MBB Lampyridae

The MBB Lampyridae (Latin for Firefly) was a low-observable medium missile fighter (MRMF) developed during the 1980s by the West German aerospace company Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB). The programme was terminated during 1987 without any production aircraft having been produced.

As early as 1975, West Germany is known to have conducted research into the field of stealth aircraft. During 1981, work commenced at MBB on developing a design for a viable stealth aircraft; the effort was supported by a contract that had been issued by the German Air Force. Also known as the Medium Range Missile Fighter (MRMF), it had been conceived that a fighter could be both lighter and cheaper if it was so superior at mid-range combat as to allow it to discard the requirement to perform close-range combat. Having been developed independently of other stealth aircraft, such as the American Lockheed Corporation's Have Blue technical demonstrator and its follow-up F-117 Nighthawk stealth attack aircraft (which at the time were still highly classified projects), the Lampyridae nonetheless used a similar approach to achieving its low-observable characteristics.

After determining the Lampyridae's design to be viable, development activity proceeded to the construction of a single three-quarter scale piloted aircraft. During 1985, wind tunnel testing of the design, including at transonic speeds commenced; two years later, a number of crewed 'flights' inside the wind tunnel were performed, during which the favourable high-quality aerodynamic properties of the design were documented. During 1987, the existence of the Lampyridae project and its design was revealed to the United States in the form of a group of United States Air Force (USAF) officers, who were shown the piloted model, which was kept in a closed-off section of MBB's manufacturing facility at Ottobrunn, Bavaria, Germany. That same year, the Lampyridae project was terminated for unspecified reasons; diplomatic pressure on the part of the US has been attributed.