Northrop Tacit Blue

The Northrop Tacit Blue was a technology demonstrator built to show that a low-observable stealth surveillance aircraft with a low-probability-of-intercept radar could work close to the front line and survive. It came from the DARPA and Air Force Battlefield Surveillance Aircraft-Experimental program begun in December 1976 and was the stealth part of the Assault Breaker concept. Nicknamed the whale for its rectangular, rounded shape, it had a straight tapered wing, a V-tail and a single flush top inlet feeding two medium-bypass turbofans, and it was the first stealth aircraft with curved surfaces to reduce radar cross-section. It first flew on February 5, 1982 at Groom Lake and logged 135 flights before storage in 1985. It was declassified in 1996 and is displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.