Lockheed HAVE BLUE demonstrator in flight-RARE footage

Originally posted by StargateSG7
And regarding my favorite "SR-117a" super-duper secret spy plane...If I can think it,
somebody has probably already done it! Ergo, it's my party and I can name a spyplane
anything I like....so.....GO SR-117a !!! even IF it doesn't look ANYTHING LIKE an F-117!

Well if that's the case, then why don't we all just name some random plane. If we think it then it obviously exists!

The T-38 was used as a chase by NASA, and for some Air Force projects, but the ones out of Holloman were used as trainers.

reply to post by Zaphod58

The T-38 was used as a chase by NASA, and for some Air Force projects, but the ones out of Holloman were used as trainers.

Trainers for what? Are the Holoman T-38 any different from a stock T-38. My understanding of the F-117 is they never had a real two-seater trainer. It was just train on the simulator then baptism by fire.

Originally posted by Zaphod58

Originally posted by StargateSG7
And regarding my favorite "SR-117a" super-duper secret spy plane...If I can think it,
somebody has probably already done it! Ergo, it's my party and I can name a spyplane
anything I like....so.....GO SR-117a !!! even IF it doesn't look ANYTHING LIKE an F-117!

Well if that's the case, then why don't we all just name some random plane. If we think it then it obviously exists!

The T-38 was used as a chase by NASA, and for some Air Force projects, but the ones out of Holloman were used as trainers.

----

RIGHTO !!!

I hereby convene this session of the wonderfully official sounding:

"Unites States Strategic Aerospace Vehicle Naming Special Interest Group - USSAVN-SIG"

with ONE current member and an OPEN invitation for all others to join by
offering THEIR favorite monikers for previous, current and future secretive
or public aircraft and/or space vehicles.

After my current contribute of "SR-117a",
I hereby declare and propose the following
code names for these aircraft.

Twin-seat Avatar-like Tilting Turbofan Chopper: Blue Vengeance

Jet-engined AC-130-like Gunship: Plumb Chucker

Light Flying Jeep with Water-capable Planing Hull Undercarriage: Jump-Shark

Twin Engine flying surf-board: Def Cloud

Rigid-Hull 1000 tonne Giant Mattress-shaped Heavy Cargo Lifter: Dog Bed

Any others?

reply to post by gariac


They were used for LIFT training, but now the ones at Holloman play Aggressor for the F-22s. I remembered them being used as trainers from there, but I hadn't kept up with the T-38 in a long time. My brother flew in one with the ROTC program one summer from Holloman.

Three of the Holloman aircraft are AT-38s. They have a centerline pylon that allows them to carry pods, and weapons. They belong to a test and evaluation unit that flies over White Sands evaluating different systems. The T-38s for awhile were used as trainers before the F-117s went there. There was no actual F-117 trainer aircraft (two seat F-117), similar to how the A-10, F-22, and eventually F-35 won't have an actual trainer. When the F-117 pilots were qualifying, they used T-38s as chase planes to help them out. The T-38 was also used to get landing currency prior to going to Tonopah for computer and simulator training.

Originally posted by Zaphod58

Originally posted by StargateSG7
And regarding my favorite "SR-117a" super-duper secret spy plane...If I can think it,
somebody has probably already done it! Ergo, it's my party and I can name a spyplane
anything I like....so.....GO SR-117a !!! even IF it doesn't look ANYTHING LIKE an F-117!

Well if that's the case, then why don't we all just name some random plane. If we think it then it obviously exists!

The T-38 was used as a chase by NASA, and for some Air Force projects, but the ones out of Holloman were used as trainers.

Originally posted by Zaphod58

Originally posted by StargateSG7
And regarding my favorite "SR-117a" super-duper secret spy plane...If I can think it,
somebody has probably already done it! Ergo, it's my party and I can name a spyplane
anything I like....so.....GO SR-117a !!! even IF it doesn't look ANYTHING LIKE an F-117!

Well if that's the case, then why don't we all just name some random plane. If we think it then it obviously exists!

The T-38 was used as a chase by NASA, and for some Air Force projects, but the ones out of Holloman were used as trainers.

reply to post by boomer135


I have to admit, that grey one is just down right sexy!

Yes, Have Blue is aesthetically speaking more attractive than F-117.

But take a look at this german stealth project: MBB Lampyridae (from early 1980´s)

www.rp-one.net...

There is a saying that Tacit Blue was flight tested (the kind that never happened) as near as less than 40 miles from soviet airspace between Siberia and Alasca. And it was not detected by the soviets.

