Lockheed Skunk Works' X-44A Flying-Wing Drone Revealed

The Warzone/The Drive: Exclusive: Lockheed Skunk Works' X-44A Flying-Wing Drone Revealed

The aircraft is a missing link in a lineage of shadowy unmanned flying-wing drones built by the legendary Skunk Works.

An aircraft that represents a missing technological link between Lockheed's abortive "Tier III-" RQ-3 Darkstar unmanned penetrating and long-loitering spy aircraft and the company's history making RQ-170 Sentinel is now coming to light. This previously unknown (to the public) flying-wing drone was built by Lockheed Skunk Works in 1999, shortly after the RQ-3 program vanished.

This new program, which aimed to prove rapid manufacturing technologies and penetrating aerial reconnaissance capabilities, as well as the aerodynamic validity of a relatively small, tailless, swept-wing drone, was dubbed the X-44A and first took to the skies in 2001.

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WNU Editor: A look at the history of drone development.