pic you can see a pilot flying it. And this isnt a prototype of some sort, its an actual flying vehicle. Those are all real pictures.

It is so sleak looking its amazing.

[Ex'In_Alberta]

if i remeber right isnt there someone on here who works for boeing.......probably knows better than anyone

Sweet

Im gonna have to pick one of those up

[Punk'd]

Cool, that looks pretty sweet

[tater_kamik]

Originally posted by Atkins
People, its not unmanned. In the last pic you can see a pilot flying it. And this isnt a prototype of some sort, its an actual flying vehicle. Those are all real pictures.

It is so sleak looking its amazing.

good oint, especially since it has a canopy, unmanned doesnt need one...

[Bush0102]

to me it looks a little like Boeing's JSF but with the intake behind the cockpit....maybe they based the cockpit area around that airframe

[tater_kamik]

pretty crazy design, definately stealth... or atleast a low signature. the exhaust looks like it is designed to cool off before it actually dumps out, and all flush mount antennas and no apparent pitot tubes or anything!

[bwamos]

Aye.. it is a prototype.

Prototypes are working aircraft. It jsut means it was a hand built test bed and not part of a production line process.

Aye, it is also testbed for unmanned aircraft technology. The pilot is in there for when the computer goes nuts, so he can overide it and fly the thing. Makes it easier to test and tweak than building a new plane everytime it messes up and crashes. ;)

It also looks more like a lawn dart to me than the blackbird.. lol.

[Atkins]

Originally posted by Bush0102
to me it looks a little like Boeing's JSF but with the intake behind the cockpit....maybe they based the cockpit area around that airframe Thats true it does, except the JSF is built by Lockheed Martin.

Heres the ugly boeing JSF submission that lost to the YF-35, the X-32:
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2000/photorelease/000918n-3.jpg

[tater_kamik]

you know what i dont understand is that i cannot see any sort of sensor. ok, gps is flush mount, and ins is just an lru inside of the a/c, and radar is probably part of the bubble in the front. none of those should be seen, but i would expect flir onboard, stv, etc unless they decided not to throw that stuff on yet.

[tater_kamik]

Originally posted by Atkins
Thats true it does, except the JSF is built by Lockheed Martin.

Heres the ugly boeing JSF submission that lost to the YF-35, the X-32:
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2000/photorelease/000918n-3.jpg

man that looks stupid!

[Atkins]

Originally posted by tater_kamik
man that looks stupid!
It looks like a flying whale IMO:blah: