Switchblade

The Switchblade, officially called the Bird of Prey, is like a flying Swiss Army Knife. It is a bomber, a fighter, and a high-speed plane all in one. It accomplishes this by using a unique swing-wing design. The wings are attached to its fuselage (body) at a pivot point toward the back of the plane. When the wings are fully extended, the plane can fly slowly to drop bombs precisely on their targets or land on short runways. When the wings are swept farther forward, the aircraft takes advantage of the maneuverability that forward-swept wings offer, and becomes an agile fighter. When the wings are swept fully forward, the trailing edge of the wing becomes the leading edge, and the aircraft turns into a delta shape perfect for dashing away at speeds up to Mach 3.
You can see the different positions of the wings with a brief explanation below:

	With its wings swept perpendicular to its body, the Switchblade can fly at lower speeds to drop bombs precisely on their targets.
	With its wings swept farther forward, the aircraft becomes extremely maneuverable for aerial combat.
	When the wings are swept fully forward, the trailing edge of the wing becomes the leading edge, and the Switchblade can dash away at speeds up to Mach 3.

Therefore, the Switchblade can carry out multiple missions just by reconfiguring itself in flight.

The Switchblade is going to replace the F-111 fighter-bomber, which was permanently retired in 1995. The F-111 was a medium-sized bomber that could defend itself like a fighter and speed away at more than 1600 miles an hour. The Switchblade was at first sighted only near Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico, at Langley Air Force Base, and Armarillo, Texas. At first, it was thought that the Switchblade was a standard[going from fully back to normal] swing-wing plane like the F-111, but now we know that the swing-wing design is more complex - and better. The design is explained in the series of pictures and captions above.

In November 1999, the Switchblade was patented by the Northrop Grumman Corporation: U.S. Patent 5,984,231. It states, "An aircraft with a variable forward-sweep wing and the method of configuring the wing in an optimal position for a desired flight regime. The variable forward-sweep wing is positionable from an essentially unswept position to a full-forward sweep position. In the unswept position the wing is approximately orthogonal to a fuselage centerline, while in the full-forward sweep position the wing has approximately a delta wing planform[platform]. Moreover, as the wing position changes from the unswept position to the full-forward sweep position the trailing edge becomes the leading edge. In addition, the aforementioned apparatus may be used in a method to configure the aircraft for flight in a desired flight regime. This method includes moving the wing to an optimal position for the desired flight regime." Apart from being very abstract, this patent signifies that the Switchblade will soon be declassified (declassification usually follows a year after a patent filing).

If you are interested, the Switchblade is the result of work done by both Northrop and the Grumman Aircraft Corporation, before they merged in 1994.
Grumman developed the X-29 (left). The X-29 was the first aircraft that employed the forward-sweeping wing design. The FSW(forward-swept wing) design made an aircraft extremely unstable, and therefore, highly maneuverable. The only problem was that a human pilot couldn't control the unstable aircraft, but that was quickly solved by making high-speed computers control the super-responsive wings (fly-by-wire system) and making the wings out of special flexible materials. The result was a highly maneuverable aircraft design with a promising future as being used for military fighters with excellent dogfighting capabilities.

Northrop created the YF-23 (right), which lost to an aircraft competition to Lockheed's F-22, because the YF-23 was better (actually, because of politics, but the YF-23 was better). The YF-23 was an advanced stealth fighter.
None of these airplanes were developed further (shame, shame...) as far as we know, but the Switchblade may be the aircraft that came after both designs.

So, in short, these two companies put their strengths together and designed the Switchblade.

Pretty, Pretty pictures!

		Patch that Switchblade crews wear. It hints at the aircraft's shape.
		Front View
		Side View
		Switchblade Plans (from the patent office) Click to see a bigger picture