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Northrop Tacit Blue

History

In late 1976, Northrop will design, develop and manufacture an experimental reconnaissance stealth aircraft to demonstrate emerging stealth technology. Under the veil of tight security and impenetrable secrecy common to progressive projects at the time, Tacit Blue was born.

The tests were conducted at the United States Air Force (USAF) secret "Area 51" test facility in Groom Lake, Nevada. Due to the default blue's general appearance - low fuselage, blunt nose, squared wing surfaces - the stealth engineer associated with the project was dubbed the "Whaler," and the prototype itself was thought to be "Sandwood."

Despite its origins in the early 1980s, the aircraft was not officially unveiled by the US Air Force until April 30, 1996.

The tacit blue originated from the U.S. Air Force's DARPA program under the project name "Battlefield Surveillance Aircraft - Experiment" (BSAX). Low-visibility aircraft will be the focus of the program, paving the way for stealth aircraft to serve the U.S. military at a time when the Soviet empire was the last world power to challenge U.S. military might.

Thanks to its radar reflection/absorption technology, the new aircraft will be able to operate near contested front lines with impunity, which could theoretically render it invisible to scanning/tracking systems. The onboard system will allow the aircraft to communicate in real time with ground force commanders and provide vital targeting information.

The hull of the Tacit Blue is plate-like and the body is kinked. His nose is blunt and lacks a true cone. The wing main aircraft is located aft of the ship, but has no horizontal stabilizer. The use of outwardly sloping vertical fins instead added important stealth qualities. Two Garret ATF3-6 high-bypass turbofan engines, each delivering 5,440 lbs of thrust, mounted aft of the fuselage for general propulsion, the pair of engines were introduced through a single air intake in the fuselage spine.

It's proven to have a top speed of 287 mph and service is capped at 30,000 feet. Wheeled retractable tricycle landing gear is installed for ground work. The No. 1 crew sat behind a multi-layered glass canopy exposed at the front of the plane.

Dimensions include a length of 55.9 feet, a wingspan of 48 feet and a height of 10.6 feet.

Tacit Blue's clunky and unassuming plane is known by names like whales and alien school buses. One of their own designers commented on the Tacit Blue as "...one of the most unstable aircraft ever built...".

Due to its inherent instability, the aircraft employs a built-in quadruple redundant fly-by-wire (FBW) system.

Tacit Blue has served as a technology demonstrator throughout its operational life cycle and has only completed one aircraft. It was in the air for about 250 hours before being decommissioned in 1985.

A decade later, it became a permanent fixture in the research and development hangar at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, where it remains today. Some of the technologies proven in the Murray project were later used on operating platforms such as "JSTARS".