Mysterious 'Christmas Tree' Aircraft Near Area 51 May Be Top-Secret F-47 Fighter
Blurry footage captured in the skies above America’s notorious Area 51 could reveal a huge, multibillion-dollar secret. A short video purports to show an unknown aircraft flying near the mysterious Groom Lake flight testing facility in Nevada, otherwise known as Area 51. The footage, taken with a thermal night vision camera, shows a pixelated but distinctive shape that some believe is the United States' secret Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) aircraft: the F-47. That would be big, if true.
Area 51 Watchers Get an Early Christmas Present
Area 51 watchers have had all their Christmases come at once, in the shape of … a Christmas tree. The aircraft’s stark, serrated appearance boosts its credibility as a near-perfect fit for what aviation analysts have gleaned about the top-secret $5 billion project. The source of the footage, Project Fear, markets itself as a group of traveling “paranormal explorers.” Its apparent authenticity in an era of easily generated AI deepfakes has been vouched for by specialist media outlets The War Zone and The Aviationist.
Expert Analysis: Secret by Design
“The image shows an exotic design by any interpretation,” TWZ’s analyst Thomas Newdick notes. The main wing appears to be “cranked” – bent – to help provide directional stability in the absence of traditional tailfins. Very large forward triangular “canard” fins give the aircraft enhanced maneuverability. The arrow-shaped nose is broad, and the preponderance of angles is to deflect probing radar beams away from their receivers. The “sawtooth” trailing edge is an indication that the rear of the aircraft is designed to house – and conceal the signature of – two engines.
Other details, such as overall size, are impossible to discern due to the lack of reference points in the footage and its low resolution. But its general shape is more than a little reminiscent of Boeing demonstrator designs flown during the 1990s and early 2000s, such as the X-36 and Bird of Prey prototypes.
Historical Context: What’s Old Is New Again
Aerospace engineer Darold Cummings may have given us the best look yet at the future of US airpower last year. The designer, who worked on projects including the F-22 Raptor and the X-37B, posted a sketchy outline of a “Christmas Tree” stealth fighter he had developed in the 1980s. He explained the jagged shape overcame problems with making a flying-wing design maneuverable enough to be a fighter. “The only way to accomplish this was with a series of highly swept (55 degree) surfaces over the entire length of the aircraft,” he wrote on LinkedIn. “The result was the DP-21, created in June of 1983.” Cummings told TWZ that with modern flight control systems, this design could be controlled, even at high angle of attack.
This shape was also used in a recent marketing video by aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, promoting how it designed a new engine for the future F-47. Screen captures from that video appear to show an F-47 concept design that fits the 'Christmas Tree' configuration.
Is It Real? Analysts Weigh In
Long-term Area 51 watcher Anders Otteson took to Reddit and told The War Zone that he had advised the YouTubers on what equipment to use, and where best to go, to catch a glimpse of what may be happening at Groom Lake. “I posted about this because I noticed some people calling it fake due to coming from a ‘paranormal’ channel and wanted to clear that up. It is indeed real,” he posted.
“So, as it sits, it isn’t clear exactly what we are seeing, if indeed it is a real aircraft,” TWZ’s Newdick concludes. “But there are strong indications that this is our first glimpse of the winning NGAD entrant and a preview of what the F-47 will look like when it finally thunders out of the shadows.”
Sky Domination: The F-47 Program
The US Air Force claims the F-47 will be the world’s first sixth-generation fighter. The Pentagon says it will include advanced stealth technology, new computer networking technology, and a combat radius of 2,000 km. It will also fly at Mach 2 (2,500 km/h). Boeing won the NGAD contest in 2025, cleverly giving its proposal the F-47 designation as an appeal to the vanity of the 47th President of the United States – Donald Trump. It is now finalizing the design and preparing to put it into full-scale production. The first example of a production model is due to fly by 2028.
However, the much-delayed F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter still hasn’t delivered on its operational requirements after 11 years of service and 30 years of development. The F-47 will be even more expensive than the F-35, which has been dubbed “the most expensive defense project ever.” This may be why the US Air Force plans to buy only 185 of them. The mainstay of its interceptor force will remain the 1970s-era F-15 Eagle fighter, with 267 of the updated EX Eagle II version now on order.
Global Competition
Meanwhile, China is storming ahead with a slew of new tailless stealth fighter and drone designs, many of which are already flying. Europe, however, has just abandoned yet another attempt to jointly develop its own sixth-generation fighter, the Future Combat Air System (FCAS), as France and Germany could not agree on how to proceed.
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer.
