First Look: Bird of Prey

by Courtesy of Boeing Does it bite? The Bird of Prey looks menacing even when safely confined in the Phantom Works' radar-cross-section test chamber, surrounded by radar-absorbing panels. The jagged edges of the cockpit canopy and the landing gear doors are aligned with the edges of the wings and body, so that any tiny radar echoes will be combined with the reflection from the edge. Courtesy of Boeing

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by Bill Sweetman


Posted 12:00 p.m. EST, October 18, 2002


This morning, October 18, 2002, the Air Force and Boeing unveiled to a small group of selected journalists the Bird of Prey, a previously "black" or ultra-secret airplane prototype that was built and tested in the mid-1990s. The unveiling took place at Boeing's Phantom Works facility in St. Louis.