MBB Lampyridae

[GodSaveTheUSA73]

i was dorking around on the computer as one normally does when bored and stumbled across something that really got my attention...the MBB Lampyridae. Designed to be a missile fighter for Germany in the 80's, it is said to have had a RCS less than that of the F-117. i managed to find a 3-view* and very few other pictures. i think it looks very similar to the f-16 and could maybe have very similar flight characteristics. has anyone else seen this thing?

 

 

*it is a large picture.

[MigBuster]

Nahn never seen such a thing - Looks like Defender out of the 1980s arcade game lol - or a paper airplane even!

[fallenphoenix1986]

Heard of it though dont know too much about it. I believe it got a far as full scale mock-up before being cancelled though.

 

Craig

[Mladuna]

Here's a couple of links on the aircraft. I think it was just a technology demonstrator, as it was too small to carry any useful ordinance.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBB_Lampyridae

 

http://www.f-104.de/exponates/english/exp_...yridae_eng.html

 

http://www.janes.com/extracts/extract/jawa/del00876.html

 

http://www.rp-one.net/lampyridae/lampy.html

Edited January 2, 2009 by Mladuna

[JediMaster]

You can make any claims you want about a plane that was never built.

[winterhunter]

You can make any claims you want about a plane that was never built.

 

AFAIK, the RCS was measured in a full-scale mockup and was better than the F-117, even though at those levels, better is always very relative since almost any "damage" (up to getting the plane "coated" by pigeons ) during operations will change the RCS dramatically for worse. The best mantained and operated plane would have been the stealthier.

[Fubar512]

I highly doubt that the RCS was better than a '117's...look at that tall, flat vertical stab. No stealth design has one. Also, by the early 1980s, low observable technology had progressed away from faceted surfaces to the conformal designs that one sees in the B-2, F-22, and the F-23.