The Lockheed Have Blue: First in Stealth

[@megaprojects9649]

Check out Squarespace: squarespace.com/megaprojects for 10% off on your first purchase.

[@FS7kills]

What's the name of the song at 8:53?

[@Sean2002FU]

"Well, they missed the trick on that one!".......Simon. Your sarcastic , British sense of humor fucking kills me dude!! Brings back fond memories of my time at RAF St. Mawgan!....... "May we have s'more please sir?!?"

[@Sean2002FU]

" trust the computer...its smarter than you!".....LMFAO! ..YOUR KILLING IT TODAY SIMON!

[@ghostindamachine]

Actually, the US was not the first. Germany was developing the MBB Lampyridae. But due to political pressure from the USA, this project was halted: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MBB_Lampyridae

[@Sean2002FU]

@@ghostindamachine did you read the article you cited???have blue flew in the late seventies....the German research project didn't produce really anything till 1981...and no flying prototype anywhere remotely close to the have blue dates.

[@BillHalliwell]

G'day Simon, I remember reading about the F-117's developmental radar tests measured on a scale called the RCS. The tests involved the aircraft being placed, upside down (for some reason), on top of a huge pole near the most sophisticated radar set up the Americans had. The idea was to define the absolute radar 'stealth' limitations (the RCS number) for each phase of the prototypes' designs. During one test the aircraft out on the pole was not registering at all on one radar set up. Thinking this was impossible, or that they had hit the stealth jackpot; the technicians checked and rechecked their equipment. Finally, their radar picked up a tiny signal back from the pole. Not believing their equipment as this was such a small signal, one of the techs went outdoors to look at the pole set up. There, sitting on the nose of the aircraft was a bird; just one bird, not a big one, a small bird. The technician scared the bird away. Upon return the other technicians reported that they had just lost their small signal. When hearing the signal was that of a small bird it was decided to completely check and reset the radar equipment. The upshot of this story was that, yes, the new aircraft did have a return radar signal but one so completely below previous radar scales of detection that their radar, using usual settings, couldn't pick up anything. Then, they knew the project would be successful. In practice, a fully loaded, battle-ready F-117 had an RCS of 0.003m2, about the size of a hummingbird, and those F-117s hit around 1,600 targets without being molested by Iraqi air defences during the entire 1991 Gulf War. Cheers, BH

[@TheBooban]

How did the serbs shoot it down? I know they used unconventional tactics, but in the end, the missile must have a radar lock? No? Heat lock? What lock?

[@andersjjensen]

@@TheBooban Visual detection followed by a well calculated trajectory of a heat seeking missile. The missile wouldn't have had a target lock when it was fired (this is a normal situation) but as it gained altitude it would eventually have picked up the fairly faint heat signature of the F-117.

[@hokutoulrik7345]

@@TheBooban they were using a phased array radar. It operates on a different principle to regular radar and it can get enough of a radar picture that will allow for a lock, but those systems were expensive and complicated as hell at the time. That is why it only happened once.

[@CamMackay96]

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

[@megaprojects9649]

Great addition to the video. Enjoyed the read. Thank you.

[@craigiewatson2695]

When thinking of stealth aircraft I always remember a line from Drop The Dead Donkey at the beginning of the allied invasion of Iraq in 1991. One person explains that the stealth fighters had the radar signature of a seagull. To which they are asked "Won't the Iraqis be suspicious when they see half a dozen seagulls heading directly towards Baghdad at 600 miles per hour?"

[@KarlBunker]

LOL. The Iraqis be like: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q2O8pmp6Z9qUpac

[@wikilcontainments]

This is a bit weird to me too. Radars can see them, but they pick them up very small. It’s the very fast speed of a small radar return that will probably be the undoing of many stealth aircraft when the computers get better.

[@TerryTerius]

@@wikilcontainments Because it’s not that simple. The range at which an aircraft can be effectively detected is greatly reduced by having a diminished radar cross-section, predetermined routes are used to further reduce the chance of detection by not being somewhere you are likely to be picked up in the first place, and modern stealth craft carry radar jammers to further complicate things (but the primary purpose of radars in a stealth craft is the same as any other, situational awareness before they enter an area). There is also a *significant* difference between potentially detecting a stealth aircraft, tracking it, and getting a quality lock on it. And aircraft move quite quickly, it’s not like we’re talking about a static object. There is an entire chain of events involved between detecting an aircraft and shooting it down, called a kill chain (though this is a general term for other multi step systems as well). The purpose of stealth is to break that chain, and (in combination with tactics) make it unlikely for it to be picked up in the first place. I am no expert in this field, but there are plenty of articles on this. But frankly, much of this is hypothetical for now.

