[Cvengr]

I agree regarding the 1970 Cornfield Bomber episode.

I don’t doubt an autopilot sequence might level the craft out.

If it had lost part or both wings, it wouldn’t have looked so pretty.

I seriously doubt it automatically landed itself in enemy territory without also a self-destruct device being automatically detonated.

[tanknetter]

I seriously doubt it automatically landed itself in enemy territory without also a self-destruct device being automatically detonated.

My take on the RQ-170 has been that it was a prototype/proof-of-concept placed into production and operational service as a stop-gap measure. Just like with the Predator. The lack of many well-known "stealthy" features - like faceted edges on access panels and the landing gear doors - would seem to support this.

Given that, it wouldn't be surprising if it either wasn't fully tricked-out with the latest/greatest features, or that it's systems didn't exactly work as advertised.

That RQ-170 in the picture (I'm taking the recent reports from the US DoD as accurate), then I do buy the story that it ran out of gas and passively "glided" to a landing that left it structurally intact - with the "soft" landing causing damage to the underside (masked by the Iranians by sitting it on a table) and shearing the wings off at their separation points from the main fuselage (crudely masked my the Iranians using duct tape)