Bird of Prey

Other clues corroborate the visual stealth components. In 1995, an aircraft specifically designed to test the visual stealth of other aircraft, a KC-135 tanker modified to carry sensitive infrared and optical sensors, made its first flight, a year before the Bird of Prey. Around the same time, a series of reports suggested that "invisible" prototypes were being tested at Area 51. A 1997 Popular Science story pointed to the possibility of fitting an airplane with large electroluminescent panels, controlled by computers to match the airplane's luminance to its background.




What next? Some features of the Bird of Prey are reflected in the Boeing X-45A unmanned combat air vehicle prototype, now flying at Edwards AFB-but that may not be the whole story. USAF Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper, who attended the unveiling, as did Air Force Secretary James Roche, has repeatedly said that daylight operability of stealth aircraft is essential, and has used it as a justification for the F/A-22 fighter built by Lockheed Martin. (While the Raptor is not visually stealthy in daylight, its speed and altitude capabilities allow it to evade the threats faced by the B-2 and F-117.)




But the F/A-22's tests are behind schedule. Unveiling the Bird of Prey is a way for the Air Force to warn Lockheed Martin that there may be other ways to achieve daylight operability of stealth aircraft-in short, that Lockheed Martin is not indispensable and that the F/A-22 project needs to move faster. And it allows Boeing to propose ultra-stealthy airplanes as an alternative to the F/A-22's bomber derivative, the FB-22.



Another possible reason for the announcement: A bigger Bird. Six years after Have Blue made its first flight, the F-117 was in production, and the Air Force has had time to build a few bigger, operational aircraft with Bird of Prey technology. Has it done so? Are there other ultra-secret aircraft waiting in the wings? It's up to potential enemies to guess and decide whether they can let their air defense crews relax in the daytime. The question is, how lucky do they feel? n

Bill Sweetman is a contributing editor at Popular Science.