[@RidinDirtyRollinBurnouts]

Isn't there radar noise which also complicates detection? Wouldn't the signal be intermittent too? It's not a constant radar blip if iirc

[@ChucksSEADnDEAD]

@Brandon Quist That's the principle of jamming. The issue is, enemies will use the source of the signal to direct attacks. It's called Home-On-Jam and some missiles automatically switch to this mode if they detect jamming.

[@jamesdellaneve9005]

According to the book “Skunk Works: A personal memoir of my years at Lockheed” tells a story of a Lockheed engineer crediting a Soviet mathematician about the triangular shapes to evade radar. They built and tested it on the radar range and only detected the pole holding the test article.

[@edrdnc6706]

If I remember correctly from that book, Lockheed even had to fabricate ($$$) a new support pole. This was to replace the old one, that had such a huge RCS compared to the test model that it masked the results.

[@rhino202]

Awesome read. Highly recommend to anyone taking the time to watch this channel

[@jamesdellaneve9005]

@@edrdnc6706 Yes. Good memory!

[@krystalbrooks6869]

You are talking about the F-117. The Have Blue was before the F-117.

[@jamesdellaneve9005]

@@krystalbrooks6869 Yes. The 117. According this video, they figured out the triangle shape. It could be part of the same story, since it was likely designed by the same people (for the most part).

[@vtlxx]

Hey! I know the original test pilot and lead flight test engineer for that plane, like, personally. Very close. One is my dad. Very cool tech, aeronautically it wants to fly upside down and backwards. One thing you'll notice is the Have Blue has inswept vertical stabilizer the F-117 production doesn't - this is partially due to that reason. Fun aircraft. Beautiful design.

[@michaelgilson7959]

A friend of mine was in the Marine Corps in the late 70s and stationed in the Southwest somewhere. He remembers being woken up in the middle of the night and taken to some random place in the middle of nowhere (not exactly an odd occurrence in the Marines). But this time they were told to spread out and pick up anything that God did not put there and were searched on the way back to make sure they did not keep anything. He is pretty sure it lines up with the second Have Blue crash, but he had no idea until everything was declassified.

[@17hmr243]

told to spread out and pick up anything that God did not put there love simple instructions

[@tomclark6271]

Is it your mother or law enforcement who makes you keep your door open?

[@mangot589]

While they were still “secret”, we used to stand out in the desert and watch them try them out. It was pretty awesome. It was like seeing a UFO or something.

[@francisschweitzer8431]

That’s what I thought when I saw it from the boom pod of my tanker. WTH is this thing? Both the boomer and myself KNEW it was an aircraft… just WHAT KIND…. We didn’t have a clue

[@magnemoe1]

Wonder how many ufo reports they and the B2 has made :) And yes it was tested on allies. Submarines often do simulated torpedo attack on civilian ships. Key point here is "simulated" an US destroyer who is famous as an unlucky ship did launch torpedoes at an Iowa class battleship who carried the US president, all missed who was lucky even if bad aiming. The destroyer did not escort capital ships after this.

[@mangot589]

@@magnemoe1 IDK lol that’s a good question!

[@farmerlarbear2244]

You from Palmdale??

[@mangot589]

@@farmerlarbear2244 I lived there for 5 years in the 80’s. Then moved down below lol.

[@krystalbrooks6869]

