Musings about the F-117 companion

a reply to: yuppa

I used to have a Testor model of the 2nd one you linked to. Well, one very, very similar. It was called a "stealth fighter"

originally posted by: MystikMushroom

originally posted by: grey580
Interesting Call Signs.

monitoringtimes.com...

YES! Someone up here that flies an F-22 has "Cylon" as their call sign!

Anyone else notice that "Maverick" is just "?"

My callsign would be reaper. cause i dont do survivors. lol.

Can anyone translate dutch?

a reply to: MystikMushroom

These are unit callsigns, not individual. They mean something to the units.

He missed several good ones. Like Maitai for HiANG.

a reply to: yuppa

"This picture is fake suckers."

a reply to: Zaphod58

lol. yeah. figures. lol

a reply to: MystikMushroom

JABBA is an interesting call sign.

I think it's funny though that there are several Iceman's and a few Goose's....but Maverick has a question mark.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

If memory serves right, I think that model kit was from back in the day before the F-117 was released publicly. Back when it was rumored to exist, but no one had "officially" seen it. I think I had a die cast version of it too, about the size of a Hot Wheel car.

originally posted by: grey580
a reply to: MystikMushroom

JABBA is an interesting call sign.

I got one . pizzahut.!

Or... KRIEGER.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
I think it's funny though that there are several Iceman's and a few Goose's....but Maverick has a question mark.

What no Rockys? or Prince?

After seeing the picture of the mystery plane over Wichita, I would like to assume that the new platform is much more of a perfect triangle. without any deviations in the shape of that triangle, leading from the fuselage to the wing, but its just a guess. For all I know, the new platform is a flying cylinder, LOL

originally posted by: grey580
a reply to: MystikMushroom

JABBA is an interesting call sign.

Jabba the Hut. Well lets see what we can think up...

Jabba was ruthless, fat, ugly...

So we might be looking for a deadly and ugly looking plane. It probably doesn't look like what you would expect it to.

Maybe it's just a larger, less sleek version of the F-117.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

a reply to: grey580

Maybe it's the TR-1 or "Tier 1" ?

I love this one, even if its a fake .. Northrop AX-17.

a reply to: drwire

Again, with my other YF-23 crackpot theory that the design was either based on or lead to a design study for an SR-71 replacement. The -23 could already supercruise at over mach 1.6, throw some slightly uprated engines in a 30º delta-winged version of the F-23 airframe, and you could easily have a craft that could supercruise at mach 2.

Combine that with radar invisibility so they wouldn't even know it was there in the first place and the ability to do a mach ~3 burst on afterburners if it were discovered, and you'd have a hell of an ISR platform. The -23's central, ventral weapons area also *screamed* Q-bay, for whatever that's worth.

originally posted by: MystikMushroom
Maybe it's just a larger, less sleek version of the F-117.

The Lockheed ATA-B design certainly would have fit those "bigger, fatter F-117" and "ugly as sin and even more deadly" descriptions to a T.

Look to the bottom left

But if Zaph and others are to be belived, then it isn't our bird.

Though I wonder whether the ATA-B might have flown alongside the THAP seen above as subscale demonstrators/proof-of-concept vehicles for the ATB competition.

My favorite uttering of the F-117 companion, is from our friend Boomer:

During this time period I remember a squadron meeting where the Operations Group Commander told us to "be careful what you say over the phone, and pay no attention to the black, pointy shaped aircraft and "others" that were coming to the base."