Secret experimental military aircraft past/present (10 Photos)

Secret experimental military aircraft past/present (10 Photos)

 

X-51 Waverider

The Air Force has definitely demonstrated a need for speed, and no experimental plane quenched that thirst quite like the X-51. Boeing’s X-51 Waverider, produced in conjunction with Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, was built to exceed Mach 6 ? far faster than any current military aircraft. It’s launched into the atmosphere by a B-52 and uses its hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet engine to accelerate to hypersonic speeds. The final test flight for the Waverider is set to happen later this year.

 

Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2

The fastest aircraft ever developed by the American military. The Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2 is an experimental rocket glider piloted by remote control that is designed to push the envelope of faster-than-sound travel to the tune of Mach 22. The idea is to create a craft that can reach any target in the world and deliver an explosive strike within a single hour, and to do so DARPA has developed a tough, lightweight glider. So far, test flights haven’t gone as planned, but the program is still in development.

 

RQ-3 Darkstar

You can’t go anywhere these days without hearing about drones, but the concept of unmanned planes waging war isn’t a new one. Lockheed-Martin pioneered the concept in the 1990s with a project code-named DarkStar This was a top secret development mission to produce an unmanned reconnaissance drone with stealth capabilities, and even though the project was terminated in 1998 rumors circulated that it was brought back as an undercover “black ops” protocol and used during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

 

Sukhoi SU-47

Of course, the Russians were nipping at our heels during the Cold War trying to come up with their own high-tech planes to advance the spread of global Communism. one of their coolest was the Sukhoi SU-47 an experimental supersonic fighter jet with a very hip forward-swept wing. The unique aerodynamics of the fuselage gave the SU-47 unprecedented maneuverability at speeds over Mach 1. Although Russia never put the fighter into mass production, Sukhoi did briefly try to sell it on the open arms market.

 

Northrop XB-35

Aerodynamics is a constantly evolving art, and as scientists learn more about how a plane interacts with air currents and other environmental factors, they refine the very shape of the aircraft they build. one of the most important developments in airplane design came in the late 40s with the introduction of the “flying wing.” With less drag, these vehicles are more fuel-efficient. The Air Force commissioned Northrop to develop a bomber using this concept, and the result was the fascinating XB-35, which was test-flown multiple times before its propellers began to fail, scuttling the project.

 

Boeing X-37B

Once we’ve exhausted all possible venues for war on Earth, conflict will head into space. That’s the obvious rationale behind the development of the X-37B, a joint operation between NASA and the Department of Defense. After being boosted into space by a disposable rocket thruster, the X-37B disengages and can spend over a month in Earth orbit before landing like a plane. All of the missions that the X-37B has flown are classified top secret, so nobody really knows what it’s doing up there for so long.

 

Vought V-173

Nicknamed the “Flying Pancake,” this was one of the most unusual-looking experimental aircraft of World War II. With a circular “all-wing” design and two enormous propellers, it was designed to fly at much slower speeds than the aircraft of the day. The V-173 had exceptional maneuverability and was incredibly durable ? after one test flight, it actually flipped and landed upside down but didn’t sustain any significant damage. It was a truly remarkable design that unfortunately didn’t have many practical uses, so was shelved.

 

Tupolev TU-95LAL

Splitting the atom opened up all kinds of doors in warfare, but there was more to nuclear technology than the destructive force of the bomb. We all know that nuclear power revolutionized submarines, but the Soviet Union attempted to use it for airplanes as well. In 1961, they launched the Tupolev TU-95LAL, a bomber that had been modified to use a small VVRL-IOO reactor as a fuel source. After 40 test flights, the program was put into mothballs for a variety of safety reasons.

 

Ryan X-13 Vertijet

Vertical take-off and landing was one of the Holy Grails for aircraft design in the 20th century. The fact that traditional planes needed long runways and landing strips seriously hampered their effectiveness on the battlefield. one of the cleverest and most unique attempts to solve that problem came in 1953, when the U.S. Navy commissioned Ryan Aeronautical to create a plane that could take off vertically, transition to horizontal flight, and then vertically land. only two X-13s were built before the project was shelved.

 

De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle

Reconnaissance is one of the main functions of air support, but fielding a whole plain to scout out terrain seems like a waste. Or at least that was the thought process behind the de Lackner HZ-1, a single-pilot flying platform controlled by leaning to different sizes. The Army purchased a number of the units for testing, but they proved more difficult to fly than originally thought. The bottom-mounted rotors also had a tendency to kick up rocks and dirt from the ground into your face if you flew too low.