Another stealth demonstrator aircraft at the same time was the Boeing Bird of Prey. I spent the 1980's growing up out in Mojave just outside of Edwards Air Force base. Our biological father worked at Edwards and Groom. He worked on a lot of these black projects you talk about. We had an airplane, a Cessna 150J (N51305), I was in the forth grade when we put this plane together. When we were done, the plane was multiple colors. The guy who sold us the plane had some paint in the corner. He bought the paint at an government auction when Rockwell was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They opened a can and found the color to be grey. That night we looked through books to find a paint scheme. We found an old bird dog. Basically it's a tail dagger version of a tricycle gear Cessna 150. Then we needed a name. The plane will be grey. We thought of a bunch of names, then settled on "The Grey Mouse". So, our plane will look like a government military aircraft. Grey with bars and strips. Flying in to Tulsa International we called the tower. We were cleared to land then another was cleared on the same runway. We called back to the tower. Tower responded they don't see us. We were told to fly around and get back inline. When inline let the tower know. We flew around, then called the tower. Tower responded with they don't see us on radar. When he could see us visually he cleared us to land. We found that the grey painted picked up from Rockwell was radar absorbing paint. Dryden NASA from Edwards Air Force base even did research with our airplane. There's VHS footage of it. Our family was building an airplane. We called it the A.T.O.P. (Advanced Technology Observation Platform). We walked around at our high school in black flight jackets with the ATOP patch on them. People got word and thought it was a Northrop black project. There is a book about it.

[@justbrowsing6327]

Amazing story.😊

[@krystalbrooks6869]

@@justbrowsing6327 that's how I feel about my life. If I could relive my life, I would live everyday the same. I have no regrets.

[@FredDunham]

Starting Jan 2 1980 I started working for E.G.&G. special projects and worked till 1992 at the test location, on this and other test articles, Other than inhaling toxic fumes from the burning of the RAM in open pits, one of the most interesting things I ever did. I knew all of the actors named in this presentation. Good work

[@johnaskings527]

**Megaprojects Suggestion** Simon and crew, I have a thought for another Megaprojects topic: The Causeway Bridge... Which has linked the North Shore and South Shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Until just recently, it has been the longest bridge in the world. The construction of this bridge, the clearing of shipping lanes, the choice of materials to use (the mud underneath the, and the sheer mass of the project are only part of what it took to build and maintain the bridge. It's just a thought. I went thru the library of Megaprojects Videos you have and didn't find any mention of the Causeway (if I am wrong, please post the link to me. I have no trouble being wrong! I'd just like the info!). Thanks all, John

[@willmcbills691]

The hydro plants in Niagara Falls would be a cool video, harnessing the power of the mighty Niagara river

[@TheBooban]

Omg, I’ve been saying that forever! Please Simon, do GERD DAM before war breaks out! Completely obscure but Africa shattering project. Edit: oops, I mean not that fall, everyone knows that one. But no one knows of the African one!

[@DavidGonzalez-zg5ux]

I mean a good video explaining the Army Corps rerouting the water of the Niagara Falls making them dry is just as interesting.

[@BooBaddyBig]

The story is that one of the test flights, they had a radar system to test it, a witness on the ground, and a trailing spotter aircraft. The cover story was that it was a new type of jammer. The radar operators were elated when they managed to detect the aircraft. Trouble was, there was only one signal- it was the spotter aircraft. The reaction of the witness to seeing such an odd aircraft is not recorded.

[@Fizz-Pop]

Here's Johnny :D

[@springbloom5940]

They had an experimental 'cloaking device' that they strapped to A7s and flew it around the Tonopah range, as cover for the 'invisible plane'. In many ways, the cover program, is just as interesting as the planes.

[@kaelibw34]

The people of skunkworks are a fascinating bunch. I read a book by the director of skunkworks after Kelly left and the things they did there are wild

[@robertojofre15]

ben rich´s book right?

[@kaelibw34]

@@robertojofre15 that’s the one

[@dannyboyy31]

What is the name of this book you speak of, please? :)

[@kaelibw34]

@@dannyboyy31 Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed

[@Obieone2112]

A phenomenal book! I’ve read it a dozen times and am always impressed by what those guys were able to do.

[@mutantryeff]

While driving westbound on US50 past Fallon Naval Base at over 100mph in the summer of 1986 at around 4am, I looked to my left and watched an F117 land next to me. This was before one crashed in the Sierra and before it was publicly disclosed.

[@mutantryeff]

@@nannerthepuss At the time I didn't know what it was, as it looked so strange.

[@JB-ue6lf]

I would have been so freaked out

[@drmattconrad77]

Props to the pilot of the first plane for recovering from smacking the ground in an extremely unstable plane.

[@richardreed-eaves2148]

Would love to hear about the Forth Bridge near Edinburgh. Incredible engineering project from back in the day. Keep up the good work Simon!

[@delurkor]

They keep asking about the fourth bridge. I keep saying "No it's the first bridge." Then some guy in a skirt says "Nay laddie it's th' Firth of Forth." And I say "Will you make up your mind."

