6th-Generation Stealth Technology May Have First Emerged 30-Years ago … With the X-36

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

It may surprise many to learn that the origins of stealth technology for air combat can be traced as far back as WWII, where several competing countries such as Germany sought to engineer aircraft with a lower radar signature and therefore be less vulnerable to enemy ground defenses. 

U.S. Air Force and Navy renderings of the 6th-generation aircraft released by industry within the last several years show aircraft designs with a “tailless” fuselage without vertical or horizontal fins or tails. This design strategy may indicate substantial technological breakthroughs supporting fighter jets in the future.

Enter the X-36

What if these kinds of breakthrough designs, which may enable advanced maneuvering, improved flight control technology, vastly upgraded speed, and stealth built into the Next Generation Air Dominance 6th-generation program, could actually be traced to an experimental research plane effort nearly 30 years ago?

This does appear entirely realistic, as little was ever known about what happened with the highly successful, low-cost research vehicle from the 1990s called the X-36.

The X-36 aircraft flew with a virtual cockpit, which was controlled by a human pilot from a ground-control station looking through a video camera mounted on the aircraft.

What the Experts Think

“In a series of flight tests, the low-cost X-36 research vehicle demonstrated the feasibility of using new flight control technologies in place of vertical and horizontal tails to improve the maneuverability and survivability of future fighter aircraft. During flight, the X-36 used new split ailerons and a thrust-vectoring nozzle for directional control,” information on the aircraft from the Federation of American Scientists explained.