Birds of Prey...?

What are these planes good for? I found them on my computer, they are propably somkind of UAV, stealthy ones. The manufacturer seams to me Boeing... Any ideas, are these planes even real...?

AFAIK there was only one, and it was a stealth technology testbed not a viable combat aircraft. I think it had a top speed of about 300 knots or so.

It was a demonstrator, it's function was to boost Boeing's share price and show to Those Who Matter that they could compete with the Skunk Works.

BAe's Replica was a similar project.

The Bird of Prey was a one-off demonstrator, fully funded by Boeing itself to demonstrate not only certain stealth characteristics, but also to test the plan form in general, and the quick-prototyping methods of the manufacturer.

From www.boeing.com...


"The sophisticated single-person plane was part of a highly-classified project that ran from 1992 through 1999. "

Is of particular interest... i wonder what else was part of that program? could be the beginning of some UAV's we know about, and some that we do not. the planform looks a lot like a pilotless version of some concept drawings for Boeing's current ucavs.

There are some other threads on this aircraft, so feel free to do a search here... but i think you'd be best served with the link above, or a search on the Boeing web site in general regarding this aircraft.

Originally posted by TheeStateMachine

...could be the beginning of some UAV's we know about, and some that we do not. the planform looks a lot like a pilotless version of some concept drawings for Boeing's current ucavs.

You are correct.
Much of what was learned from the Bird of Prey found it's way into Boeing's X-45 UCAV project.

if it was a share booster it was an expensive one,it cost $67million so lets hope it works for them, strange for them though changing form a mainly passanger airliner to making 1 man combat things

As has been noted, it was a tech demonstrator.

One interesting thing I have read about it is that the shape is designed to keep the shadow the aircraft casts as small as possable.

On top of that, there are rumors it had active visual stealth, which would lend credence to rumors that if a F/B-22 were made it would have active visual stealth, seeing as how Boeing is a subcontractor.

From what ive gathered in my lil bit or research on the plane it "may" of tested a form of visual stealth that trys to make the plane appear more transparent to the eye by bending light of the sky etc around its panels..... im not nearly 100% sure. I did read a couple times though that they hint that something like it may have been tested.

Originally posted by mik0001000
if it was a share booster it was an expensive one,it cost $67million so lets hope it works for them, strange for them though changing form a mainly passanger airliner to making 1 man combat things

The project was started by McDonnell Douglas in 1992. "Mac", as it was often known at the time, was quite well versed in advanced aircraft, as well as composite structures.

If the BoP was a "share booster", it did eventually pay off with the X-45 and other projects, but not before Boeing, a largely passenger aircraft manufacturer, bought Mac, or rather "merged" with them.

Boeing simply showed the good taste to not reveal or cancel the project before it was completed. Other than that, little came from Boeing; certainly no technical prowess.

Likely, the project was more to boost the confidence of the DoD acquisitions gods that Mac was able to rapidly protype advanced technology demonstrators with limited budgets; after several contracts were lost (YF-23, 1991, +black world contracts), or pulled (A-12), this was an important undertaking.

As per the visual stealth conjecture, i wonder where it all started. I am not even sad in reporting that it is completely unfounded. I certainly saw no sign of it during the BoP roll out ceremony, and none of my family or friends at Mac (some of whom were employed on the BoP) have even hinted at anything nearly that curious going on.

Regarding the shadow of the aircraft... well, not a bad idea AMM. Certainly, the shadow of an object is related to its visual signature in general. But i wouldn't want anyone to get too excited by calling that "visual stealth". Of course, visually guided weapons or weapon systems will have a harder time tracking it, but in the last several years, more exotic technologies are implied by the term "visual stealth"; certainly nothing like the sort of conjecture that statemements like "... it "may" of tested a form of visual stealth that trys to make the plane appear more transparent to the eye by bending light of the sky etc around its panels....." would lead one to believe.


If such technologies were a project by Boeing or any other company, we would certainly not have publicly seen an airframe developed for that puprose.


Technology demonstrator: Yes. Think radar evading characteristics intrinsic to the planform and materials. Think ability to rapidly develop such a machine from ground up very quickly and cheaply. Consider, even, smaller and more difficult to track visual signatures. Forget visual stealth by means of LCD panels, cold plasmas, "anti-gravity" or any related exotic technologies.



[edit on 25-10-2005 by TheeStateMachine]

The classified “Bird of Prey” (also known as the BoP) technology demonstrator showcased low-observables, rapid prototyping and lean manufacturing capabilities. It was designed and built by the McDonnell Douglas Phantom Works advanced research-and-development organization in St. Louis, Mo., using company funds. The BoP incorporated many new innovative stealth concepts to reduce radar, infrared, and visual signatures. Designed to fly during the daytime, it featured markings that helped reduce telltale shadows from components such as the engine inlet. It was among the first aircraft to incorporate large, single-piece composite structures; low-cost, disposable tooling, and 3-D virtual reality design and assembly processes to ensure affordability and high performance. The Boeing Company purchased McDonnell Douglas in 1997 and continued funding BoP.

Development of the Bird of Prey was parallel and complementary to that of the X-36 unmanned tailless demonstrator. The X-36 program was carried out at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif., in a “white world” (unclassified) setting. It was primarily aimed at validating technologies that McDonnell Douglas (and later Boeing) proposed for early concepts of a Joint Strike Fighter design. There is a distinct family resemblance between the X-36 and the Bird of Prey.

This is also true of the X-45A Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) technology demonstrator that underwent tests at NASA Dryden as a first step in developing the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS). For the tailless X-45A, Boeing engineers drew directly from their experience with Bird of Prey. Some aspects of the UCAV's innovative radar-evading design, such as its shape and inlet, were developed from the BoP.

Manufacturing technology developed for Bird of Prey was applied to Boeing's X-32 entry in the Joint Strike Fighter competition. For that program, Boeing wanted to stress new design and production methods that would greatly reduce the cost of manned jet fighters.

OK, nice to have peoples around with a lot of knowledge...

I can completly agree with Shadowhawk. It was an complex project on one side with public X-36 and on the other with sercret Bird of Prey. For example they both used the same axisymmetric nozzle able to vectore thrust in horizontal axis. McDonnell Douglas needed to explore flight characteristics of stealthy tailess plane for JSF.

BTW, two final JSF proposals were JAST7 [with X-36 shape] and JAST6 with doubled horizontal and vertical tail surfaces. But after Northrop participation it transformed to JAST9B with YF-23 like tail and cannards and finaly to JAST10, which was definitive tailess configuration. I am writing an article about all MRF/ASTOVL/SSF/CALF/JAST/JSF proposals. It will be ready at the first half of november