Tacit Blue
Type	Stealth demonstrator
Manufacturer	Northrop
Maiden flight	February 1982
Retired	1985
Status	Museum piece
Primary user	United States Air Force
Number built	1

The Northrop Tacit Blue was a technology demonstrator aircraft created to demonstrate that a stealth low observable surveillance aircraft with a low probability of intercept radar and other sensors could operate close to the forward line of battle with a high degree of survivability. An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing building testing selling and maintaining Aircraft, Aircraft parts The Northrop Corporation was a leading Aircraft manufacturer of the United States from its formation in 1939 until its merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman The maiden flight of an Aircraft is the first occasion on which an aircraft leaves the ground of its own accord The Northrop Corporation was a leading Aircraft manufacturer of the United States from its formation in 1939 until its merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman Surveillance aircraft are military Aircraft used for monitoring enemy activity usually carrying no armament

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. Events 313 - Roman emperor Licinius unifies the entire Eastern Roman Empire under his rule Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) 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-stealthy portion of the program's targeting system, whereas Tacit Blue was intended to demonstrate a similar but stealthy capability, while validating a number of innovative stealth technology advances. PAVE is a US Air Force program name relating to electronic systems ^[1]

Tacit Blue, nicknamed "the whale," featured a straight tapered wing with a V-tail mounted on an oversized fuselage with a curved shape. Whales are marine mammals which are neither Dolphins (ie members of the families Delphinidae or Platanistoidae) nor Porpoises Orcas In aircraft a V-tail (sometimes called a "butterfly tail" is an unconventional arrangement of the tail control surfaces that replaces the traditional fin and horizontal A single flush inlet on the top of the fuselage provided air to two high-bypass turbofan engines. A turbofan is a type of Jet engine, similar to a Turbojet. It essentially consists of a Ducted fan with a smaller diameter turbojet engine Tacit Blue employed a quadruply redundant, digital, fly-by-wire flight control system to help stabilize the aircraft about its longitudinal and directional axes. Aircraft flight control systems consist of Flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls connecting linkages and the necessary operating mechanisms to control

The sensor technology developed for Tacit Blue is now being used by the E-8 Joint STARS aircraft. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout

Operational history

Northrop engineer Norm Cashen was quoted in 1996 as having said, "You're talking about an aircraft that at the time was arguably the most unstable aircraft man had ever flown. The Northrop Corporation was a leading Aircraft manufacturer of the United States from its formation in 1939 until its merger with Grumman to form Northrop Grumman "[1]

The aircraft made its first flight in February 1982, and 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, Tacit Blue was placed on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio. The National Museum of the United States Air Force (formerly the United States Air Force Museum) is the official National Museum of the United States Air Wright-Patterson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Greene and Montgomery counties eight miles (13 km) northeast of Dayton is a city in southwestern Ohio, United States. It is the County seat and largest city of Montgomery County. Tacit Blue is on display in the Presidential Hangar (within the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base perimeter and away from the main National Museum site). ^[2]

Specifications

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 55 ft 10 in (17 m)
• Wingspan: 48 ft 2 in (14. The wingspan (or just span) of an airplane or a Bird, is the distance from the left wingtip to the right wingtip 7 m)
• Height: 10 ft 7 in (3. 2 m)
• Loaded weight: 30,000 lb (13,606 kg)
• Powerplant: 2× Garrett AFT3-6 high-bypass turbofans, 5,440 lbf (24 kN) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 287 mph (461. A turbofan is a type of Jet engine, similar to a Turbojet. It essentially consists of a Ducted fan with a smaller diameter turbojet engine In Aviation, V-speeds or Velocity-speeds are standard terms used to define Airspeeds important or useful to the operation of Aircraft, such 88 km/h)
• Service ceiling 30,000 ft (9,144 m)
• Thrust/weight: 0. In Aeronautics, a ceiling is the maximum Density altitude an aircraft can reach under a set of conditions Thrust-to-weight ratio is as its name suggests the ratio of instantaneous Thrust to Weight (where weight means weight at the Earth ’s surface 36

References

See also

Comparable aircraft

• Lockheed Have Blue
  

Related lists

• List of military aircraft of the United States
• List of stealth aircraft
• List of experimental aircraft