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Boeing Bird of Prey

The History of the Boeing Raptor

The field of stealth aircraft will ultimately require specialized technology demonstrators to demonstrate whether various qualities are reliable or unreliable. Boeing and McDonnell Douglas have teamed up to produce the vehicle in their private company Raptor a single-seat, single-engine demonstrator designed to promote other programs the X-32 Joint Strike Fighter jets (JSF) and X-45 Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAV) are expected to arrive later.

Only one Raptor was completed, and the product made its first flight on September 11, 1996. It remained in service until its retirement in April 1999, with a total of 38 flights, providing important data.

Like Lockheed's "Skunk Works" label for clandestine projects, McDonnell Douglas adopted the name "Phantom Works" to cover projects deemed "off the beaten track." This resulted in the Raptor never receiving the official "X" designation throughout its testing period. The aircraft entered development in 1992 and was ready for flight testing as early as 1996.

In 1997, following the merger of defensive powerhouses McDonnell and Boeing, the Phantom Works division fell into its present (2015) location under the name of parent company Boeing.

Much of the development speed of the Raptor program is primarily due to using existing components to quickly make a working, flyable form. This resulted in the off-the-shelf Pratt & Whitney Canada 3,190-pound thrust JT15D-5C turbofan engine being the engine of choice.

Unlike the more complex and expensive fly-by-wire (FBW) digitally assisted control schemes on many modern aircraft, the Raptor is equipped with a manual hydraulic scheme. The final shape of the aircraft was very futuristic for its time - a diamond shape with a forward-set cockpit (with the pilot under a large tinted canopy), a main aircraft with swept-down wings and a back-mounted cockpit breath.

Tricycle landing gear installed (from Beech King Air and Queen Air series aircraft). The aircraft lacked more traditional features such as a true vertical tail surface and horizontal tail, although a single ventral surface was found below the engine exhaust section.

The fuselage dimensions include a length of 47 feet and a wingspan of 23 feet, and the weight is 7,400 pounds.

During testing, the aircraft was used to test various hard-to-observe characteristics. Its air intake is more of a slit, blocked in front by a bulbous cockpit. The engine exhaust area has been shielded and the control surfaces on the wings have been moulded to match their original shape. Another quality test reportedly being conducted is "active camouflage," which allows the plane's special skin to mimic the surrounding terrain, making it harder to see with the naked eye.

Success or failure at this stage is unknown.

Because performance was never a key consideration for the program, the Raptor has a top speed of just 300 mph and service is capped at up to 20,000 feet.

With useful test days over, the sole Raptor was moved to the U.S. Air Force National Museum in Dayton, Ohio in mid-2003 to show where it is today (2015).

Its name "Raptor" is a nod to the enemy starship in the movie "Star Trek II: Wrath of Kahn" - the MacDonald/Boeing product is often shaped like a Klingon warship.