[@CannaCJ]

Must mention Iain Banks and his even grander fictional version, or disappointment will be had. Are they ever going to build that proposed walkway and viewing platform? I'd sign a binding legal contract to visit once a year and spend a minimum of 1,500 USD in Scotland each visit if they did.

[@chrismurray3297]

Aye but the fourth rail bridge was incredibly designed for its time, during ww2 the germans tried to bomb the bridge in the first few hours of the war the bomb bounced off the bridge an went into the water leaving it totally unscathed

[@another3997]

@@chrismurray3297 If it were true, that would have nothing to do with how well the bridge was designed. It would be more likely the bomb's detonator was faulty, as evidenced by the huge number of unexploded bomb's found all over Europe during and after WWII.

[@UNSN68]

This was great! I would also love to see a video about the Ford GT-40 of the late 1960's, the development that went into that car and its success are certainly a worthy topic!

[@Mrgunsngear]

Thanks

[@minisforerbody]

I love it when form follows function. It was designed simply to be invisible to radar, it just so happens that invisible to radar looks dope as shit!

[@ignitionfrn2223]

1:30 - Chapter 1 - Missile threat 3:25 - Chapter 2 - Darpa 4:40 - Chapter 3 - Lockheed 6:10 - Chapter 4 - The man from moscow 7:20 - Mid roll ads 9:00 - Chapter 5 - The hopeless diamond 10:15 - Chapter 6 - Development 11:20 - Chapter 7 - Have blue 13:50 - Chapter 8 - Testing 16:30 - Chapter 9 - The road to the F117 - Chapter 10 -

[@mayoite160]

SUGGESTION: Ilyushin IL-2 - The single most produced military aircraft in aviation history - Visionary WWII ground-attack "flying tank" and spiritual predecessor to the A-10 Warthog - Some WWII German nicknames for it: "meat grinder", "butcher", "black death", "slaughterer", "concrete bird" - What Stalin had to say about it: "Our Red Army now needs IL-2 aircraft like the air it breathes, like the bread it eats."

[@adamblanchard8789]

PLEASE do one on the Bell V2-80 Valor. Amazing piece of machinery made by Bell for Lockheed-Martin.

[@chiyohanson4622]

My Dad worked for 🦨 works for like 30 yrs. I have absolutely no idea what he did there. You know more than me. His boss was Kelly Johnson. They drank tons of black coffee & had brown bag lunches. I made lots of them. That's my contribution to keeping our country safe.😁😂

[@ruaboutasize14]

16:22 ... I spent a week at the Nevada test site in 2014. The sites we saw, while training and learning about radiation (how it behaves, hot zone lines, etc), and the craters left behind by nuclear tests (look up the Sedan Crater) were absolutely mind blowing. Probably the greatest training school I have ever attended. And yes, we were pointed in the direction of the real Area 51 and advised to not try to go anywhere near it if we valued our freedom or lives.

[@boneyardrendezvous]

"Trust the computer, it's smarter than you". I've never seen Simon off his sets. He could be CGI. To seem more human he had an injury. A collarbone, something they would not have to render.

[@tobystewart4403]

Big facts.

[@ihatemegatron216]

Another subject regarding stealth that you may want to look into is Tacit Blue. It is a technology demonstrator that succeeded have blue.

[@violetteclingersmith8792]

Another cool plane, not really related to this one, but cool nonetheless: the Convair B-36 Peacemaker. The world's first intercontinental bomber, originally designed to hit Germany from bases inside the US, it was later the testbed for nuclear-powered aircraft. I'd also give a second shoutout for a Sealab video... At any rate, wonderful work, as usual! I'd been looking forward to this one ever since your F-117 video.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

You missed one of my favorite anecdotes about the Have Blue development / competition. Both Lockheed and Northrop built the wooden mockups for radar testing. Bill Halliwell's comment is great about the Have Blue test. But my favorite bit is even beyond that. When they first tested the Have Blue mockup, the pole the model was on was more reflective than the model itself. Something no non-stealth aircraft had ever had to even take into consideration before! So Lockheed engineers designed a new pole that was itself "stealth." The Lockheed and Northrop teams weren't allowed to get anywhere near each other, or see each other's models. But when the Northrop team showed up to mount their model on the pole, they remarked "If they had to redesign the _pole_ to be stealthy, imagine how invisible their *plane* is!" (paraphrasing, I don't have Ben Rich's autobiography handy I originally read the story in.)

