Here are the classified secret planes secretly developed by the US

Due to the very nature of the technology, new stealth aircraft are usually developed in the utmost secrecy. The F-117 Nighthawk, as a famous example, was operational for years before the US government acknowledged its existence.

Also, prototypes, technology demonstrators, and even programs intended for service but canceled for various reasons often remain shrouded in mystery for years, even after they stop flying.

Still commonly referred to as the “Black Programs,” the Pentagon has a long and illustrious history of funding the classified development of advanced technologies. Today, the most secretive efforts fall under what are commonly called “Special Access Programs,” or SAPs, for which information sharing is restricted even among those with the highest security clearances. But even in the world of SAPs, another and murkier designation remains: Unrecognized SAPs, or USAPs.

These efforts are so secret that the briefings are kept on paper and passed by word of mouth only at the highest levels of government.

As we discussed in our in-depth coverage of the legend surrounding America’s apparently mythical Aurora reconnaissance plane, many of these planes may never be revealed… But a few of these top-secret stealth planes have managed to look behind the Black Budget. veil, and some may have slipped under your radar since their disclosure.

Boeing’s bird of prey

Throughout the 1990s, a team of engineers at McDonnell Douglas’ Phantom Works (which later came under Boeing when that company acquired McDonnell Douglas) developed and tested a unique stealth aircraft shrouded in Area 51 secrecy .This aircraft was known to most as the Bird of Prey. Unlike most stealth programs, the Bird of Prey, developed under the codename “YF-118G”, was not aimed at operational service, but was a stealth technology demonstrator: elements of its design and production process still find their way into Uncle Sam’s hangars . to this day.

Perhaps the most lasting contribution this incredible and exotic aircraft made to America’s defense apparatus was its boldness and subsequent success. While most stealth aircraft are known for their high cost, the Bird of Prey went from a pad of paper to the skies of Area 51 for less than the cost of a single F-35 today. The entire program cost just $67 million from start to finish.

Powered by a single Pratt & Whitney JT15D-5C turbofan engine that produced only 3,190 pounds of thrust, the Bird of Prey was no fighter, but it proved that Boeing had the ability to produce a stealth aircraft while advancing technologies related to rapid prototyping and one-piece composite construction.

McDonnell Douglas’ A-12 Avenger II

On 13 January 1988, a joint team from McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics was awarded a development contract by the Navy for what would become the A-12 Avenger II (not to be confused with Lockheed’s proposed A-12 of the 1960s ). Once completed, the Navy’s A-12 would have been a flying-wing design reminiscent of Northrop Grumman’s B-2 Spirit or B-21 Raider, albeit much smaller. The A-12’s sharp triangular shape eventually earned it the nickname “Flying Dorito”.

The Navy planned to prefix the platform with an “A” to demonstrate its use against land targets, despite the fact that it has the ability to engage aerial targets with the two AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles stored internally. In other words, the A-12 Avenger II would have been America’s first true stealth fighter.

By 1991, however, the A-12 was significantly overweight, over budget, and behind schedule, leading to its unceremonious cancellation.

Model Boeing 853-21 Quiet Bird

The forgotten Model 853-21 Quiet Bird is a prototype stealth aircraft that predates the first flight of the Have Blue—the forerunner of the F-117—by nearly 15 years.

The effort began as a study to develop a low-observation aircraft to serve as an observation plane for the US military.

Throughout 1962 and 1963, Boeing experimented with stealth aircraft design concepts for the Quiet Bird, incorporating different shapes and construction materials in an effort to reduce the aircraft’s radar cross section (RCS) well before Denys Overholser of Lockheed’s Skunk Works to develop the means to be precise. calculate an RCS without placing the aircraft in front of a radar array.

Although Boeing’s tests did indeed show promise, the military did not fully appreciate the value a stealth aircraft could bring to combat, and the program was eventually abandoned. However, Boeing credited the lessons learned in developing the Quiet Bird for some of the success it would later have with the AGM-86 air-launched cruise missile.

The X-36 tailless fighter agility research aircraft from NASA and Boeing

Like the Bird of Prey, the X-36 program wasn’t about launching a new stealth aircraft for combat, but more about maturing the technologies that might eventually get there.

Today’s stealth fighters are extremely difficult to target, but not very difficult to spot and track using even dated radar arrays. Due to the performance requirements of a fighter jet, aircraft such as the F-35 and F-22 need components such as large air intakes and vertical tail surfaces; however, they can be omitted from less acrobatic stealth aircraft such as the B-2 Spirit. These components do not compromise a stealth fighter’s low observability against high-frequency targeting arrays, but do so against low-frequency early warning radars that are not capable of providing target lock.

In the mid-1990s, NASA and McDonnell Douglas (later Boeing) teamed up to try to bridge the gap between the stealth capabilities of flying-wing models like the B-2 and aerobatic fighters like the F-22. Their X-36 was designed to fly without the tail assembly found on most aircraft.

The X-36 was built to 28% scale of a full-size fighter, measuring just 19 feet long. It used a canard ahead of the wing, split ailerons and thrust vector control to compensate for the missing tail. A pilot on the ground controlled the aircraft using a heads-up display connected to a nose-mounted camera.

The X-36 flew a total of 31 successful flights in just 25 weeks, accumulating 15 hours and 38 minutes of flight time using four different iterations of the flight control software.

Although no subsequent aircraft have been directly linked to the X-36 program, it is worth noting that almost all official renderings coming from the Air Force NGAD and the Navy’s developing F/A-XX fighter programs show stealth aircraft without conventional tail surfaces, suggesting the X-36’s heritage may simply still be shrouded in secrecy.

Read more from Sandboxx News