Secret UK stealth plane project revealed

The existence of a secret programme to produce Britain's own stealth plane has been revealed with the declassification of a single photograph and a short statement.

The craft pictured is full-scale model and was completed in 1999, after five years of work. The �20 million programme, codenamed Replica, was jointly funded by BAE Systems and the UK Ministry of Defence.



Few details have been released, but BAE Systems says Replica was subjected to a "rigorous test programme", which assessed its cross section on radar. This would be key to evaluating whether the craft had "low observability", i.e. stealth. However, it is not known whether systems to reduce its infra-red, acoustic or visual signatures were used.

Replica was never intended to be as difficult to detect as the exotic and extremely expensive pure stealth aircraft such as the US F-117a and B-2. But UK stealth specialists are said to have achieved their goal of striking a balance between low observability and cost. It also demonstrated British expertise in the complex world of stealth technology.

www.newscientist.com...


[Edited on 1-6-2003 by mad scientist]

Great find mad scientist!!!...you're two months late
They released that article on the 04th of�April�this year.

It you browse through this forum's old threads, you will find a discussion about this project

Yeah, I did a quick search for it and couldn't find it.

\Well, the stealth plane looks cooler than ours!

mad scientist, do not listen Zion, this jealous dutch. :p

You did a great find.

www.invisible-defenders.org...



"The following is a press release from BAE Systems - 25 March 2003"

Nice "pic", sadly there isnt much hard facts around about "Project Replica"..

It looks like a flying penguin Well, us Brits can do something right!

The programme was completed in early 1999 and testing proved successful, demonstrating that the designed model achieved the signature targets.

Why didn't we hear about this sooner?

[Edited on 30-8-2003 by MrEisenhower]

Yeah, wonder why.. not!

Military has its secrets for a reason.. it is not good to have "enemy" knowing what you are up to..

If public knows, so does the enemy.. but then again the enemy usually knows from the very start, what you are up to.

Good job of keeping it secret. Its hard to keep things like that secret in Britain, it being such a big project and all.

Im not certain this is designed for flight though; maybe just a demo mock up. The wings seem far too small and thin to give it a lot of lift....although that big flat body looks interesting.

Fly-by-wire is such an amazing thing with aircraft that appear to not be flight worthy.

The body of this particular design and configuration allows for 'lift' probably making up for what is lost in the relative size of the wing configuration(s).

regards
seekerof

Yeah thats what I was thinking too. Might have to look into this one.

Not that it would be easy finding info on it LOL.

I wonder how many other countries now have similar projects??

It's about time we found a solid UK stealth. I didn't say much about it, but I've suspected that others (paticuarly the UK) had stealth aircraft. I have a book called Nighthawk: F-117A stealth. In that book it states that the British were involed in the early years of the F-117A program. In light of that fact, it's not surprizing that the British have stealth.

Tim

it'd be great to see what Australia has cooking up out in the underground bases in the outback.

Originally posted by RAAFY
it'd be great to see what Australia has cooking up out in the underground bases in the outback.

RAAFY, do u mean under pine gap? I would love any
info

Originally posted by sanctum

Originally posted by RAAFY
it'd be great to see what Australia has cooking up out in the underground bases in the outback.

RAAFY, do u mean under pine gap? I would love any
info

Pine Gap is the US's base.. Australia has nothin to do with it. I'm talkin bout the Secret RAAF Bases like Shneider and the other two..cant remember the names that are apparently there

Originally posted by RAAFY

Originally posted by sanctum

Originally posted by RAAFY
it'd be great to see what Australia has cooking up out in the underground bases in the outback.

RAAFY, do u mean under pine gap? I would love any
info

Pine Gap is the US's base.. Australia has nothin to do with it. I'm talkin bout the Secret RAAF Bases like Shneider and the other two..cant remember the names that are apparently there

There r aussie's 'employed' at pine gap. Prob' at a very low clearance. They work on a roster e.g. 1 week on 1 off
and r based in the alice. I know a woman who is married 2
one. Man r they good at keeping the oath of secrecy!
I once asked a casual q/a, and they changed the subject
very quickly. The ques' was, what percent of info
does the oz gov' see. The next comment was a very
sarcastic, 'the garden looks nice' This was last year
when they paid a vis' while on holi'

I wonder if it is using the same tech for stealth as the B2. It looks like it has metal strips going up the leading and trailing edges, which could be used to ionize the air arround the plane like the B2 does. And if that is true, than maby the plane will also have a type anti-gravity like the B2 is claimed to have.

Originally posted by RedDragon
I wonder how many other countries now have similar projects??

india with their MCA, russia with pak-fa, china with XXJ, etc...

[Edited on 23-1-2004 by SectorGaza]

Originally posted by RAAFY
it'd be great to see what Australia has cooking up out in the underground bases in the outback.

I remember watching doco', a couple of years ago,
that there is an underground 'fresh water reservoir'
sort of like a cave/labrynth water-table, that starts
under the nullabor and go's north under the N.T.
and is also as far n/w as kakadu. it could pose
a few q/a re; location of underground fac'.