[@darkermatter125.35]

I really appreciate these videos. The mathematicians and physicists who are behind the genius inventions of the military are never mentioned. Most of them are classified and unnamed and don't get any attention ever, despite being absolutely brilliant, in engineering as well. And in others you mention where they have been used. The way they are presented to the public is essential just propaganda of the might of the American military, and to draw in young recruits who see what they could possibly have the chance to use. They are incredible achievements. But the people who created them remain nameless.

[@Sutterjack]

You're a smart dude Simon but you always keep your sense of rapier British wit - this is the sign of a true genius! Love everything you produce!

[@p.l.g3190]

You know it's a good video when it's about a subject in which you have no interest, decide to watch it anyway and come away feeling your time was well spent. Bravo, all!

[@P0HTAT0]

I remember quite a while ago learning about this plane but for some reason the source in witch I learned of it never called it the Have blue. It did refer to it as the Wobbly Goblin this is one of those times I'm reminded that I'm full of semi useless knowledge with no where about on witch I attained much of it. 😕

[@AtheistOrphan]

Not quite. The early F-117s were nicknamed ‘Wobblin’ Goblin’ (not wobbly) by the crews. Several fascinating books cover this fact.

[@duncanmcgee13]

Since its on topic with this video and i know Simon loves US acronyms, Fun Fact: RADAR is an acronym coined by the US Navy in 1940 standing for RAdio Detection And Ranging.

[@owenshebbeare2999]

Coined the term, yes, but definitely invented in the UK.

[@tomcombe4813]

It's more of a buzz word really. Apparently it was also chosen because it's a palindrome so the word could be reversed and read kinda like how the radio waves are reflected and read.

[@duncanmcgee13]

@@owenshebbeare2999 i didnt say it wasnt

[@duncanmcgee13]

@@tomcombe4813 neat

[@TommygunNG]

Video suggestions (inspired in part also by your B52 vid): 1. P47 Thunderbolt. The thing was multi-role and could take tons of punishment and keep flying and fighting. 2. A10 Thunderbolt II ("Warthog"). Also intensely resilient, and the 30mm cannon is epic. When USAF announced (prematurely) that it was being retired, Third World nations and countries like Brazil lined up to buy them. Both epic aircraft.

[@garysanford9364]

The A-10 is the ultimate form follows function aircraft. I'm glad they are being upgraded...

[@MattH-wg7ou]

Ive heard from a couple F117 pilots that by the time they got the flght control systems ironed out, that the F117 flew a lot like the T38/F5. The F117 certainly proved it's worth in Desert Storm, and in Serbia, despite that one loss. If you're lucky you might still see one of these F117s flying to this day! There are articles on The Drive/The Warzone about it.

[@Yora21]

One engineer told a story that when they brought the first prototype of the hull to the radar testing facility, the radar operator asked him to go to the window and look if he can see what's taking the people outside so long to get the hull in position for the test. As the engineer got to the window, the technician told him to not bother, because he managed to actually get a faint signal on his screen, at the moment that a crow landed on the hull.

[@MeachPango]

I just went to the bossier city air museum and got to see a lockheed sr71a blackbird in real life. Amazing plane. I love how a plane that old is still one of the fastest planes to fly. Lockheed knows their shit.

[@garysanford9364]

I remember building a model of that as a kid. It still looks state of the art and was also somewhat stealthy...

[@earlyriser8998]

nice to see "Have Blue" have their day other stories from this period....the radar mockup they put on the radar post was much less visible than the support post. They had Lockheed redesign the radar stand using stealth technology so they could evaluate the aircraft. On one day the operator was complaining that he couldn't see the stealth aircraft and then a bird landed on the radar model and the operator was "OK, I have it now"

[@hondansx1000]

Technically the Horton brothers and Northrops flying wings were the first stealth/low observability aircraft, although the stealth characteristics were a bye-product of their respective aircrafts design. Watch First Flights with Neil Armstrong on the Flying Wing episode. There's a pilot of the YB-35/49 program who tells the story of when they'd go out flying they'd let the radar centre know they'd be flying in the area but didn't tell them what time, and the radar centre had little to no idea where they were

[@glitchingwiththethugz8400]

Another excellent Simon production.

[@PetrSojnek]

Now would be interesting to get information on shield for those swords - radar Tamara that allegedly can detect stealth planes.

