The #3 bird was almost ready for flight, and there were 8 others in various forms of completion. The pieces were crushed to be sure nobody could resurrect the program.
It was a kick to fly, a full 2 decades ahead of anything else out there. In spite of the
PR that went out, few of the really advanced concepts found their way into anything else. This is mostly because the really advanced things rely on a fully integrated aircraft with a real central computer system and FBW, and such aircraft as the LUH and ARH have so little technology in them.
A brief run thru the technologies:
fly by wire that used velocity control, so no outside reference was needed for precise control in NOE environments.
Wide field of view, visually coupled helmet display with full aircraft health weapons and nav info so no heads down was ever needed.
Flight controls keyed to the weapons solution (integrated fire and flight controls) so that the aircraft pointed with uncanny accuracy and quickness
Fully integrated health caution and advisory info, so almost no gages had to be looked at. All emergencies were automatic cleanup by computer
Automatic target recognition and classification in half the time of a human crew
Fully automated use of the map as the mission analog, with all mission info presented on the detailed, colored terrain map. No grids were ever handled by the crew, all info was spotted on the map for the crew, or taken off the map when the crew pointed at the spot. Radios were tuned by the map as you crossed tactical boundaries. Spot reports were packaged by the system as the crew circled the map info, and cut and pasted it onto the spot report. Other crews were briefed by lead using a free hand white line that lead drew on their maps as he briefed them, "You set yourself HERE, this is your section of the kill zone." The manipulation of the pictoral mission elements was like Windows, but instead of an office desk, the cockpit behaved like a sand-table in a tactics school.
Radar, IR signatures that were so low, it was 1/300th the signature of an Apache, and could fly right up to the latest radar controlled gun and kill it with its 20mm gatling gun. No jammers were needed!
Full cabin overpressure so that flight in any chemical or nuclear (or Nuculur if you are Geo Bush!) environment could be accomplished with the crew in shirtsleeves
Ability to turn 180 degrees at any speed from 0 to 130 knots in less than 5 seconds, where the timing starts with target detect and ends with weapons launch.
Hover at altitudes up to 7500 feet DA in winds up to 45 knots without compromised yaw control.
Able to "snap turn" at 120 knots 90 degrees in less than 2 seconds to weapons launch
The program was on schedule, and the Army was pleased enough to have awarded the program maximum extra payments for excellence just a month or two before it was cancelled. Even the Army PM was not involved or informed of the cancellation decision. The Billions of completion funding was a ripe plum, picked and sent to Iraq, like 2 of my sons.