Top 10+ Secret Warplanes of the Cold War

Hiding in the shadows of the Cold War, was an arsenal of highly classified, high-tech aircraft.

From the closely-guarded gates of Area 51 to secretive hangars around the world, there were aircraft they didn’t want you to see. Here are 10 Secret Warplanes of the Cold War:

10: Northrop B-2 Spirit

The extremely expensive B-2 was developed in great secrecy during the Cold War. The reason for this secrecy was simple: The curved shape of this sinister flying wing and its lack of tail surfaces explained much about it:  it had achieved a high degree of radar stealth.

The Northrop company had been exploring all-wing aircraft since before even the Northrop N-1M flew in 1940. The benefits were clear: every part of the aircraft contributed to lift, and the design could be kept very simple. A flying wing is likely to offer greater efficiency and, therefore, range than an equivalent conventional design, and it can be stealthier.

Every effort was made to make the B-2 stealthy, including the use of extremely exotic materials and manufacturing techniques. This effort was not cheap, and each B-2 cost around $2 billion. With the end of the Cold War and spiralling costs, only 21 aircraft were created.

With an intercontinental range and the ability to carry over 18,000 kg of weapons, combined and a high degree of survivability against modern air defences, the B-2 remains an important part of US air power. Like the B-52s, the B-2s is a long-range bomber types able to carry nuclear weapons.

9: Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk

The F-117 ushered in the stealth revolution and put the new meaning of the word ‘stealth’ into the vocabulary of millions. The F-117 was made of flat planes that reflected radar energy away from where the hostile radar wanted it to go.

To tightly control the geometry of every external part of the aircraft, there could be no irregular shapes, like external bombs or a circular nose cone, and the result was a sinister alien appearance.

The Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was developed in great secrecy, as its appearance would reveal its game-changing concept to the expert eye. It was only revealed – briefly - at a press conference in 1988.  It was in the Allied campaign in 1991 against Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait that the F-117 became world-famous for its precision attacks in central Baghdad, seemingly immune from Iraqi defences and able to deliver bombs with great precision.

The shooting down of an F-117 over Serbia in 1999 would dent its reputation. Though officially retired long ago, it remains in service to train US fighter pilots and ground defence forces how to counter stealth aircraft.

8: Lockheed Have Blue

The Have Blue test aircraft was utterly radical in shape and concept. Aerodynamic efficiency was sacrificed for reflecting radar waves, resulting in a fiercely swept wing and a weird mass of flat surfaces.

Though elements of radar stealth or reduced radar observability had been baked into the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, Have Blue took it to another level. For this technology demonstrator, stealth was not a consideration but the primary design driver. The plane proved a technology that would shake up military aviation.

Blue first flew in December 1977, proving a concept that would define the later Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk. The Have Blue was smaller than the F-117, however.

Key to the stealth is the shape of the aircraft. The Have Blue’s angular form reflected radar waves away from the transmitters that sent them. As the shape revealed the concept, Have Blue was highly classified and kept secret for a long time.

7: Northrop Tacit Blue

Tacit Blue was one of the most bizarre aircraft to have flown in the Cold War. Not only was it awkward in appearance, but a Northrop engineer once described it as possibly the most unstable aircraft he had ever flown.

The Northrop Tacit Blue strange whale-like shape was due to the need to carry a massive internal radar array and also being stealthy. The result was that it looked like a giant bathtub combined with an airliner.

The aircraft was the result of an effort between DARPA and the US Air Force project called BSAX. The aim of the BSAX was to create a stealthy reconnaissance aircraft that could keep an eye on the battlefield while remaining unseen by hostile forces.

It was part of a concept which aimed to combine modern technology to destroy tank formations, often deep behind enemy lines. Ultimately, the idea for Tacit Blue was dropped, and its radar would be fitted to a conventional aircraft, the Northrop Grumman E-8. The Northrop Tacit Bluet flew in 1982, but it was not declassified until 1996.

6: Lockheed U-2

Today a military aircraft takes around 20 years from conception to service entry; however, the first U-2 was designed and built a mere eight months after the contract was signed. The first flight was in 1955. The project was led by the great aircraft designer Kelly Johnson (1910-1990) and developed in great secrecy.

For 70 years U-2s have penetrated the inhospitable darkness of the stratosphere to spy on America’s enemies. From their first mission over the USSR in 1956, the Soviets were aware of the presence of these CIA-operated intruders, but were powerless to destroy them; fighters of the 1950s simply could not catch an enemy flying at 21,000 metres.

Things changed on May 1 1960 when a Soviet surface-to-air missile shot down a U-2. The CIA pilot Gary Powers was captured and sentenced to three years in prison followed by seven years of hard labour (of which he served only two). The US cover story that it was a weather plane that had flown off course was never believed by the Soviets - the U-2 had fallen to the ground almost intact, allowing its secrets to be studied at leisure.

