From 1979 to 1982, NASA successfully flew the piloted AD-1 demonstrator aircraft which validated the concept.

The United States Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) subsequently awarded Northrop Grumman a US$10.3 million contract for risk reduction and preliminary planning for an oblique flying wing demonstrator.

[2] The program aimed at producing a technology demonstrator aircraft to explore the various challenges which radical design entails.

Flight of the Switchblade was scheduled for 2020 with its 61-meter long oblique wing perpendicular to its engines like a typical aircraft.

The change in aerodynamics and the general structure would have made the aircraft very difficult to control for a human being.