The U.S. Air Force’s B-21 Raider is nearly ready, but the armed forces’ endless development cycle suggests work may already be underway on its eventual replacement.
This relentless march of technological progress has spawned many high-payoff technology demonstrators, and one example is the largest-of-course efficacy the YF-118G Bird of Prey.
Constructed in the 1990s by Boeing, the YF-118G Bird of Prey was the foundation for experimental prototypes that would influence the streamlined design of many high-end aircraft.
These include both the F-22 Raptor and the F-35 Lightning II.
For the first time, this aircraft was not designed to be fast but rather to be stealthy. It was powered by a Pratt & Whitney JT15D-5C engine that produces only around 3,000 lbs of thrust and was intended to achieve speeds of around 300 miles per hour.
The Bird of Prey program ran, in complete secrecy, between 1992 and 1999. A capacity key on the aircraft advanced radar-evading capabilities, its main feature in modern low-observable aircraft.
It conducted its first test flight in 1996, but it wasn’t until 2002 that the Pentagon publicly acknowledged the existence of the Bird of Prey, long after most of its stealth technology had been successfully transferred to other aircraft, the X-32 Joint Strike Fighter and X-45A Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle.
The YF-118G attained stealth capabilities due to a combination of design, countermeasures, special paints, and sensors, which rendered it less observable to radar systems.
The name given to this technology demonstrator corresponded with the name of a warship in the television series Star Trek, reflecting the scope of the imagination that went into creating something so out of this world.
The Bird of Prey was one of the later secretive stealth aircraft developed by the United States.
McDonnell Douglas’ Phantom Works, later Boeing, designed and tested the Bird of Prey at an ultra-top-secret Area 51 during the 1990s.
And cost? About $67 million, or roughly a fraction of the final price of a modern stealth aircraft like the F-35.
This Bird of Prey legacy is seen in its contributions to rapid prototyping and one-piece composite material construction, technologies that continue influencing modern aircraft design.
The program’s success demonstrated Boeing’s ability to make stealth aircraft and established the path for future unmanned combat systems and aeronautical designs.
As the U.S. Air Force continues to further this stealth technology, one would expect lessons learned from the YF-118G Bird of Prey to be crucial parts in the development of the next generations of low-observable aircraft.