Message posted by Sundog on July 16, 2003 at 23:36:28 PST:

Well,
We know the BoP was superceded by the X-45, by Boeing's own admission. Having said that, though, were the reports here of someone seeing what they described as a two seat larger F-117? It could be that what they say was a two seat larger BoP, although the BoP was mainly a technology demonstrator and not a "prototype" per se. It has been rumored that Lockheed has had an advanced "tailless" manned fighter flying out of Groom. I know both Lockheed and Boeing (obviosuly partly through the X-36 program) have been investigating tailless fighters and aviation week had a special article on it a few years ago with pictures of models and even a model representing a converted F-16XL (F-16E) into a tailless demonstrator. They wouldn't just remove the vertical stab/rudder for this as it also had a new wing to incorporate the proper control effectors as well. Also, I am pretty it was in Aviation Week, but it was stated that Boeing was constructing a secret aircraft at Palmdale in the same building where they constructed the JSF prototype and it wasn't related to the JSF program.

In Reply to: Bird of Prey and X-36 to USAF Museum posted by Andre' M. Dall'au on July 16, 2003 at 14:28:51 PST:

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