Musings about the F-117 companion

a reply to: Badgered1

Officially no other -23's were made unofficially however it's anyone's guess.

Wow 120 replies, all speculations on the companion, I liked it better without my post

originally posted by: Bfirez
a reply to: weavty1

Those last two pictures look surprisingly crispy. If that's a rendering, it's damn good. If not, bravo on finding those

Those are renders of the Chinese JXX concept..

a reply to: stratsys-sws

Yeah that one has been sanitized from any searching I could do, for awhile all I had to do was type in "F-117" in a bing search and one of the predictive entries was "F-117 companion tanker boom photo". Never could find it though, but its out there somewhere but not on the internet. Probably hanging in someones den or bat-cave.

I have found some very interesting things in patents starting with D365-545, some "Switch-blade" patents I came across showed a nose/cockpit configuration remarkably similar to that "stealth F-18" fuselage that has been seen at AMARG recently.

a reply to: StratosFear

Purty concept. www.google.com...

a reply to: Bfirez

Thats one, plenty of others in that hole as well. I know patents are not proof of anything but they do give one a look at what is being thought up.

Heres a few others i found I thought some might find interesting.
www.google.com...
www.google.com...
www.google.com...
www.google.com...

a reply to: StratosFear

Here is another interesting one

www.google.co.uk...

a reply to: nelloh62

That one looks almost exactly like what I'm expecting to see in 9 days time

originally posted by: nelloh62
a reply to: StratosFear

Here is another interesting one

www.google.co.uk...

That one has to be (or at least be very close to) the LRS-B entry from NG!

I got a tour of the F-117 at Tonopath back in the mid 80s it was cool.

a reply to: gfad

Here is another link, but no canards

www.google.co.uk...

a reply to: nelloh62

Where are yall finding these concepts? Searching through their patents posted online one at a time?

a reply to: Bfirez
Using the Google Patents website, you can search for just about anything - using specific keywords, you'll be surprised at what you come across.

a reply to: weavty1

Hmm, I wonder what key words produce the most interesting results....

a reply to: nelloh62

Stunning, and that other one a few posts down. Ive seen that canard configuration on several aircraft, flying and on paper.

a reply to: Bfirez

Browse by aircraft companies both then and now and all sorts of stuff pops up. North American Aviation, Vought, McDonald Douglas, Convair, etc. Also check out the research project forum and this one as post from way back will mention a few of these patents as well.

a reply to: spaceman42

To be honest, I'm less convinced of the link now I've put the pictures together than I was before. But hopefully we won't have long to wait!

So if there's a public unveiling of this thing, does it mean that it's been operational for a time? I mean the SR-71 was operational before the public was allowed to see it...What good would the secrecy of a black project be if you let the public see it and admit to its existence?

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I assume that it'll be something along the lines of the F-117; the AF realised that they couldn't fly by night forever, and as soon as they started doing daylight operations people started taking pictures. Once they reached that stage there was little point keeping the aircraft in the dark anymore so they announced it's existence as a projection of american power internationally. A humble brag that they've developed an invisible aircraft is pretty scary to a lot of enemy nations. Of course you don't let anyone photograph the engine intakes or exhausts, leading edges, RAM materials, or anything else even vaguely useful. Just let your enemies know the shape if the aircraft that'll be coming over the horizon. A comparison with the SR-71 isn't that useful because the aircraft serve completely different roles, having a completely black recon plane is a lot more useful than a completely black bomber.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

The SR-71 didn't fly operationally until after the announcement of its existence. The A-12 had been flying prior to that. They are different aircraft.