This single pilot manned test-bed was built by Jim Kern’s TASK Research Inc. of Santa Paula, California in 1982, which supplied many composite structures/components for the Rutan designed Long-EZ, Defiant, and Voyager aircraft during the early to mid-1980’s under contract to Northrop’s Electric Mechanical Division in the late 1980s to test early avionics/electronic equipment for remotely piloted vehicles.

The Vantage was a single-seat pusher canard which resembled a Rutan Long-EZ, but was slightly larger with more rounded fuselage sides, a large bulbous two piece canopy. The craft also incorporated an extra long pitot tube in the front. Power was supplied by a single Lycoming O-360 (180 HP) engine turning a variable pitch wood or composite propeller. The aircraft incorporated a retractable nose gear which was powered by an electric motor. The wing root to fuselage joint was blended/contoured and flowed seamlessly into the cockpit. Nicknamed “Sneeky Pete” by its pilots, the undesignated aircraft was outfitted with various special avionics depending on the specific mission requirement. The exterior was painted white, with the name “Sneeky Pete” written along the side of the fuselage, though this is not apparent in the one picture that was released.

Although the maiden flight of “Sneeky Pete” took place at Mojave Airport on July 18th, 1982 with Dick Rutan at the controls (Mike Melvill, along with many others served as test pilots for this aircraft), Rutan Aircraft Factory or Scaled Composites apparently were not involved in the elaboration and building process of the aircraft. It is believed that the flight test program for “Sneeky Pete” first took place at the remote Groom Lake test site in Nevada widely known as “Area 51” (AFFTC DET. 3) in late 1982. The aircraft was periodically tested over the years with various equipment, put into seclusion at various times, but has never been officially retired. During its “down time”, “Sneeky Pete” was most likely stored in a top-secret facility known as “Dyson’s Dock” at Groom Lake which was also the location of the Northrop “Tacit Blue” technology demonstrator after it was retired in 1985.

In 1993, “Sneeky Pete” was acquired and rebuilt by Scaled Composites and experimentally fitted with a Williams FJ107 jet engine, a small turbofan engine designed to power cruise missiles and developed by the Williams International company from their WR19.The FJ107 was notably the powerplant for the AGM-86 ALCM, BGM-109 Tomahawk, and AGM-129 ACM, as well as the experimental Williams X-Jet flying platform. In its jet-powered form, the aircraft was first tested in August 1993 and was known at Scaled Composites as the Jet LEZ Vantage or Model 61-B. A striking feature of the revised aircraft was a square, flat section, as seen from below, added at the back of the aircraft. The section wasn’t as wide as the strakes at the front wing roots but was longer along the fuselage, in comparison.

Only one airframe was ever constructed. The data gathered throughout the “Sneeky Pete” program contributed to today’s advanced UAVs such as the Northrop/Grumman Global Hawk, General Atomics Predator, Boeing X-45, Northrop/Grumman X-47 Pegasus. The aircraft was returned to a more conventional configuration and still appears on the civil register as being owned by Scaled Composites, but its current whereabouts are unknown, and, like many experimental variants of the Long-EZ, it is not properly documented, due to its classified use by the military.

N3142B c/n 1
Powerplant:1 x Lycoming O-360 (180 hp) / 1 x Williams FJ107 / 1 x Lycoming IO-320 (150 hp)
Wingspan: 28 ft.
Overall length: 17ft. (approximate)
Weight: up to 12,499 lb. (with Lycoming engine)
Crew/passengers: 2