West Texas Spanloader

a reply to: Barnalby

could be. Its interesting to try and make sense of project/aircraft names. sometimes the names are pretty wicked but leave you wondering. Why name it that?

Like for instance.
I've wondered how dark star got its name.

Was it arbitrary and random? Was there other planes with "dark" in front like dark denotes a lineage of ISR ?

If not, could there have been maybe a dark and a bright star being developed at the same time by lockheeds skunk works team that was developing recon birds and we only heard about the dark star? Like dark star a early polecat/rq-180/170 mission attempt and the other for the other route being a early 1990s high speed recon attempt. But we only got to hear about the drak star. Maybe they could have been envisioned to worked together like quartz. Dark star and bright star team.

I dunno more speculating on my part but I always wondered where they got the name for dark star.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

DarkStar was simply following in the Lockheed naming tradition. Previous airplanes had names like JetStar, TriStar, Lodestar, Shooting Star, etc. Others kept to the stellar theme as well: Starliner, Constellation, Sirius, Starfire, Altair, Vega, Starfighter, and more.

a reply to: Shadowhawk

I was going to say, the name "dark star" had nothing to do with the DOD and everything to do with the Lockheed marketing department.

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
I dunno more speculating on my part but I always wondered where they got the name for dark star.

Easy-peasy. They got it from John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon, of course.

This is the Actual Unofficial Theme Song of the Dark Star project:

a reply to: Bedlam

At 0:56 in that clip I am sure I have seen that planform somewhere else. Dunno, maybe not

a reply to: BASSPLYR




Hey i know how everyone feels about UFO type videos but this one is a doozie.

this video claims to show photos taken from a US sub and it shows clear triangular craft coming out of the ocean. the video thinks they are UFO's but i think and I'm sure a few of us here will think this might be one of ours.

with some of the stories that we have all read in the past year it is a STRIKING resemblance.

www.youtube.com...

its interesting how things seem to be trickling out fake or not the video looks like it might have pics of a real US craft

Air Force Plans Bomber Contract for September

a reply to: TAGBOARD

Why announce today. When you can push it back to the beginning of the year.

I expect that to get pushed back even more.

a reply to: grey580

No it won't. They can't afford to push it back farther. They are already losing a ton of money from R&D for this year. Push it back more and they lose more.

I was reviewing an article by Bill Sweetman on P-AEA and decided to do some searching online for more information on this interesting airframe.

Big Wing

...and found the following link:


The above "Page 4", is in the slide deck posted here:

USAF: Anti-Access/Area Denial (A2/AD) Challenges

There appears to be a composite of information on existing black programs, apparently generated by the USAF. It mentions:

a) Long Range Strike Platform (LRSP) presumably the LRS-B

b) Penetrating Stand-in Airborne Electronic Attack (P-AEA)

c) Penetrating Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (P-ISR)

d) Enduring Command, Control and Communication (C3)

With a little elbow grease and persistence, things just keep getting better. Using a bit of conjecture, I believe the four platforms mentioned had a start in the SAP/SAR/SCI world, as it's unclear as to what in the current big Air Force asset would serve these roles.

Which may be Amarillo?

What about Wichita?

Time may or may not tell. Enjoy the link while it's still up. ; )

a reply to: TAGBOARD

www.dtic.mil...

Go to page 18 in the PDF..

a reply to: clay2 baraka

Your links broken

a reply to: TAGBOARD

Great grab. Nice work

a reply to: Bfirez

Wow.. Something about how Google embeds the .PDF link..The link has been fixed.

a reply to: clay2 baraka

Awesome find! Looks a lot like the Boeing built X-47B/C.

Pages 19 and 20 look interesting as well.

18 reminds me of the bird of prey.

And how about that nano on 17.

a reply to: TAGBOARD

a) LRS-B maybe Wichita
b) Amarillo ?
c) Surely RQ-180
d) Maybe just E3 or similar

a reply to: BlackDog10

One out of four.

a reply to: TAGBOARD

I'll play!

a) LRSP - The new LRS-B. Possibly the Amarillo one that this thread is about.

b) P-AEA - I'm going to take a jump and say this will be the same aircraft as answer "a". I think they all will all be equipped for some electronic attack, but a few of the patents in a recent thread had me thinking about interchangeable payload packages. Why not have a robust package you can strap in the old bomb bay, plug her in and commence to frying stuff? Sure it's easier said than done but I would think quite a bit of research has been spent on this over many years.

c) P-ISR - RQ-180 and a certain Green Lady.

d) C3 - Wichita

a reply to: Badgermole42

Funny you should say that about the P-AEA. I was just asked if the LRS-B would have that ability.