I'm coming 8 years after the last message but I think this have blue footage have been rarely seen before

www.youtube.com...

Awesome find, I personally have never heard of this version. I did some research and found this. It's more detailed info on this bird. Thanks for sharing.

The Have Blue aircraft had the same general shape as that which would later become familiar with the F-117A, except that the twin rudders were located forward of the exhaust ejectors and were angled inward rather than outward. The inward cant was about 30 degrees.

[Three view drawing of Have Blue. (Lockheed Martin Skunk Works)]The leading edge of the semi-delta wing was swept back at 72.5 degrees. The wing featured two inboard trailing edge elevons for pitch and roll control. Four spoilers (two on top of the wing and two on the bottom) were mounted just forward of the elevons. There were no flaps or speed brakes. The wing trailing edge was less deeply notched than that of the F-117A. A single cockpit with an ejector seat was provided. The Have Blue aircraft employed V-type windshields (similar to those of the F-102/F-106). No weapons bay nor any sort of tactical equipment at all was fitted.

The Have Blue aircraft were equipped with fly-by-wire (FBW) flight controls which were adapted from the F-16 system. However, the system had to be modified to handle an aircraft that was unstable about all three axis (the F-16 is unstable only about the pitch axis). The problem of designing a stealthy system for airspeed measurement had not yet been solved, and XST-1 was equipped with a conventional pitot boom until March 1978. The boom was removed after it's 32nd flight. XST-2 never had the conventional pitot boom.

[Aerial photo of Burbank airport and the Skunk Works. (Webmaster's private collection)]Two prototypes were built at a cost of $37 million for both aircraft. Lockheed workers assembled the two Have Blue aircraft in Burbank in Building 82, one of their big assembly hangers that was the size of three football fields. Reports that state the Have Blue were built in Lockheed's Plant 10 facility housed at the USAF Plant 42 in Palmdale, California are false. According the book "Skunk Works": "The Skunk Works workers were all specialist in specific sections of the airplane: fuselage, tail, wings, control surfaces, and power plant. Each section was built separately then brought together. About 80 people were on this project, and because the Skunk Works was in a rush the airplane was stood on it's tail and assembled vertically. That way, the assemblers could work on the flat, plated structural frame, front and back, asses to elbows."

Neither aircraft ever received an official DOD designation, or did they get a USAF serial number. However, Lockheed did give the aircraft its own manufacturer's serial numbers-1001 and 1002. These numbers are commonly used (Lockheed had a YF-12 that was #1001 as did Northrop have a B-2). These numbers did not mean Plant 10, aircraft numbers 1 and 2.

[Two photos of Have Blue. (Lockheed Martin Skunk Works)]The first example (1001) was finished in November of 1977. Engine run tests were done on November 4, 1977. To hide the plane, 1001 was parked between two semitrailers and a camouflage net was draped over them. The tests were done at night, after Burbank airport had closed. The only attention the test attracted was a complaint from a local resident about noise. In order to keep the project away from prying eyes, the Have Blue prototype was shipped out to the Groom Lake Test Facility in Nevada in high secrecy on the morning of November 16, 1977 for the test flights. Groom Lake is located in a particularly remote area of the Nellis test range complex, and is a good location for the testing of secret aircraft. A camouflage paint scheme was applied to make it hard for unwanted observers at Groom Lake to determine the aircraft's shape.

Seventy-two hours before the first test flight, the airplane began to seriously overheat near the tail during engine test runs. The engine was removed, and Bob Murphy and a helper decided to improvise by building a heat shield. They noticed a six-foot steel shop cabinet. "Steel is steel," Murphy said to his assistant. "We'll send Ben Rich the bill for a new cabinet." They began cutting up the cabinet to make the heat shield panels between Have Blue's surface and its engine. It worked perfectly.

The first flight of the Have Blue took place shortly before 7am on December 1, 1977, with veteran Lockheed test pilot William M. "Bill" Park being at the controls. (Park was so highly regarded at Skunk Works that Ben Rich obtained a special exemption from the air force so he could be chief test pilot. As a note: Park was not a test pilot school graduate, nor did he have an advanced engineering degree.) As the plane took to the sky, Kelly Johnson slapped Ben rich on the back and said, "Well, Ben, you got your first airplane." At an early stage, Bill Park was assisted in the flight test program by Lt. Col. Norman Kenneth "Ken" Dyson of the USAF.

This is the best reply post on the discussion to date. a reply to: Pants3204

a reply to: Pants3204

Spot on

a reply to: cody599

Exact. There are no reasons