Most of the time, when we hear about a stealth fighter, we hear about the US B117 and the F22 Lightning. But other countries have also experimented with stealth military technology, and have been doing so for quite some time. Not much is known about these, and there are very few photographs. But here’s some info about the “Lampyridae”, or “Firefly”. The stealth fighter prototype was developed by Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (or MBB). The original aim was to build an aircraft that took advantage of an angular radar aspect (with flat sides in order to minimise the amount of radar reflection), with a view to building an aircraft with greater ’stealth’ capability.

Today, if you’re lucky, you can see a wind-tunnel prototype version at the Gerard Neumann Museum in Germany. Meanwhile MMB is now known as EADS.

Eventually, in 1987, the project was cancelled. Some people think the cancellation might have been part of a conspiracy, possibly due to pressure from competing manufacturers like Lockheed. Others say the project had attained its principal goal, that of building an effective platform for future avionic stealth technology (such as the Eurofighter and the JTF).