The shoot-down was a diplomatic disaster for the Americans, and this was the first time the American public had heard of this highly secret project.  The CIA also supplied U-2s to the Taiwanese air force. Of the nineteen aircraft flown by Taiwan, eleven were lost, five of these being shot down over China.

5: Handley Page Victor SR2

Though famous as a bomber, the first operational use of the Victor was in clandestine surveillance. The first three Victors to enter operational use with the RAF did so as part of a secretive unit set up at an airbase near Cambridge to gather radar mapping information on potential targets for the nuclear bomber force. They used the a Side-Scan radar fitted in the radar bay under the forward fuselage, which could detect ships over 320 km away.

Perhaps even more impressive than its high technology and freakishly good looks, or even its ability to smash civilisations to ashes, was its skills as a spy.

The Victor SR2 was a world-class intelligence-gathering monster. Most of the publicly available material about SR2 is very discrete about its capabilities, but if you speak to those involved in the aircraft, they will vaguely hint at its brilliance.

The aircraft is generally described as having a maritime reconnaissance role, and examples are given of its capability, such as the ability for one aircraft to map all the shipping in the Mediterranean sea in a seven-hour mission.

4: Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

The Cold War was a struggle for dominance between the United States and the Soviet Union. With both superpowers armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons and many proxy wars across the world, it was a time of great tension, and the SR-71 was the reconnaissance aircraft to help the Americans to see.

When I asked former SR-71 Blackbird pilot BC Thomas to explain why the SR-71 was so important, he said that, “No other could fly as fast, as high, or carry thousands of pounds of equipment above 24,000 metres.” 

It was the primary strategic reconnaissance asset for America during the final 25 years of the Cold War. The SR-71 could sustain continuous Mach 3+ flight for over an hour while obtaining the highest quality reconnaissance information from multiple sensors, and with aerial refuelling, the aircraft could had the ability to fly around the world in one flight.

The aircraft was one of the first to use stealth technology, thereby ensuring that the airplane was almost invisible to radar. Its speed and altitude also hid its presence.

During this time of sparse reconnaissance satellite coverage over potential enemy targets, the SR-71 could sneak up, gather vital information, and leave the area without warning, and often without notice.

3: North American RB-45C

Despite starting in 1951, Operation Ju-jitsu - secret overflights of the USSR by British RAF crews in US aircraft - was not declassified until 1994. The operation came about because of the desperate US need for aerial intelligence, but at the time, the president of the United States prohibited direct overflights of the USSR.

One loophole allowed the Americans to use British aircrews in American aircraft marked as RAF machines. However, these were clearly risky missions, and British prime minister Clement Attlee refused the request. This changed when Winston Churchill was voted back into power in 1951.

The RB-45C was a reconnaissance variant of the B-45 bomber used by the US Air Force. Under Operation Ju-jitsu four RB-45Cs were leased to Britain. The aircraft received RAF insignia, and were attached to a squadron based in Norfolk in Eastern England.

The force performed dangerous reconnaissance missions to gather electronic and photographic intelligence. In these dangerous missions, the RB-45s were harassed by Soviet air defences.

2: Lockheed D-21

With its sleek and menacing looks and astonishing performance, combined with the exotic nature of its mission, it’s hard not to find the story of D-21 utterly compelling. The D-21 was a ramjet-powered drone designed to be launched from a M-21 mothership (pictured) – the M-21 was a sister aircraft to the SR-71 Blackbird.

Its mission was to fly over areas of interest and photograph them, travel to a predetermined rendezvous point, eject its data package, and self-destruct. A modified C-130 Hercules would catch the package in midair or they could be recovered from the sea. It could fly at extreme speeds - of over Mach 3.3 - and extreme altitudes: of over 27,000 metres. But it proved both dangerous and not particularly effective.

The D-21 had been successfully launched with the M-21 in a dive. In 1966 an attempt was made to launch it in level flight; during this test the D-21 collided with the M-21 mothership at launch. The two crew of the M-20 ejected, but one of them drowned when his flight suit filled with water after he landed by parachute in the sea.

What followed was a B-model, which launched from beneath the wing of the B-52 Stratofortress bomber, performing operational missions over China from 1969 to 1971. The B model used a rocket booster to reach ramjet appropriate speeds, which was jettisoned once the ramjet was engaged.  

1: ‘Aurora’

Aurora, a superfast reconnaissance aircraft with an exotic propulsion system, is either the most secret project on this list or never existed. This aircraft could have been a replacement for the SR-71, capable of even higher altitudes and greater speeds.

Things that may point to the existence of such an aircraft include a witness report of a strange aircraft sighted from an oilrig by trained aircraft spotter Chris Gibson in the United Kingdom, strange acoustic happenings and reports of sightings of unidentified aircraft flying over California and also the UK involving odd sounds and unusual contrails.