The Case of the Stealthy Franken Hornet

a reply to: weavty1

As described above, this explanation makes the most sense of all: "This is the RCS test fixture that was used by Boeing to evaluate making the F/A-18E/F weapons pylons and tail assembly to have a smaller RCS."

It is simply a partial F/A-18 model for RCS testing of the tails and weapons pylons. It was never intended to represent a complete airframe.

There have been examples of this sort of thing in the past. Look for pictures of partial A-12 models (nose section only), etc. I remember seeing a partial B-1 on the Rockwell RCS range near Weed Patch, California in the late 1980s, and an even stranger test article at the McDonnell Douglas Grey Butte facility in 1994.

a reply to: weavty1

I'd agree with you.

Of course some of the guys who work out there could have been drinking beer one evening and decided to give the people who look at satellite pictures to talk about.