Boeing's Quiet Bird From the JFK Days

Foxtrot Alpha has put up some new photos of the mysterious Boeing Quiet Bird from the early 1960s. It seems Boeing built the RCS test article and it did, in fact, reduce the RCS of the plane. However, supposedly, they never flew one.

Makes for an interesting twist to the standard story about Have Blue.

Very cool. Thanks for sharing

a reply to: anzha

See the size of that nozzle? Hardly "quiet".

This actually makes some sense. At the time, raw performance and increasingly advanced avionics that could allow for either all-weather high-level or low-level penetration of enemy airspace were all the rage. (See also the SR-71, U-2, A-6, and F-111). As it was, this jet wouldn’t have been much of a performer, but it very well could have been invisible to enemy sensors, and with that, who needs performance?

To get the hell out of there, if spotted. For demonstration purposes, the Ardvark…

a reply to: intrptr

gotta start somewhere.

originally posted by: Aloysius the Gaul
a reply to: intrptr

gotta start somewhere.

Right!

And if you squint your eyes just right you can see the YF-34 in there... Not a huge jump from this to Boeing's JSF contender.

a reply to: Badgered1

Speaking of Boeing, might their strategic leaking of some "photos from their archives" to a blog this week, photos demonstrating their historic ability to build stealth aircraft going back generations, have anything to do with the impending announcement of another potentially Boeing-built stealth aircraft?

Or, conversely, might this little brass-approved history lesson be a way of diverting attention away from a pending announcement that a certain stealth aircraft will NOT be built by Boeing...

a reply to: Barnalby

Hardly seems commensurate with building up or hiding either of those, as appropriate.

Looks to me more like someone releasing a few old documents from 50 years ago.....

a reply to: Barnalby

Yeah, I was kind of thinking song the same lines. Either drum up support by saying this has been in the pipes for years or conversely that even though they didn't win, they're still the leaders in the field.

It's too bad that the original documentation was "destroyed" so long ago. Of course, even if it hadn't been it would probably still be pretty well redacted.

a reply to: Barnalby

Besides the aviation themed forums, I'm not sure this type of historic release of a few pics would have enough traction to sway anyone's decision in something of this magnitude. The decision on the bomber is pretty much a done deal by now anyway, and even a protest will most likely fall on deaf ears.

a reply to: Sammamishman

Yeah, but it keeps getting pushed back farther and farther. I'm happy to see just about anything!

Oh my god, undoubtedly an amazing design.

It seems that only the recent developments in materials science is making possible ancient aircraft concepts.


www.google.com...=onepage&q&f=false

a reply to: Sammamishman

Oh, I wasn't suggesting it was to sway the minds of anybody that matter in terms of the LRS-B deal.

BUT, and this might be a big "but", leaking this info to one of the most well-read and high-profile defense blogs of late, a story that will almost certainly be relayed through the more "specialized" and insider-oriented E-publications, might just be a good way to get those specialists thinking about all the food/cool stuff that Boeing does and can do.

Which, incidentally, might be useful for them to be thinking about over the next days or weeks before those analysts and specialists are inundated with requests for their opinions on just what losing a certain contract could mean for Boeing's phantom works.

Just to add McDonnell Douglas Quiet Attack Aircraft concept art.



Found in reddit Military

www.reddit.com...

a reply to: anzha

So the guy that continuously bashes the JSF also gets insider information from Boeing who just so happens to be pushing their newest improved 4th gen assets as better alternatives to said JSF.... riiight.


(Not that I don't love the super bug or silent eagle, just saying that it figures the guy who loves to bash LM's growing pains gets lots of juicy stuff from Boeing)

Good to see it confirmed as real as I was initially a bit dubious about the date on the original photo.
No learned opinions were given when I asked if it were real in previous thread: www.abovetopsecret.com...

.. which made me sad.

a reply to: Jukiodone

To be honest I didn't believe the date when all that had leaked was just the one image, I thought it could have been a serial number or something. Mostly that was because I couldn't believe that something that looked SO much like the Bird of Prey could be separated from it by 30 years. Hands up; I'm wrong!

That Phantom Ray looks familiar

The initial post on FA does talk about the similarities of the Bird of Prey Boeing flew decades later. Id love to see its RCS and how it compared to contemporary designs. Its almost sort of a missing link per se. It had proto chines? a shielded exhaust, canted tails and shielded inlets (at least compared to designs of its time). It also makes sense that the proliferation of Soviet era SAM systems specifically the SA-2 would have them looking at defending against radar.

I wonder if it was doomed by the lack of FBW systems to cope with the aerodynamics of the design.

I'm surprised by a few posts here though. Do people think that leaking this would influence the LSR-B competition? Past performance is no guarantee of future performance for sure.

a reply to: FredT

I couldn't find a previous example of that pic when I (re)posted it from Reddit.

Something clearly happened between it being posted on Reddit ( with an attached comment regarding Foxtrot Alpha being in the pocket of the Military Aerospace industry ) and FA getting the media pack exclusive and confirmation from Boeing.

Probably nothing to do with the LRSB but more to do with randoms on Reddit having better info than the supposed "black projects experts" who make livings out of sites and blogs where they allude to their connections- yet never break anything that isn't already cleared.

Makes those quotes from Ben Rich make a good bit of sense now. I also found out from the Reddit-thread why there's so few declassifications for SAPs and Black-Projects, the red-tape to declassify something like that is HORRENDOUS.