Say Hello to the RQ-180

Polecat sounds like the tech base for whats going into the LRSB..Has the Rq180 been outdated already?

originally posted by: Blackfinger
Polecat sounds like the tech base for whats going into the LRSB..Has the Rq180 been outdated already?

Tech is always evolving and everything flying is based on at least a decade old technology.

The 'RQ-180' - the designation is most likely wrong - is a Northrop bird. Their part of the LRSB program undoubtedly profited from this program, although their B-21 prototype is probably a descendant of the NGB demonstrator they had flying during the last decade. Which in turn would have been based on Quartz...
Anyway, Polecat was probably related to the RQ-180 competition Lockheed lost. Basically them playing catch up in the flying wing department.

a reply to: mightmight

I'm not so sure bout catch up. The RQ-170 was Lockheed's.

a reply to: anzha
And it was a comparativley low tech, interim solution until Nothrop got the actual asset ready.

I like how he uses the link to retiring the F-117 without replacement as a fact there must have been something else because of the X45 sucess, but its fairly tenuous to suggest that a couple of x-planes in 50 flights made the idea that scaling them up and producing a fleet of them only to not use them in 15 years makes sense just to justify the F-35.

And now the B-21 also?

a reply to: the2ofusr1

They wouldn't know what to do with it. But they'd be quick to turn it over to the Chinese, who pretty much have the blueprints for 80% of our equipment already.

I recently got a copy of the book Dreamland: The Secret History of Area 51 and the section about the "RQ-180" on pages 412 to 416 provides a wealth of information on the history of design, development, flight testing, and initial deployment of this unmanned reconnaissance flying wing, especially because it is now evident that Northrop Grumman's "RQ-180" arose out of a classified USAF competition also involving Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and which built upon SensorCraft concept studies by Boeing, LM, and NG. Although Lockheed Martin beginning in the early 2000s built a series of flying wing aircraft including the Manta, RQ-170 Sentinel, and P-175 Polecat, Northrop Grumman's experience with tests of the "RQ-180" may have further put NG in a position to win the LRSB competition in 2015 despite the NG and Boeing/LM submissions for the LRSB contest being flying wings.

With the "RQ-180" having been seen in flight by ground observers in 2020-2021 and the B-21 Raider having just begun flight tests, I'm expecting that either US Air Force officials will release one or two photos of the "RQ-180" in flight or the USAF will host an unveiling ceremony for one of the "RQ-180" flight test vehicles at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale.

Links:
aviationweek.com...
theaviationgeekclub.com...

Hello RQ-180

originally posted by: TAGBOARD
It can finally be revealed. The first three open source articles disclosing some pieces of the speculated black program puzzle of Northrop. This perhaps explains the billion dollar rumblings in 2008, a new hangar at the TFWC discovered in 2007 and the defection of engineers across the USAF Plant 42 runway from Lockheed to Northrop as early as 2004.

Bill Sweetman (a Minnesota convert), Peter Merlin and Tyler Rogoway appear to have picked up on the nearing disclosure of this effort, based on their various discussions. I've always thought the cranked kite planform selection was a clever way to adjust the station line of your aerodynamic center. This one ain't your mama's Blue Devil I.

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