Musings about the F-117 companion

a reply to: CrownCartwheelCreed

Check out your PMs, mate.

Replied.

Also (random thought) but has anyone noticed that if you take a Kingfish and round/tweak a few things..it looks like some of the **19 models?

Lower RCS than the Archangel/A-12/SR airframes so it "might" be a good starting place for developing a LPI airframe in the early 70s...

originally posted by: SpeedFanatic
a reply to: CrownCartwheelCreed

Check out your PMs, mate.

a reply to: CrownCartwheelCreed

Replied as well. Check this out, please.

originally posted by: CrownCartwheelCreed
Replied.

Lower RCS than the Archangel/A-12/SR airframes so it "might" be a good starting place for developing a LPI airframe in the early 70s...

Little too early for my taste.

Replied. I know nothing more than what I have read. and posted here.

originally posted by: SpeedFanatic
a reply to: CrownCartwheelCreed

Replied as well. Check this out, please.

Perhaps. Still a lot of mystery surrounding it and the Quiet Bird/Bird of Prey (which started of as a MCD project BTW)

I was just outside of Boeing's Phantom works near STL a few years back.

Heard a jet aircraft take off and head my way. It was a clear day so I grabbed my cell phone and pointed it up- thinking I'd get a nice F-18 pic (they take off regularly from the area)

I saw NOTHING.

Possible I missed it..but it made me think about the Bird of Prey's design goals..and might explain how an operational aircraft has almost never been spotted...

originally posted by: mightmight

originally posted by: CrownCartwheelCreed
Replied.

Lower RCS than the Archangel/A-12/SR airframes so it "might" be a good starting place for developing a LPI airframe in the early 70s...

Little too early for my taste.

a reply to: CrownCartwheelCreed
Well i think neither the BoP nor the Kingfish have anything to do with the Companion tbh.
Boeing is surely prime candidate to have built it, but so are Northrop or even someone like Teledyne.
But the BoP is from the 90s. Whether they did something with active camo or not (I think its just a dumb rumor, for this project at least), the Companion was flying with the 117 when it was still black and was built around the same time, maybe a couple of years earlier. So that’s late 70s tech with production maybe early 80s. Kingfish was old tech by then.

a reply to: TheHans

Check out your PMs, TheHans.

a reply to: CrownCartwheelCreed

Check out your PMs, CrownCartwheelCreed.

I have nothing to add. Have already written (and PM'd) what little I know and all the conjecture I could muster, too.

Hopefully someday Northrop(?) lets something slip and it ends up hanging next to the B.O.P. in a museum instead of hidden at Tonopah or Dyson's dock...

originally posted by: SpeedFanatic
a reply to: CrownCartwheelCreed

Check out your PMs, CrownCartwheelCreed.

This was interesting when unpacking this doc re: B-21:


apps.dtic.mil...


“Harnessing the power of state-of-the-art computer technology to calculate the RCS of stealth aircraft design concepts, both Lockheed and Northrop put forward promising designs and were selected to move to the next phase of the XST competition.226 McDonnell Douglas, however, took a different approach and was eliminated as they leaned too heavily on previous designs and relied on ECM—the opposite of what the XST program was about.”


Could McDonnell Douglas be the manufacturer for the F-19? It may explain the “traditional” design we see with a F-15 canopy with a frisbee body from many conceptual photos. I’ve also seen referenced the designation RF-119 Manta with a ECM role as something very similar to what was the designation used. Additionally if this was MD as the manufacturer it may explain why this was still used and flown as of the 2nd Gulf War in tandem with the F-117 as parts may possibly be still in the pipeline with existing MD aircraft we currently have in our fleet.

Based on hints dropped and taking a hard look at timelines.

I believe that Scaled Composites had a large role in fabricating the Companion.

There are gaps at both NG and sequentially with Scaled Composites.

Interestingly. Scaled Composites has a very large portion of their models accounted for. What's missing is the projects from Model 116 - Model 120.

Model 115 being in 1983
Model 120 being in 1984

Based on the timeframe from 116-119, this would possibly in a post Tacit Blue but Pre-ATF era based on data. Pure speculation as to the possible origin of the model number 119. I found that interesting. I do not want to detract from this overall.

To provide facts.

Scaled Composites was acquired by NG in full in the early 2000s but was a majority shareholder for decades past. There was a comment that the companion was created by a company that was acquired by another company at a later date.

Scaled Composites has worked with NG and many other defense contractors on a surprisingly large amount of ground breaking projects both in the black and white worlds.

It was also said that the design of the Companion was like none other. Scaled Composites certainly has a flair for non-traditional and backed with expertise when possibly dealing with design and fabrication of low RCS designs.

Having been, at times, obsessively researching this aircraft for more years than I want to admit. the above provided some possible insight and a fresh perspective in a direction where no one seem to have been looking in years past.

a reply to: highandthemighty

interesting hypothesis

Sticking with Northrop. This may be something.

patents.google.com...

Im almost convinced this is related to the companion.

If you look at figure 6 and 7, you get that iconic F-19 wing droop but its though Aerodynamic control effector. Same patent holders as the aircraft.

patents.google.com...

a reply to: highandthemighty

If I remember correctly. Someone here has a photo of it. And they mentioned that it has a planeform that is way different from what's normally flying.