Northrop Tacit Blue

The Tacit Blue is a technological demonstrator aiming at studying the Furtivité and a Radar of detection of targets on the ground with weak chance of interception. It was built by Northrop in order to test technology which will be used on the B-2, on the E-8 Joint STARS and on the missile AGM-137 TSSAM. He is regarded as one of the most successful demonstrators having been financed.

History

at the end of the years 1970, the DARPA started to be interested in furtive technologies, i.e. making it possible to reduce the equivalent Surface radar and asked Northrop if this technology could be applied to a reconnaissance aircraft evolving/moving in full safety in a strongly defended space.

The program Tacit Blue was launched in 1978, it constituted part of a larger project launched by the US Air Force called Pave Mother . The apparatus accomplished its first flight in February 1982 and accomplished 135 flights in the years which followed, it often carried out three to four flights per week and sometimes several per days. After having carried out 250 hours of flight, it was stored in 1985. It was one moment question of making of Tacit Blue an operational plane, but the Joint Star appeared much more practical because it profited from a greater autonomy and of a greater zone of research, the idea was thus quickly abandoned.

It is only on April 30th 1996 which the program was revealed with the general public by the US Air Force. Indeed at this time the apparatuses being based on the technology tested with Tacit Blue were already known of the public and consequently the secrecy did not take place any more to be. It is now exposed in the hall seeks & development of the National Museum off the United States Air Force located on the air base of Wright-Patterson close to Dayton (Ohio).

Design

Tacit Blue was called The whale (the whale) by those which conceived it, built and controlled, because of sound profiles rather large and in the shape of box. This form is partly due to the important place which its Hughes radar takes; curvilinear design with thus built around this bulky radar. The back of the fuselage is flattened and carries a Empennage out of V. One alone air intake placed on the top of the fuselage, supplies the two dual flow jet engines Garrett AFT3-6 integrated in the fuselage in order to reduce the signature Infrarouge. Tacit Blue was to operate at an altitude ranging between: 25000 and: 30000 ft and at a speed of about 462 km/h.

It is controlled by a quadruple system of electric orders of flight numerical in order to facilitate the stabilization of the apparatus. It is also equipped with a radar conceived to have little chance to be located.

Side material, the apparatus is mainly built in Aluminum but have certain part made up of a composite material absorbing the waves radar.

In order to reduce the manufacturing costs, Northrop re-used various equipment already existing such:

the ejector seat, a McDonnell Douglas ACES II,
the gear landing of the Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter,
the Garrett engines result from a Falcon 20

Only one complete specimen was built but another cell was ready in the event of loss of the first specimen.

See too

Sources

Air Force Stores online August 1996

Internal bonds

External bonds

Tacit Blue on the site of the National Air Force Museum
History of Tacit Blue on AirForceTimes

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