pilot Lt. Ben Gannon

The F/A-37 Talon is a near-future, fictional single-seat fighter aircraft of the U.S. Navy in the 2005 film Stealth. The only existing 37s are operating as a three-plane flight for field evaluation, from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

The Talon is capable of hypersonic flight with two combined Pulse Detonation/Scramjet engines. As the movie's title suggests, the Talon has stealth capability, along with movable, forward sweep, switchblade wings, an internal cannon for close-in fights, and an internal rotary launcher with a wide variety of ordnance, including AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, AGM-88 HARM anti-radiation missiles, AGM-130C air-to-surface missiles (called "Blue Ferret" in the movie), and Truncheon implosion bombs.

It has a Common Integrated Processor (CIP), a central "brain" capable of making damage assessments, not just on enemy forces, but on collateral and civilian casualties as well. The CIP can make complex calculations, like estimating nuclear fallout, or projecting odds of survival.

The Talon is capable of precise attacks with minimal destruction. Each pilot has a view-screen for each wingman. Controls are streamlined; the computer communicates through voice and projection displays. The Talons had transponders that directly linked with the pilots homebase or a carrier's advanced flight center. The Talon has a self-destruct system in case of system failure.

F/A-37 unique switch-wing design closely resembles patent #5,984,231 for "Aircraft with variable forward-sweep wing", issued to Northrop Grumman Corporation in 1999. This patent caused a wave of rumors about actual aircraft build with that design, with fictional name 'Switchblade', that was publicised in November, 2000 issue of Popular Science magazine. Moreover, according to aerospace journalist Steve Douglass, Northrop Grumman was one of the technical advisors for the Stealth movie. Yet another plane sharing design characteristics with the Talon is the VF-19 Excalibur.

The cinema Talons also can perform a front-to-back flip-over (Pugachev Cobra) while in flight, per the Russian MiG-35 Fulcrum-F. However, the Talon does it as a complete 360 roll, at high-G.

Technically, the F/A-37 should be called "Talon III", as the name "Talon" has already been assigned to the T-38 trainer aircraft and "Talon II" has be assigned to the Lockheed MC-130.

The game Empire Earth features a fighter called the Talon in the "Digital Age Epoch". It is almost identical to the F/A-37, although it is a white land-based fighter instead of a black carrier-based one.

Specifications

* Crew: 1 pilot
* Length: 69.25 feet
* Wingspan: 66.33 feet wings open
* Height: Height without landing gear 8.28 feet
* Weight (Empty): 8,750 kilograms (19,250 lb. or 9.625 tons) (Overload in Space): 46,102 kilograms (101,424 lb. or 50.71 tons)

* Powerplant: 2 × Pulse Detonation/Scramjet engines
* range: 4,000 NM
* Max Speed: Mach 4+