Windecker YE-5A Eagle 73-1653 United States Air Force

These are 1/72 scale decals for the Windecker YE-5A Eagle, serial 73-1653, assigned to the 96th Test Wing, United States Air Force — one of the most fascinating and least-known aircraft in the history of American stealth technology, a civilian composite aircraft secretly evaluated by the USAF as an early low-observable research platform.

The Windecker Eagle began life as a civilian light aircraft designed by Dr. Leo Windecker, notable for being one of the first production aircraft constructed primarily from fiberglass composite materials rather than traditional aluminum. It was this construction that caught the attention of the U.S. Air Force — fiberglass is largely transparent to radar, giving the Eagle a dramatically reduced radar cross-section compared to conventional metal aircraft. In the early 1970s, the USAF acquired a modified Eagle and designated it the YE-5A for classified low-observable research, assigning it to the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida to evaluate how composite construction and airframe shaping could be exploited to reduce an aircraft's radar signature.

The YE-5A program was an early and largely unheralded step on the long road that would eventually lead to the F-117 Nighthawk and the broader stealth revolution in military aviation. While the Eagle itself was far from a purpose-designed stealth aircraft, the data gathered from its radar cross-section evaluations contributed to the growing body of knowledge that USAF researchers and contractors like Lockheed's Skunk Works were assembling throughout the 1970s as they worked toward the first true stealth combat aircraft.

A uniquely significant and seldom-modeled subject — the unassuming civilian aircraft that quietly helped open the door to the stealth age. Please allow some time for decal printing and shipping.