B-52 Stratofortress

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long range, subsonic, jet powered strategic bomber operated by the United States since 1955. Its design came from a straight-wing aircraft powered by six turboprop engines. This aircraft first flew on April 15, 1952 with Tex Johnston as pilot.

The B-52 is a long-range, heavy bomber that can perform a variety of missions. The bomber is capable of flying at high subsonic speeds at altitudes up to 50,000 feet (15,166.6 meters). It can carry nuclear or precision guided conventional ordnance with worldwide precision navigation capability. In a conventional conflict, the B-52 can perform strategic attack, close-air support, air interdiction, offensive counter-air and maritime operations. During Desert Storm, B-52s delivered 40 percent of all the weapons dropped by coalition forces. It is highly effective when used for ocean surveillance, and can assist the U.S. Navy in anti-ship and mine-laying operations. Two B-52s, in two hours, can monitor 140,000 square miles (364,000 square kilometers) of ocean surface. All B-52s can be equipped with two electro-optical viewing sensors, a forward-looking infrared and advanced targeting pods to augment targeting, battle assessment, and flight safety, thus further improving its combat ability. Pilots wear night vision goggles, or NVG, to enhance their vision during night operations. Night vision goggles provide greater safety during night operations by increasing the pilot's ability to visually clear terrain, avoid enemy radar and see other aircraft in a lights-out environment.

With a gross weight of 488,000 pounds, the B-52H is even today one of the heaviest offensive military aircraft operated by any nation in the world. Maximum speed of the B-52H is 639 miles per hour at 20,700 feet, or a Mach number of 0.91, and cruising speed is 525 miles per hour. Mission radius is 4,480 miles with a weapons load of 10,000 pounds. Many other combinations of payload and range are, of course, possible. Range is, of course, greatly increased by in-flight refueling. The B-52 was originally designed for high-altitude weapons delivery over the target. Like the B-47, however, the increasing effectiveness of enemy antiaircraft defenses required the development of low-altitude high-speed penetration tactics for the B-52. Again like the B-47, the B-52 has suffered from its share of structural fatigue problems. To cure these problems, many modifications have been made to the aircraft during its long-lived career. A total of 744 B-52s were built with the last, a B-52H, delivered in October 1962. Only the H model is still in the Air Force inventory and all are assigned to Air Combat Command. The first of 102 B-52H's was delivered to Strategic Air Command in May 1961. The H model can carry up to 20 air launched cruise missiles. In addition, it can carry the conventional cruise missile which was launched from B-52G models during Desert Storm.

Boeing Bird of Prey

The Bird of Prey was a blank project aircraft, created to demonstrate stealth technology. This was developed in the 1990's by McDonnell Douglas and Boeing; this project was funded by the other company with $67 million. This was a low cost program compared to many other projects of similar scale. As an internal project, this aircraft was not given an X-plane designation. There are no public plans to make this a production aircraft. It is characterized as a technology demonstrator. this aircraft's name is similar to the Klingon Bird of Prey warship from Star Trek. The Bird of Prey is designed to prevent shadows and is believed to have been used to test active camouflage, which would involve its surfaces changing color or luminosity to match the surroundings. Because it was a demonstration aircraft, the Bird of Prey used a commercial off-the-shelf turbofan engine and manual hydraulic controls rather than fly-by-wire. This shortened the development time and reduced the cost significantly (a production aircraft would have computerized controls).

The Bird of Prey formally started in 1992 and the USAF agreed to provide flight-test facilities and security, including chase aircraft and access to a secure flight-test center. Though its primary mission was to demonstrate stealth technology, it also allowed Boeing's Phantom Works the company's special-projects arm to demonstrate it could build prototype airplanes quickly and cheaply. The airplane was made from a small number of carbon fiber composite parts, and - amazingly, in view of its shape, - had a simple all-manual flight control system without a computer in sight.The Bird of Prey has made 38 flights since being secretly launched in 1996. The once highly classified project ran from 1992 through 1999, and was revealed because the technologies and capabilities developed have become industry standards, and it is no longer necessary to conceal the aircraft's existence. Boeing pilot Joe Felock made it clear that the Bird of Prey named after a Klingon spacecraft from Star Trek was a low-performance demonstrator, designed to put a representative shape into the air with minimum time and expense. Maximum speed was 260kt and the highest altitude achieved was 20,000ft. The 14.2kN Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D-5 engine would have been working hard to propel a small-winged 3,360kg aircraft even if it were not breathing through a tortuous inlet; Northrop Grumman, using the same engine on its X-47A Pegasus unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator, has reported problems in reducing duct losses.

Designed, produced and demonstrated by Boeing Phantom Works, the company's advanced research & development unit that serves as a catalyst of innovation for the enterprise, both aircraft will now be on permanent display at the museum, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The Boeing-funded Bird of Prey pioneered breakthrough low-observable technologies and revolutionized aircraft design, development and production techniques. The once highly classified project extended from 1992 through 1999, and developed technologies and capabilities that have become industry standards. Jointly funded under a 50/50 cost-sharing arrangement between Boeing and NASA, the X-36 is a 28-percent scale tailless agility flight demonstrator, designed, built, and successfully flight-tested between 1993 and 1998. The remotely piloted research aircraft combined several key emerging technologies to demonstrate for the first time, tailless high angle of attack agility, and low-observability in a combat style unmanned configuration.