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]