Boeing Model 853-1 "Quiet Bird"

Historical info

For years all that was known about this aircraft was a single Photograph and a Name. Quiet Bird. The Boeing Model 853 was designed in the early '60's to explore the possibilities in reducing the detactability of an aircraft through the use of a reduced radar cross section and reduced thermal signature. This effectively made the "Quiet Bird" (as it came to be known) the worlds first aircraft designed with its stealth capabilities as its primary focus. What Boeing built was an aircraft so advanced that several design features of this aircraft would not be incorporated into another aircraft for another 40 odd years.
Examples of some of these features include;

Gold infused canopy (to hide the highly reflective pilots helmet visor)
Low-observable engine inlets (to hide the highly reflective engine turbines)
Butterfly (V) tail (to hide the engine exhaust)
Engine buried into the fuselage (to further reduce the thermal signature)

These and other features combined to give this aircraft a very stealthy radar cross section as well as rendering it undetectable heat signature from anywhere but directly above or behind it. However despite its successful tests, this project was dropped due to lack of interest from the Airforce. At this time, Aircraft were prized for their raw speed and power rather than their sneaky-ness. The quiet bird project was shelved before ever taking to the air. Even Boeing says that very little information remains on this aircraft.

Gallery

Controls

All normal flight controls. VTOL Down for flaps.

Notes

Its been at least 3 years since the last Quiet Bird was uploaded so I thought this interesting plane had this update long due. This is 1:1 scale.