Secrets of the Air: The World's Coolest Secret Airplanes

just before we get started if you like science for space themed videos be sure to check out aaron malachi's new channel science get eric wrote the script for today's video on his channel he talks about a whole lot of sciency stuff there's a link below since the wright brothers created the first motor-operated airplane many countries throughout the world have commandeered that technology and attempted to push it to its absolute limits this has resulted in some deadly but admittedly cool aircraft over the last century or so and plenty of them were completely hidden from the public eye through much of their operation we've talked a bit about secret airplanes before and today we'd learn that well sometimes people are really really bad at keeping things secret number 10. russian tu-142 maritime reconnaissance aircraft the russian tu-142 maritime reconnaissance aircraft is of the same family of aircraft as the tu-95 and the tu-95 rc and was designed to combat submarines in the 1960s the spy plane is still in use too in 2020 two tu-142s were intercepted near alaska they were in the middle of a 12-hour training mission that probably didn't lead to the outbreak of world war iii especially if you're watching this video now among its armaments and features the tu-142 is equipped with new caution radar avionics and anti-submarine measures that are specifically designed to be able to find submarines and destroy them while they're still submerged the aircraft is also plenty capable of carrying out long-range maritime reconnaissance i mean it's kind of in the name isn't it as well as aiming and search and rescue missions number nine sukhoi su-27 flanker the su-27 flanker is another russian aircraft that has long since been declassified but since its introduction in the mid-1980s in use up until the fall of the soviet union it's still used throughout angola china eritrea ethiopia indonesia kazakhstan russia ukraine uzbekistan vietnam and even the u.s and china though the chinese variant is called the f-11 the plane is constructed out of titanium and high-strength aluminium alloys it has a sleek curvature to its hull and it kind of looks like a raven in flight except for the wing shape it's outfitted with air missiles with infrared homing capabilities a 30 millimeter gsh-301 gun with 150 rounds of ammunition and a host of other missiles rockets and bombs more modern versions of this plane feature a new electronic countermeasures suite including radar warnings chaff and infrared decoy dispensers as well as active multimode jammer fixed in the wingtip pods it's one of the most used aircraft in the world and there's a good reason for that it's cool and extremely versatile number eight boeing f-15ex with a naming convention like a mid-generation console refresh the f-15ex is a serious improvement over the original f-15 featuring fly-by-wire technology which before it was declassified caused quite the uptick in ufo sightings and boasts the fastest mission computer of any craft of the current generation it's also got two new weapon stations a new electronic warfare suite advanced radar and improved durability flyby wire basically replaces manual flight controls with an electronic interface allowing for flight maneuvers that were totally unthinkable in older generation aircraft overall the new air 15ex is chock-full of new tech and weapons while maintaining the iconic look of the original design which has never ceased to be cool they're also cheaper to repair than the f-35 from lockheed martin 7. lockheed rq-170 sentinel speaking of lockheed martin their rq-170 sentinel is nicknamed the beast of kandahar for a reason it has the same triangular shape as a b2 stealth bomber but even though it looks so familiar there isn't much known about what this thing is capable of the one thing we do know is that it's not operated by a human and it's most likely a high altitude stealth machine and one that is suspected to have played a role in the assassination of osama bin laden by the way still from what we do know about the rq-170 is that it's not quite as capable in the stealth department and the b-2 number 6. hongdu gj11 sharp sword long ago in the far away year of 2019 china unveiled a new stealth drone aircraft that looks like the love child of a b-2 stealth bomber and a stingray it's supposed to be capable of sneaking deep into enemy territory and unleashing a barrage of weapons with more weapons inside those weapons like some sort of deadly russian nesting doll and it can apparently do all of this without being detected i mean until the bombs land on whoever they're targeting and destroy them with the bombs in bombs thing but unlike the lockheed rq-170 this is not a small drone the gj-11 is comparable in size to the b-2 and is likely to be the final product of the sharp sword prototype originally tested back in 2013. not only is it a cool design but with a name like sharp sword it's definitely one of the more interesting crafts in this video 5. boeing yf-118g bird of prey the boeing yf-118g is like something right out of science fiction is nicknamed the bird of prey some say because of its gull-shaped wings but we think it's because it looks like a klingon bird of prey as seen in star trek even though the bird of prey was officially declassified we still don't know much about