What Is This? (Hoax??)

Just found this while surfing, is this real?

www.newscientist.com...

"Bird of Prey"


[edit on 3/11/06 by Dskys]

Looks very real to me. Much better than those plastic models they show in China and pass off as real weapons.

Looks more like a kit plane to me. Wonder what it's purpose is? I don't see anything that remotely looks like weaponry or sensory equipment. It looks like a billionaires toy.

The Bird Of Prey was a testbed developed by Boeing Phantom Works to test manned, tailless airframe as a stealth platform.

Some believe it was also used to test "optical" stealth, or cloaking technology but that is unsubstantiated. It is a very real aircraft though.

Shattered OUT...

computer generated graphics thats what that looks like

jaamaan, that specific photo is CG, but it's a real aircraft. You can actually visit the museum it's in and see it in person. Not a mock up, it flew. It's been secret for almost a decade. I guess it had served its purpose, so they publisized it. But I know it's a real aircraft.

Wikipedia entry that looks good to me

Want to see a real extreme aircraft? Check out the X-36.

X-36

Now granted there is alot more information out there on the two aircraft, that's just introductory.

Shattered OUT...

[edit on 3-11-2006 by ShatteredSkies]

Originally posted by denythestatusquo
Much better than those plastic models they show in China and pass off as real weapons.

An example of a inferioty complex

Originally posted by jaamaan
computer generated graphics thats what that looks like

Looks can deceive, listen to shatter, what he's saying is totally true.

Originally posted by chinawhite

Originally posted by denythestatusquo
Much better than those plastic models they show in China and pass off as real weapons.

An example of a inferioty complex

Not an inferiority complex, but a comlpex nonetheless..

Originally posted by chinawhite
An example of a inferioty complex

...Or of someone actually stating the obvious.

[edit on 4-11-2006 by WestPoint23]

I was not reffering to the 'much better' bit but the latter part of the sentence which was a complex nothing else..

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies


X-36

Now that is a sexy beast.

Back to subject- the BOP was a real aircraft, as far as I can remember it did what it needed to do. Not much else I actually know about it .

If I remember correctly some of the tech gained from the Bird of Prey went into the development of the X-45A. There is a definate resemblance.

Interesting to note that the USAF thought that the Bird of Prey needed to be kept secret enough to test it at Groom Lake (Area 51) instead of Edwards or another base.

As others have stated. It's very real and if you haven't noticed already, the icon for this forum section is the Boeing Bird of Prey as well.

It's too bad that there doesn't seem to be a wide verity of photos of it out there though.

Thansk, ShatteredSkies, for mentioning the X-36. It was a complimentary program to the Bird of Prey. The X-36 was the unmanned, white world demosntrator while BoP was the manned black word demonstrator. Both programs provided data that was applied to the X-45A UCAV demonstrator.

I recently attended a presentation by the three BoP test pilots in which, for the first time, they spoke in detail about the flight-test program. The BoP was a beautiful airplane, but had only marginal handling qualities. Despite this handicap it provided vast amounts of useful data at a relatively low cost. Much of the hardware was off-the-shelf, but the airframe was built using advanced rapid prototyping techniques that have now become industry standards.

Originally posted by Figher Master FIN

Originally posted by jaamaan
computer generated graphics thats what that looks like

Looks can deceive, listen to shatter, what he's saying is totally true.

Yea, that does not change the fact that the picture is CG. (computer generated)

The picture is obviously not real.

www.boeing.com...

Boeing [NYSE: BA] today unveiled the "Bird of Prey," a technology demonstrator that pioneered breakthrough low-observable technologies and revolutionized aircraft design, development and production. The once highly classified project ran from 1992 through 1999, and was revealed because the technologies and capabilities developed have become industry standards, and it is no longer necessary to conceal the aircraft's existence.

Originally posted by WestPoint23

...Or of someone actually stating the obvious.

So the models being shown were tring to be passed off as real weapons?

Thanks for all the great information guys, i find it so amazing how "they" find it so easy to declassify certain black projects so openly and they go almost un noticed! =]
The BoP looks so strange, the wing configuration is like a missle! It would be so interesting to find out what kind of technology was actually tested using the model.

D

Originally posted by chinawhite
So the models being shown were tring to be passed off as real weapons?

Perhaps as real PLAAF projects and systems, not by you of course.