Message posted by Vahe Demirjian (Member since 04/28/2022) on December 09, 2023 at 19:42:16 PST:
We know that the Northrop Tacit Blue was given the first design number in the Advanced Project (AP) designation sequence for black projects by Northrop's Advanced Projects Department in addition to being known by the Northrop company designation N-345. At the same time, it's now apparent that Northrop applied the AP-2 design number to its pre-ATF design studies in the late 1970s and early 1980s for a Tacit Blue-derived low observable air superiority fighter that would later evolve into the YF-23 design for the Advanced Tactical Fighter program (the pre-ATF Northrop stealthy air superiority fighter design shown in the top photo on page 23 of the YF-23 book by Paul Metz has been recognized by quellish as the AP-2). In this monograph on the YF-23, Paul Metz writes the following passage on page 23 of the book: "In 1978, Black World innovators Irv Waaland and John Cashen informally identified 12 military LO Advanced Project (AP) predictions for future stealth uses. These included bombers, fighters, cruise missiles, etc." Since the AGM/MGM-137 TSSAM cruise missile tested over Groom Lake had its genesis in Northrop design studies for a stealthy cruise missile in the late 1970s and its design was initially entrusted to Northrop's Ventura Division (formerly Radioplane) when first conceived in 1982 before being transferred to the company's Aircraft Division in May 1984 (thus the company designation N-370 being assigned to the TSSAM in 1984 despite the initial TSSAM proposal being conceived in 1982) and design studies for the B-2 Spirit began in 1979, is there any apparent evidence that AP-3 and AP-4 were internally allocated to early design studies for what would become the TSSAM and B-2 respectively? I'd imagine that the
Replies: