flateric said:
BTW, always wondered, what is on your avatar?=)
Honestly I really don't know.
This photo has always captured my interest but I've never been able to recognize the aircraft depicted in.
It's a long story: this photo was published in the number of June 1982 of the "Aerospazio Mese" (a monthly Italian aerospace publication that ceased its activity in 1986) in an article, firmed by the well known Nico Sgarlato, about the Stealth aircrafts.
At that time very little was known about Stealth, it was a mere "name" after that it could be hide everything.
The photo was obtained by Roberto Laghi at that time correspondent, from USA, for the magazine.
He obtained the photo by an unidentified source that was "involved in stealth design". The articole supposed that the aircraft depicted could be involved in the Stealth development.
The photo depicted a very sleek, black aircraft, with a long tail, huge winglets and (probably) a delta or double delta wing. The engine(s ??) was hosted in a underbelly canister. The general arragment could be intended for some type of high-supersonic or, at least, hypersonic research aircraft.
Obviously now we know that such aircraft, with its high-speed looking design, couldn't be connected in any way with the development of either F-117 or B2.
The autor of the article wrote that, looking at the photo, he felt a "deja-vu" sensation but wasn't able to recognize the aircraft.
At that time I was 14 years-old boy but I had the same feeling.
All over the years I tried to match the photo with known aircrafts but with little fortune (in principle the aircraft could be very similiar to a, heavily modified, Convair B-58 Hustler, but any Hustler was ever modified in that way). During the years I was conviced that the photo (if not a fake) could be connected with the dubbed "Aurora" programme (if ever existed a programme with this name.....).
Looking at the material you posted I saw some resemblace between the Model 985-430 and the "Mystery Aircraft" of the photo (ok the Boeing is too short, lacks of winglet but it is closer in design).
I used the photo of the "Mystery Aircraft" for this Forum with the hope that someone could tells me something about it......
Anyway I enclose to this post the scan of the original article (for those who understand Italian) and the best enlargement of the scan of the aircraft.