In the 1990s, Lockheed Martin dreamed of a fighter aircraft that could be as stealthy as possible without sacrificing maneuverability. The result was a sleek airframe with a remarkable characteristic: it had no tail.The Multi-Axis No-Tail Aircraft, or X-44 MANTA, was an outstanding concept that would allow thrust vector control like no other aircraft before, but it proved to be too avant-garde for its time.Nearly three decades later, echoes of the fantastic MANTA have consistently popped up in official Air Force renderings as the service strives to create the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter jet, leading experts and amateurs to wonder whether the shelved project found its way into the making of the newest top-of-the-line fighter…