what's inside or as many of the components and systems at work in her design are being used in current top secret projects but one thing that is clear is that the yf-118g is an attempt to evolve stealth technology if you compare this aircraft with the nighthawk there is a bit of a resemblance in the design language through its unique design it's meant to avoid radar infrared acoustic and visual signatures so that other aircraft will have a much tougher time attempting to detect it it also looks really cool but it is rumored to be a flawed prototype 67 million dollars might sound like a lot but it's a tight budget for the development of a brand new state-of-the-art stealth aircraft and that limitation forced the team building her to focus on proving the bird of praise concept before adding quality of life improvements like better controls that's right the cockpit of this thing is likely to be fairly stripped down and only outfitted with the most rudimentary of systems and that's probably why it's sitting in a museum right now number four chengdu j-20 mighty dragon the chengdu j-20 mighty dragon is china's flagship stealth fighter and it packs a belly full of murder the profile is sleek yet angular and threatening it even kind of looks like a dragon which is probably where it gets its name from and yes the name is part of the reason for why it's on this list but you probably have to admit that it does look pretty cool tinted unveiling military and aircraft enthusiasts have been asking how the mighty dragon measures up to the us's far more advanced fighters like the f-35 or the f-22 there is some doubt as to what might happen if these aircraft were able to face off but one thing is certain the pl-15 missiles that the mighty dragon is packing in its belly have a range of 300 kilometers putting them in the top echelon of air-to-air missiles in all of europe and its american counterparts apparently only have a range of 180 kilometers but that's not all the dragon also features sophisticated stealth and sensor technology to make it extremely hard to hit at close range number three northrop grumman b-21 raider all right we take it back this is what a console refresh looks like the b-21 was said to have a target test date of mid-2022 and beau reports northrop grumman has hit pretty hard by the pandemic and was forced to move their staff to the completion of the b-21 the raider is pretty smooth-looking though at least from the concept drawings and specs she resembles the b2 such popular design but has a much smoother appearance she's designed as a countermeasure to modern air defense threats like russian s400 service-to-air missiles and china's j-20 mighty dragon the raider will also be fully capable of delivering precision guidance nuclear weapons and carrying out regular missions let's hope it never has to use the nukes number two aurora spy plane this next one is pretty cool if for nothing other than the fact that it remained in operation from 1993 to 2018 in a veil of complete secrecy oh and it was supposedly the fastest aircraft in the world and also a spy plane aerospace journalism outlets have been talking about this thing for more than a decade but now it's being described as a manned strategic reconnaissance aircraft powered by a variable cycle ramjet capable of operating at speeds and altitudes unobtained by other aircraft while the u.s has admitted to using this plane in the past there is no telling if aurora is still being used now though if she's advanced as the report's claim we guessed that it wouldn't really make sense to shut her down pentagon spokesperson luke mantira has said that aurora's classification is rs-85 which grew out of project dollars in the early 1980s menterra also said that the declassification of aurora would more than likely mean it was due to be removed from service there isn't much more to say since the technical specifications haven't been revealed but no matter what aurora looks like she's still pretty cool 1. top secret 6th gen fighter it might not matter if b-21 raider ever gets finished because the u.s has already tested a secret sixth generation fighter that is rumored to be both hypersonic and completely untraceable it's also new and super top secret which makes it pretty cool in our book though because of that secrecy there isn't much information floating about regarding this new craft but we do know that she's part of the next generation air dominance program she's supposed to be outfitted with a network of advanced sensors and weapons that would be able to counter many of the advances made by other countries such as china the craft was also designed completely digitally allowing the team to bypass the regular manufacturing process giving developers more flexibility and design and the ability to change blueprints on a whim this all sounds pretty cool but the military has failed to commit on just how many prototypes of this 6th gen aircraft might already be in existence but promises that they've broken records and will shock the world when they're finally revealed so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe and as always thank you for watching

Channel: TopTenz

Views: 49,719

Rating: 4.9637341 out of 5

Keywords: top 10, toptenz, top10, top ten, top 10 list

Id: Em6A5Zr0dOQ

Length: 9min 59sec (599 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 08 2021