[@f3xpmartian]

For more info read Ben Rich's book "Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed". Ben was Kelly's hand picked man to replace himself when he (Kelly) retired. Wonderful vid Simon...

[@natemoorman4562]

Just FYI, northrop's plane was *TACIT* Blue, not *tactic* blue

[@krystalbrooks6869]

This is 1 of the black projects my biological father worked on at Groom Lake. It was given the nickname "ORCA".

[@warrenholmes3311]

...And one can actually see that actual A/c if they go to just north of Dayton, Ohio to the Museum of the United States Air Force. Purely a technology research A/c, it carried no weapons and had no provisions to do so (just that it had an available space between the nose and tail and as such, an actual bomb bay could be added later -- the natural progression of what was to become, the B-2A 'Spirit' (or now what is known as the Stealth Bomber).

[@SnowmanTF2]

'made contact with the ground' and exploded, sounds so much better than a crash

[@artisan002]

Hilariously, every time I see a video about early stealth, I ready up a link to data about Ufimsted, as so few people seem to know about his contribution, or just aren't giving the man his due. I'm so damned glad you nailed that detail.

[@caleblarsen5490]

Would love to hear more about the Tacit Blue.

[@BluewaterBottoms]

The book Skunk Works by Ben Rich who led design on Have Blue and SR71 Is a great 5 to 6 hour listen that explains more in depth the technology and engineering that went into this as well as the Skunk Works back story.

[@ginnyjollykidd]

Hey Simon: I'd like to hear about the man - powered planes, the Gossamer Albatross and the Gossamer Condor

[@thetangieman3426]

Damn, that was a smooth transition to ad read, Simon. It's like yours professional KZbinr or whatnot. Allegedly.

[@not-a-raccoon]

Also I love how the chaos of Blaze is bleeding over to your other stuff 🤣

[@WasabiSniffer]

Came here wondering why I should bother, left with an appreciation on the history of stealth fighters. Dropping these Cold War projects again: A10 and it’s beautiful song. Bradley IFV development and its effect on military doctrine. Or ancient Roman projects, the ramp to Masada

[@alexander1485]

the Bob Semple tank and KillDozer that rampaged Colorado too

[@ljphoenix4341]

Awesome seeing the history behind the F117. Always fun learning about the predecessors to famous aircraft, like the P47 Thunderbolt (which is a video on sideprojects) to the P51 Mustang and these test planes, the haveblues. Great video

[@macTijn]

How did I get here? Well, I was listening to Tom Scott's newest video, about the shortest commercial flight. And it is indeed really, really short, so it was over not even halfway into my walk from work to the metro. My view was deemed most worthy to your cause, by the KZbin algorithm, in combination with autoplay.

[@familywilliams4058]

Glad I'm not the only one who felt the need to make a snarky reply to his question.

[@megaprojects9649]

All hail the algorithm.

[@mirzaahmed6589]

How did I get here? I subscribe to Tom Scott, HAI, and most of Simon's channels. Within a few hours of each other, they posted this, a video on Hooters Air, and the one on the shortest flight with Wendover doing voice over. Pretty good day.

[@michaelpipkin9942]

Please do the YF-22 vs the YF-23. I almost wish the YF-23 had won...

[@RidinDirtyRollinBurnouts]

I have a suspicion the predicament would be the same. The F22 was not designed with any upgrades in mind. It's still stuck running the same software from the 80s and 90s. By the time they entered service, computer technology was leaps and bounds ahead of what the fighter comes with.

[@jamesstone7283]

@@RidinDirtyRollinBurnouts do you fly one?

[@alexander1485]

@@jamesstone7283 im sure he does, hes on the internet afterall and knows everything.

[@simonm1447]

@@jamesstone7283 I don't know if he's a pilot, but it seems it's hard to upgrade. This is the reason why it's now planned to phase them out in the 2030s with a Gen 6 replacement, the fleet is relatively small for US conditions and an avionic hardware upgrade seem to be hard to do.

[@jtb6737]

Yeah, the money they stated on a line-item on a finance statement. No one ever has lied to Congress.

[@not-a-raccoon]

I was wondering when you were going to do this one! I've been addicted to your channels since I found them

[@midiandirenni8315]

We get the Have Blue but not the F-22 Raptor? Please Simon, do this for us!

