The F-117 Stealth Fighter Program Actually Had A 'Klingon Cloaking Device'

The F-117 Stealth Fighter Program Actually Had A 'Klingon Cloaking Device'

Well not really however it seems that the Air Force went to great lengths to hide what was going on.

With technology that had never been seen before, the U.S. Air Force went to amazing lengths to keep the stealth F-117 Nighthawk program under tight wraps during the 1980s. As the program matured into an operational force, deploying F-117s in small numbers became a real possibility. But maintaining the aircraft’s veil of secrecy while doing so was uncharted territory. Enter the “Klingon Cloaking Device,” a ruse that would help prove such deployments could work.

Seems the Air Force used the A-7 as cover for the F-117. Pilots had to train with both craft.



But the craziest thing was that they made up the supposed cloaking device as a diversion. lol

We used the A-7 in our deployments to Young Tiger in South Korea and then to Great Britain. It was under our cover story for the A-7 of advanced avionics testing that the Klingon Cloaking Device was developed. We needed some purpose for the A-7s to be so special, and have all the attention and security that seemed to accompany the 4450th wherever we went.

It was in this vein that TSgt’s. Phillip Barta and Charles Baggerly took a BLU-27 napalm bomb shell, reinforced it according to Tactical Air Command instructions for a baggage pod, and constructed the Klingon Cloaking Device.

And then to really sell the ruse they set up equipment in a hanger. Even going so far as to hang stuff on the ceiling and put personnel supposedly "working" on an invisible craft. I just gotta laugh.

It worked....lol
no for long but long enough.

Romulan cloak

Klingon only got it in a trade with the romulans

originally posted by: crazyewok
Romulan cloak

Klingon only got it in a trade with the romulans

I find it totally depressing that I also knew that fun fact....

no black matte, no stealth.

a reply to: grey580

Maybe not exactly possible or practical back in the 80s, but with the advances in meta materials these day some form of functional optical camouflage is probably not that far away.

a reply to: drwire

Of course not, but it didn't matter. It was just a standard travel pod they tweaked. Back then no one knew about stealth except the people working on it.

a reply to: drwire

Of course.

It was an elaborate ruse to confuse spies.

a reply to: grey580

pretty funny.


can you imagine the crew chief when they came to him with this idea

Wouldn't the use of such a cloaking device been against the rules of the Algeron treaty?

I remember when I was in the Air Force, I was assigned to the F-16 crew chief program, had me learning about both F-16s and F-117s and even some A-10s up until hot training, of which I went to the F-16s while I believe 4 others went to F-117s, I remember being happy I didn't have to do the F-117s since the bases they were stationed at, were some pretty strict dances.

Although, no Warp Drives or Cloaking Devices, just that the F-117 Skin and Paint are special.

I'd be more interested to learn what we have in the realm of anti-gravity electromagnetics.

a reply to: Tranceopticalinclined

Yeah, and the radioactivity that I'm sure they did not really inform you about.

a reply to: mbkennel

Alpha and beta rays are not very penetrateing

Those poor poor bats on the other hand...