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词条 Northrop Tacit Blue
释义

  1. Development

  2. Design

  3. Operational history

  4. Specifications

  5. See also

  6. References

  7. External links

name = Tacit Blueimage = File:Tacit Blue in flight.jpgcaption =

}}{{Infobox Aircraft Type

type = Stealth demonstratormanufacturer = Northrop Corporationdesigner =first flight = February 5, 1982introduced =retired = 1985produced =number built = 1status = Retiredunit cost =primary user = United States Air Forcemore users =developed from =variants with their own articles =
}}

The Northrop Tacit Blue was a technology demonstrator aircraft created to demonstrate that a low-observable stealth surveillance aircraft with a low-probability-of-intercept radar (LPIR) and other sensors could operate close to the forward line of battle with a high degree of survivability.

Development

Unveiled by the U.S. Air Force on 30 April 1996, the Tacit Blue Technology Demonstration Program was designed to prove that such an aircraft could continuously monitor the ground situation deep behind the battlefield and provide targeting information in real time to a ground command center.

In December 1976, DARPA and the U.S. Air Force initiated the Battlefield Surveillance Aircraft-Experimental (BSAX) program, which was part of a larger Air Force program called Pave Mover. The BSAX program's goal was to develop an efficient stealth reconnaissance aircraft with a low probability of intercept radar and other sensors that could operate close to the forward line of battle with a high degree of survivability.

Tacit Blue represented the "black" component in the larger "Assault Breaker" program, which intended to validate the concept of massed standoff attacks on advancing armoured formations using smart munitions. The Pave Mover radar demonstrators provided the non-stealth portion of the program's targeting system, whereas Tacit Blue was intended to demonstrate a similar but stealth capability, while validating a number of innovative stealth technology advances.[1]

The radar sensor technology developed for Tacit Blue evolved into the radar now being used by the E-8 Joint STARS aircraft.[2]

Design

Tacit Blue, nicknamed "the whale" (and sometimes also called an "alien school bus" for its only slightly rounded-off rectangular shape),[5] featured a straight tapered wing with a V-tail mounted on an oversized fuselage with a curved shape. It was the first stealth aircraft to feature curved surfaces for RCS reduction.[6] Northrop would use this stealth technology on the B-2 bomber. A single flush inlet on the top of the fuselage provided air to two high-bypass turbofan engines. Tacit Blue employed a quadruply redundant digital fly-by-wire flight control system to help stabilize the aircraft about its longitudinal and directional axes.

Operational history

The aircraft made its first successful flight on February 5, 1982, in Area 51, at Groom Lake, Nevada, flown by Northrop test pilot Richard G. Thomas.[7] The aircraft subsequently logged 135 flights over a three-year period. The aircraft often flew three to four flights weekly and several times flew more than once a day. After reaching about 250 flight hours, the aircraft was placed in storage in 1985. In 1996, after Tacit Blue was declassified, it was placed on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio and has been on display in the new fourth hangar at the museum since June 2016.[8]

Specifications

{{aircraft specifications
|plane or copter?=plane
|jet or prop?=jet
|crew= one
|capacity=
|length main= 55 ft 10 in
|length alt= 17 m
|span main= 48 ft 2 in
|span alt= 14.7 m
|height main= 10 ft 7 in
|height alt= 3.2 m
|area main=
|area alt=
|airfoil=
|empty weight main=
|empty weight alt=
|loaded weight main= 30,000 lb
|loaded weight alt= 13,606 kg
|useful load main=
|useful load alt=
|max takeoff weight main=
|max takeoff weight alt=
|more general=
|engine (jet)= Garrett ATF3-6
|type of jet= high-bypass turbofans
|number of jets= 2
|thrust main= 5,440 lbf
|thrust alt= 24 kN
|thrust original=
|afterburning thrust main=
|afterburning thrust alt=
|engine (prop)=
|type of prop=
|number of props=
|power main= hp
|power alt= kW
|power original=
|max speed main=287 mph
|max speed alt= 462 km/h
|cruise speed main=
|cruise speed alt=
|never exceed speed main=
|never exceed speed alt=
|stall speed main=
|stall speed alt=
|range main=
|range alt=
|ceiling main= 30,000 ft
|ceiling alt= 9,150 m
|climb rate main=
|climb rate alt=
|loading main=
|loading alt=
|thrust/weight= 0.36
|power/mass main=
|power/mass alt=
|more performance=
|armament=
|avionics=
}}

See also

{{aircontent
|related=
|similar aircraft=
  • Lockheed Have Blue

|lists=
  • List of experimental aircraft
  • List of military aircraft of the United States
  • List of stealth aircraft

|see also=
}}

References

1. ^Assault Breaker Program Analysis.
2. ^{{Cite journal |title=Out of the black comes Tacit Blue |author=Ramon Lopez |date=8 May 1996 |journal=Flight Global |url=https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/out-of-the-black-comes-tacit-blue-17057/}}
3. ^{{cite web |last1=VARTABEDIAN |first1=Ralph |title=Job Stress Catches Up With 'Dr. Stealth' of Aerospace : Science: Eccentric genius John Cashen's departure for Australia has many questioning the technology's future |url=http://articles.latimes.com/1993-02-26/news/mn-622_1_stealth-technology |publisher=L A Times |accessdate=28 August 2018 |date=26 February 1993}}
4. ^{{cite web |title=Tacit Blue |url=http://www.news.com/2300-11397_3-6219637-16.html?tag=ne.gall.pg |work=Photos: A brief history of stealth aircraft |publisher=C/Net news |accessdate=2 May 2012 |date=November 23, 2007}}{{dead link |date=December 2015}}
5. ^{{cite news |url=http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/lockheeds-senior-peg-the-forgotten-stealth-bomber-1534057907 |title=Lockheed's Senior Peg: The Forgotten Stealth Bomber}}
6. ^{{Cite book |title=Area 51 |first=Peter W. |last=Merlin |year=2011 |publisher=Arcadia Publishing |isbn=0738576204 |ref=harv |page=119 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=TLPsUdb_Me8C&pg=PA119#v=onepage&q&f=false}}
7. ^{{cite web |last1=Grier |first1=Peter |title=The (Tacit) Blue Whale |url=http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/1996/August%201996/0896tacit.aspx/ |publisher=Air Force Magazine |accessdate=25 August 2018 |date=August 1996}}
8. ^[https://web.archive.org/web/20141213195801/http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=353 National Museum of the USAF Fact Sheet]

External links

{{commons category|Northrop Tacit Blue}}
  • Tacit Blue at National Museum of USAF
  • Tacit Blue: The Creation of Stealth
{{Northrop aircraft}}

8 : Stealth aircraft|United States experimental aircraft 1980–1989|Code names|Northrop aircraft|V-tail aircraft|Black projects|Low-wing aircraft|Twinjets

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