[@w8stral]

To get to the F22, you have to go into the Northrup stealth design which is the REAL stealth testplane. Not the Have Blue test aircraft which was a dead end, unaerodynamic turbulent unstable mess.

[@midiandirenni8315]

@@w8stral but I *need* the F22. I'll rewatch it 22 times in tribute

[@nighthawk4028]

If I was the program manager of stealth aircraft, i would have told the general public that the aircraft was designed for spoofing on enemy radio signal and this was achieved with flat antenna allover the aircraft., rather than tell everyone it was designed to defeat enemy radars. 😊

[@DougForce]

Nice to see Have Blue get the attention it deserved.

[@Reth_Hard]

Nop, never heard of Squarespace. I have the memory span of a gold fish tho...

[@cinemaipswich4636]

When the Australian Government's "Over the Horizon - Jindalee Radar Project" spotted US stealth fighters over Guam (a few thousand kilometers away) they raced to Australia to cover up that particular news item. When the Australian Air Force attached dozens of stress sensors to their US purchased jet fighters, complete with telemetry software, the US raced to Australia to buy that product too.

[@phyricquinn2457]

7:32 "Start a blog about things people care about, and people will read it!" That's the best joke I've heard all week!

[@stevedownes5439]

Simon, if you haven't already done a video on Tacit Blue, it would make a nice Sideprojects video.

[@NotouchJzargo]

I would love it if Simon did a video about the Douglas Trail. It's an old road that ran from I think San Francisco to the Klondike for the gold rush. I grew up along a stretch of this trail, it's where I learned to drive and ride a dirt bike.

[@ericbrammer2245]

Oh, I'd say that the A-12 was the 'first' Stealth aircraft in Service (albeit with the CIA, not , initially, the USAF). "Oxcart" would evolve beyond the A-12, into a similar critter, the SR-71 'Blackbird. Between the A-12 and SR-71 was the few YF-12 tri-sonic Interceptors, also 'stealth', but, re-fueling issues, and 'quick take-off' impossibilities, as well-as "how-to Launch" a Missile at Mach-3 from an Internal bay, and, 'how can that thing GO Faster than Us?' were never resolved.

[@TerryTerius]

I think that’s a low observable aircraft, but it wasn’t necessarily designed around core concepts of stealth in the way the have blue was. But maybe that’s just splitting hairs at that point, and the efforts of reducing radar cross-section should be the defining metric. You could argue that either way.

[@militavia-air-defense-aircraft]

The first stealth plane was the F-117. Period. I'm quite fed up with the myths and legends about the A-12/SR-71. Even civilians radar could track them. Otherwise this could be impossible... kzbin.info/www/bejne/bnLceXtvfJ6YqpI

[@nicholasmaude6906]

I should point out that the first stealth aircraft was the Lockheed A-12 (The single-seat predecessor to the SR-71).

[@randybobandy9828]

No you are thinking of the wrong A12. The stealth a12 was the a12 avenger ii and it was a mono wing aircraft. It was also made by McDonnell Douglas not Lockheed. It also never flew

[@avejst]

Impressive presentation 👍 Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😀

[@davidedward10]

“Trust the computer, it’s smarter than you”...... Depending VERY much on both the computer and the person in reference, I’ve worked with ‘state of the art’ computers that barely qualify as wrist watches.

[@mdr48371]

Wow hard to believe Lockheed developed a stealth fighter with a Commodore 64 and a model of an Imperial Star Destroyer.

[@TrangleC]

MBB (the successor company to "Messerschmidt" of WW2 fame) developed a stealth fighter called "Lampiridae" (Latin for dragonfly) at the same time as the Have Blue project. You can find pictures of it online. The Lampiridae project was cancelled at the prototype stage though, due to financial and political reasons. What is interesting about it, besides it being the first stealth fighter, is that the idea behind it was to make fighter jets cheaper. Considering how much more expensive stealth technology makes modern fighters, that is quite weird and seems paradoxical today, but the idea was that a stealthy fighter would not need to be very maneuverable, or very fast and wouldn't need a gun and other features that make a fighter jet expensive. Lampiridae was basically just a jet engine, a cockpit and a stealthy hull around it, not much more complicated than a WW2 or Korean War era jet fighter. The other interesting thing about it is that a small, cash starved company somewhere in Bavaria, with a few hundred employees, was able to develop stealth technology in the early 80s, without billions of tax Dollars, the help of DARPA and "The Skunkworks Witch Kitchen" or whatever they called the super secret, super elite design bureau that worked on Have Blue.

