Cool looking bird

So it's the old game of outwitting and deceive.

Just like ravens.


Add: for those that can't watch, Ravens engage in informational warfare, one side tries to withhold information and the other one tries to get it.

originally posted by: cmdrkeenkid
a reply to: Violater1

I don't think Boeing would be testing at Hellendale. That's LM's place.

And pretty sure that's a "fan made" render and not official in any capacity.

Got it, not Boeing. I found Lockheed's FX.



It seems to closely resemble the fan concept of the FX Done
BTW: I used to play commander Keen during my college years. It was a great distraction. Goodbye Galaxy and Aliens Ate My Babysitter were my fav's.

The tiny town I'm from in Central NY (not far at all from the old Griffis A.F.B. in Rome NY) had, for years, two conspicuous installations on the hill tops over looking our town.

They were two buildings, on separate hills a few miles apart, with upside down fighter jets placed on top of the buildings. The type of the jets changed over the years.

We could see them constantly, but could only speculate as to what they were used for. As I got older and did more research I learned that radar/RCS testing was often done with the craft mounted upside down. This is something you see in some of the very well-known photos of the A-12, mounted upside down, at Area 51 or Groom Lake.

I have been wanting to do a thread on the facilities outside my town, as there have been some interesting stories about them. Folks I know have had encounters while hunting on/around the hills surrounding the facilities, including being drawn down on by security. I have also heard that these installations were instrumental in research USAF did in Over The Horizon radar systems, and this seems like a very plausible idea.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

i remember when they had to redesign it for the F117 as the radar picked up the pole and not the jet...

a reply to: Zaphod58

Awesome!

The last pic in your post, that is exactly what the installations looked like near my town.

The jets were mounted on a pedestal/column, with a squat building at the base of it. From that picture, you can see the installation is up on a hill, looking down on the meadows and stands of trees, just like the ones near my town.

They even mount it with missiles (and is that an extra fuel pod??) attached, I guess to obtain the most realistic RCS they can get.

Brings back a lot of memories. Only as I got into my teens did it occur to me that the craft were upside down. Until that point I'd always assumed they were flight simulators, but unless your name is Maverick, probably not much reason to be practicing inverted like that, and I don't see any Migs around.

a reply to: SleeperHasAwakened

That's a pod for something. It looks like a travel pod, but I can't see why it would be carrying one in that configuration. So it's probably an EW pod of some kind. They mount them in various configurations and angles to get RCS in every possible configuration and angle. They get a lot of data.

The B-52 was taken in Rome, but I'm not sure about the others.

A very cool pole cap indeed.
a reply to: Violater1