Boeing Bird of Prey
Bird of Prey. Subsonic, single-seat, stealth, technology demonstrator aircraft built by Boeing Phantom Works. The edges of the Bird of Prey’s fuselage and wings are parallel to each other, resulting in radar waves reflections being limited to directions where detection is unlikely. The Bird of Prey’s upper and lower skins are made out of large single carbon composite pieces, fashioned on plywood frames beneath glass-fiber molds.
1992 – project started
1996 – 1st flight
1999 – project finished
2002 – revealed to public
Total program cost = $67 million dollars
Crew: 1
Wingspan. . . . . 22 ft 8 in . . . . . 6.9 m
Length . . . . . . . 46 ft 8 in . . . . 14.2 m
Height. . . . . . . . . 9 ft 3 in . . . . . 2.8 m
Weight. . . . . . . . 7,400 lbs. . . 3,356 kg
Max speed . . . . 299 mph . .. . 482 km/h . . . 260 knots
Max altitude . . . 20,000 ft . . . . 6,100 m
Engine: 1 x Pratt & Whitney JT15D-5C turbofan
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for more info…
“The Top-Secret Aircraft That Roamed the Skies Over Area 51”
http://www.wired.com/2014/03/boeing-bird-of-prey/
“Cloak of secrecy lifted from ‘Bird of Prey'”
Boeing Frontiers [November 2002]
http://www.boeing.com/news/frontiers/archive/2002/november/i_pw.html
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