[@offroadranger6]

Funny little bit to add to the F-117. While it’s official name was the Nighthawk (nearly all USAF aircraft earn a different name than their original), some pilots dubbed it the Wet Dream because it came in the night and left everything a mess.

[@dv4310]

The Have Blue looks like an ARWING from Star Fox and I love it!

[@sipatha]

Slight correction, Kelly Johnson had retired and coming it as a consultant to new Skunk Works head, Ben R. Rich. Kelly was actually opposed to the project and would have wanted Skunk Works to work on missiles.

[@larryowsowitz2274]

When I was in the USAF in the 80s/90s we called the F-117 the Cockroach. It only came out at night and would scatter when a light would shine on it..

[@underskillednunderpaid]

God, im sick of hearing squarespace ads 😊

[@wacojones8062]

Good Video I just finished reading Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed Paperback - Illustrated, February 1, 1996 by Ben R. Rich (Author) On amazon Kindle, paperback and some used hardcover copies. it covers many strange and very useful aircraft and many stupid bureaucratic errors by government.

[@mitchellakawie2886]

Please do the Yitzhak Navon train station in Jerusalem. It is the world's deepest underground train station.

[@BrycenKauai]

Pretty sure the A12/SR71 employed stealth properties first. It wasnt a clean sheet design but it did pioneer the use of the radar absorbing paint devoloped by the "Boston Group". They also utilized special fuel that ionized their exhaust gasses in an effort to absorb radar waves that were directed into the rear of their engines.

[@dantreadwell7421]

They would have to use the flight control systems from the F-16. The FCS is the only reason that thing stays in the air under control. It's an inherently unstable aircraft. It's why it's so bloody maneuverable. I believe the Have Blue/F-117 is the same way, due to the shape of the airframe.

[@simonm1447]

Yes, the F-17 is quite unstable, and needs a FBW system, like the F-16 (and all modern fighters) use.

[@chilled901]

Hope you guys will make a video about the equally enigmatic Northrop Tacit Blue experimental low observable aircraft

[@travisdrake2940]

What's the odds I just read Skunk Works and this video comes out on one of my favorite channels... coincidence? Or is Simon listening to our brains. Keep it up Simon your awesome 😎

[@anoninunen]

Low-poly model makes the game engine think it must be a small object

[@johnguy3211]

🤣

[@warrenholmes3311]

'Stealth' was 'started' back in the 1930's. We just made it more practical/advanced/useful/engineered/polished.

[@herodrivermusicchannel4571]

I love how the “Blaze” attitude is seeping into the “Projects” channels 😂😂😂😎

[@stephenhammond6962]

Another great video Nomis 😉🤔

[@SimonAmazingClarke]

Ben Rich book called Skunk Works goes all through thìs as well. Nice job Simon

[@Sandhoeflyerhome]

Remember it’s not invisible. It does have a low RCS. Size of a bird in fact. But you can always view it in direct line of site.

[@jaybee9269]

It was “Woblin’ Goblin”; it rhymes, don’tcha know?

[@StarScapesOG]

Bagger 293 please! It is a truly awe inspiring!

[@hullinstruments]

Modern Scientist have it made, everything’s in high definition and color! Surely it makes the work easier! It’s incredible what they accomplished back then when everything was so full of static and black and white. I don’t know how the scientist saw clearly!

[@futwizards]

Please make a video about the Sea Shadow

[@andyrbush]

Always reliably great videos here, brilliant stuff.

[@beachboy0505]

Excellent video 📹 For a Sunday afternoon

[@lorensims4846]

The first think I thought when I saw your thumbnail was "Wobbly Goblin."

[@jtb6737]

I watched some of your older (6+ months) videos and you should talk about the nuclear under-calculation, where 1-3 bombs would talk out a major city, rather than the 20-60 bombs planned out.

[@chiphausl]

Megaproject idea: the building of the Simon Whistler KZbin Empire.

[@frankgulla2335]

Thank you. Nice job

[@jorceshaman]

"How did you get here?" I'm a simple man, I see Simon and I click.

[@James-gj2lo]

I'm glad they put the Nighthawks away for a Rainy day👍 With Terrain Following Radar in 2021 They would still make it through

[@fellaconfused597]

Full respect to the test pilot(s) involved