***The OFFICIAL aviation pics thread***

[ALLAN]

[ALLAN]

[ALLAN]

[NoClassic]

[RWhite]

If you like the F-117, here's a load of pics of the jet.

http://www.aviationspectator.com/resources/aircraft-profiles/f-117a-nighthawk-stealth-fighter-aircraft-profile\

This website is a good one for military aviation pics!

[RWhite]

I forgot this......

http://time-symmetry.com/page/3/

Go down the page a bit and see all the variants of the Stealth Fighter as it evolved. Titled "F-117 Family". Very interesting.

[RWhite]

Is that at the Lockheed Halendale RCS Facility? It's way out in the boonies!

[NoClassic]

It looks like it but I can't be sure. I have read they did some RCS testing at Northrops Tejon facility so it could be there.

[NoClassic]

[lincolnboy]

[lincolnboy]

Guess what these canoes are made from.

[Strychnine]

you should read Skunk Works if that interests you.

I'm pretty sure there's a story about that test pole in which the radar guys thought they spotted it, but in reality a bird had landed on it. Someone honked a truck horn, the bird flew off, and the radar signature of the plane on the pole disappeared again.

"Keith Beswick, head of the flight test operations, designed a coffee mug for his crew with a clever logo showing the nose of Have Blue peeking from one end of a big cloud with a skunk's tail sticking out the back end. Because of the picture of the airplane's nose, security classified the mugs themselves as top secret. Beswick and his people had to lock them away in a safe between coffee breaks."

There's also a story in there about one of the radar tests at Groom Lake where they had radar techs in a mobile trailer and they were going to fly Have Blue right over them and the techs were supposed to call it out when they spotted it on their scopes. Well when one of them saw it on the screen they stepped outside the trailer and it was the chase plane going by. The F117 prototype was already off in the distance having flown right over the radar station without being seen.

[tribaltalon]

f117 is definitely a fascinating plane/story.

[turboford]

Sat on the F117 once on one of it's trips back from Saudi. Stop in for a fueling stop before heading back across the atlantic and that one pictured was struck by lightening while landing. Pretty cool airplane.

[RWhite]

Getting a little off subject, but interesting to me as I spent much of my professional career near or in some of these facilities.

Here is a report on a lot of the RCS sites, many in California.

http://www.stealthskater.com/Documents/Mahood_02.pdf