Gotta See This - Supersecret Bird of Prey [with video]

Popular Science, Boeing ^ | 10/18/02

[facedown]

Mr. D, you are simply the best.

[aShepard]

Wow!

If we wrap this bird in tinfoil, sprinkle a little holy water over the wings, will it be stealth technology???

[bonesmccoy]

All I can say is WOW! What a great posting and video!

RAH RAH for Boeing !

[LurkerNoMore!]

pilot bump

[FlyVet]

Well, about the time rumors of the Aurora came out, SR-71 was being retired, too expensive to maintain and unnessary. Nothing to replace it. Yeah, right. Skunk Works, those sneaky little Ba$t--d$. Heh, heh.

[SeenTheLight]

Toys!

[American in Israel]

Great looking buggy, I want one! But does not look big enough to mount any thing to shoot with. The body is so small any inboard mounted missiles would have to be small and few of them to boot. But then it only takes one to ruin your day. Perhaps they are planning on using the new Israeli 90 mile launch and leave. It is pretty small...

[pepsionice]

This thing is so small, with almost no wing area for carrying weapons. My bet would be its a Recon bird. The best you would hope for is two to four rockets in the underbelly.

[ppaul]

Very cool.
Thanks for the pics!

[herewego]

Imagine the 117 in 1977.

[paul51]

underwent ground tests this year and may have begun flight tests by the time you read this.....

Over Iraq

[dalereed]

"I'm still waiting for the public unveiling of the Aurora. It was at least 10 years ago that either Popular Science or Popular Mechanics did an article on that."

About 15 years ago I saw what I believe to be the Aurora blasting out of Edwards when I was taking off from Mojave airport, it has existed longer than we know.

[FlyVet]

If that was 15 years ago, by the time Aurora becomes public knowledge there will already be something else flying a lot more capable. Makes my head spin. Art Bell, UFO's.

[flamefront]

Lots of similarity to the X-45 UCAV -

[powderhorn]

can it fire while cloaked? man oh man, if the klingons get ahold of this...

The Klingons would do well to pray for their homeland on Uranus.

[Quix]

PEOPLE will realize far too late that the ID thing is a critical life and death issue. Ah well the frogs are deciding they like hot tubs. . . . so far.

[finnman69]

Loki

[Apple Pan Dowdy]

Oh YES!!!!! Good to see stuff like this. A lot of our retirement money is tied up in United Technology stock(Pratt & Whitney).

[Brian Allen]

Bump/Ping

[B4Ranch]

Powered by a single engine from a Citation business jet, the Bird of Prey is pure prototype, with a maximum speed of 300 mph and a maximum altitude of 20,000 feet. Its take-off characteristics were "normal, but in slow motion," according to test pilot Joe Felock.