Boeing 'Bird of Prey' question; Instrument Panel

[Lionheart]

Hey all,

Quick question. Has anyone seen the Boeing advanced concept fighter Bird of Prey instrument panel? Is it still sealed? I am wondering if its like the Boeing VTOL figher jet; single wide screen touch-surface monitor.

I know at least one is in the museum in Washington and perhaps one at the museum in DC at the Smithsonian. (I could be wrong on the second one).

Bill

[Piglet]

Isn't that "Bird of Prey" a UAV or somethin'?

[djscoo]

Isn't that "Bird of Prey" a UAV or somethin'?
That's what I used to think too, but it actually has a cockpit in the thing!

[tigisfat]

There really is nothing special about the bird of prey itself beyond it's cost effectiveness and and the feats of the team that brought it to light as a demonstrator, as far as the public knows. The cockpit is supposedly pretty generic, and contains no weapons systems or advanced stuff. It's made from parts off of other existing aircraft in the name of simplicity.

[Lionheart]

My problem is that I need to know what it looks like, lol...

It was a forefront technology demonstrator 'for' UAV's, but was a manned craft. It was capable of human only input for flight, but had Stealth tripple redundency flight computers for 'really nice' flight performance.

How it flies, I'll never know, lol..

[deathfromafar]

That plane was not built by Boeing, it was built by McDonnell Douglas Phantom Works before Boeing bought them out. There is a larger version of the BoP. The unassembled components were openly seen by reporters of a couple of aviation publications. Rumor has it that the PoP technology demonstrator led to the full sized models being made and reportedly in service. Hey, the Air Force kept the 117, Senior Trend, & Have Blue under wraps 11 years so who knows what's out there. Hell, I was at Myrtle Beach AFB in the early 80's when there were 117's hidden in a hangar there awaiting orders for what would have been their first actual combat mission. They came in the night before and all the ramp lights were extinguished. Security was high as hell but there was a cover story. President Reagan pulled the plug on the planned op and the following night they flew back West. Very few people on the base actually saw them or knew they were there. Later, a couple of buddies who were SAC SP's told me about seeing the 117's come through their bases. This was right before the lid came off in public. Lot's of cool stuff out there right now I am sure!

[Lionheart]

Thanks DFA for the heads up on that.

I remember when one of the 117's crashed, I was in Nevada at a car show, near the accident area (well, 1 or 2 hundred miles away perhaps). The news was that it didnt exist and that it crashed. hmm... lol..



Bill