Another "F-117 Companion" thread and a bit of history!

originally posted by: BoutThere
Anyone think this companion aircraft is still operational? or "retired" and strictly used for testing the development of newer systems (both denial and tracking).

If they haven retired/downgraded to testbed status when the F-22 got their AtG upgrades, they definitely were when the F-35 went IOC.

General Dynamics is very well capable of producing an in-house aircraft including all the subsystems needed for development. (could they be considered as a possible candidate who built the companion aircraft?)

Pretty much everyone aerospace contractor has been considered at this point.
General Dynamics is an unlikely candidate. They walked out on DARPAs XST studies early on because they wanted to solve the problem with EW, not RCS reductions. IMO the Companion was either built by developers involved in the XST project (Northrop, McDonnell Douglas/Teledyne Ryan) or the quiet giant not invited at all: Boeing

Boeing has the Quiet Bird from the Sixties (!) and the Bird of Prey and nothing in between (yeah right).
Northrop designed an F-117 gone wrong for XST, i dont think they created something better for the Companion at the same time.
McDonell Douglas had just about the perfect Companion aircraft for XST, unfortunately its a triangle.
If you are interested check out my post over here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: BoutThere

It was operational as late as the late 90s

Do you mean specific event(s)? Kosovo War?

a reply to: SpeedFanatic

I mean exactly what I said.

originally posted by: mightmight
General Dynamics is an unlikely candidate. They walked out on DARPAs XST studies early on because they wanted to solve the problem with EW, not RCS reductions. IMO the Companion was either built by developers involved in the XST project (Northrop, McDonnell Douglas/Teledyne Ryan) or the quiet giant not invited at all: Boeing

MDD and GD didn't have the in-house knowledge at the right time frame. You can tell that from their Avenger offering nearly a decade later which was a "stealthy" attack aircraft which was not very stealthy. The shape was bad for all-aspect RCS, and shape is the biggest driver of signature. So all the triangles with flat back edges, you can toss out the window right now.
TR and Boeing had some signature experience dating to the 60's, but mostly in materials and less in shaping.

Northrup on the other hand had the advanced designs for ATB, ATA-A, and ATA-B all going at the relevant timeframe.
Whatever happened to the ATA-B..?

a reply to: RadioRobert

It became the ATB. They took just about all the technology and information from the ATA B program and rolled it into the B-2 development.

Or did it?

NVM, not Tacit Blue like

Where is boomer, anyone keep in touch with him?

Ill throw this in the mix and shake well..
YF24

a reply to: Zaphod58

The real challenge would be to find the base Companion was operating from during Kosovo War...

Aviano, Italy seems to has too many tourist around and it wouldn't be the best idea to fly deep black project from there I guess.
Unless Companion was the one that only left the base in the dark and never touched Aviano runway in daylight?

... or maybe Companion wasn't used in Kosovo but in the Gulf - Desert Fox?

a reply to: SpeedFanatic

Senior peg possibly?

originally posted by: SpeedFanatic
a reply to: Zaphod58

The real challenge would be to find the base Companion was operating from during Kosovo War...

Aviano, Italy seems to has too many tourist around and it wouldn't be the best idea to fly deep black project from there I guess.
Unless Companion was the one that only left the base in the dark and never touched Aviano runway in daylight?

... or maybe Companion wasn't used in Kosovo but in the Gulf - Desert Fox?

Didn't someone on here (boomer?) mention a story about saying nothing about the black triangles, especially 'those ones' ?

a reply to: Forensick

You are correct, February 27, 2013, in a HAVE BLUE thread. In addition to it being "pointy", part of what he said:

"Ok long story short, no it's not an RF-117, in fact it looks nothing like it. It does follow the same stealth characteristics of stealth aircraft of the time period, i.e. the shapes and paint, etc. However, it's built for jamming, ECM, etc since the F-117 was left without ECM, hell it didn't even hell it didn't even have a radar! 

So yes it does exist, and no I won't tell you what it's called, but there's a pretty good model of it online. Almost too good."

Hope I didn't break any T&C with that cut and paste.

a reply to: Badgermole42

pointy doesn't necessarily mean triangular shaped.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

As it was said to me, the pointy shaped aircraft were just F-117s and the "others" were Companion type. More than one copy of Companion was used during OIF.

Still wonder about this Boomer quote. Is it about Companion or other type?

I agree. But I'm gonna say that there's more than 3 of them made. Probably closer to ten. And they were operational and still are to this day. However they are not called tr3b and aurora. Sorry

There are still few reputable ATS members that could response that lol

originally posted by: Blackfinger
Ill throw this in the mix and shake well..
YF24

No, YF-24 was Navy competition entry from the Nineties, later used as a testbed. Probably linked tot he legacy oft he A/F-X project. Congress authorized funds for prototypes back in 1993. Way too late for anything Companion related.
www.abovetopsecret.com...

originally posted by: Crumbles
a reply to: SpeedFanatic

Senior peg possibly?

Senior Peg was Lockheeds ATB entry, it itself came too late for resulting in a Companion aircraft flying with the F-117 while it was still black.
It grew out of the ATA-B proposals which was about twize the size of ATA-A (which eventually became the F-117) and was deemed notfeasible at the time. An aircraft with twice the range and weapons payload of the F-117 playing escort for it wouldnt make sense.

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
a reply to: Badgermole42

pointy doesn't necessarily mean triangular shaped.

Yes, as pointed out on the first page, Boomer flat out said, the Companion is not tirangle shaped.

originally posted by: SpeedFanatic
a reply to: Zaphod58

The real challenge would be to find the base Companion was operating from during Kosovo War...

Aviano, Italy seems to has too many tourist around and it wouldn't be the best idea to fly deep black project from there I guess.
Unless Companion was the one that only left the base in the dark and never touched Aviano runway in daylight?

... or maybe Companion wasn't used in Kosovo but in the Gulf - Desert Fox?

Oh, like CNN doing live shots as the planes took off. Yes, that would qualify as easily observed.

How is a plane (F-117) that is specifically designed not to emit any RF talk to its companion? The Vulcan mind meld?

By the time Kosovo came around, we had first generation Predators, so let us rule out the alleged companion doing ISR.

Arguing over the F-117 companion is about a useful as arguing over the stealth blimp.

a reply to: gariac

What was seen on CNN live news during Desert Fox is certainly NOT Companion.
I don't know what were the things seen during CNN live but I remember that there were two other scenes showing this thing above the Gulf. One shot was taken when air vehicle(I think it is safe to name it like this) was doing fast bypass over city and another scene was taken when the thing was hovering above the city. Companion does not have hovering capabilities. Companion is conventional aircraft. So things taken by CNN cameras weren't Companion at all.

Both scenes mentioned by me are still on YouTube to this day. Scenes looks real but you never know.

a reply to: Blackfinger

YF-24 you say?


Source: www.behance.net...

I'm pretty sure some of the mythology around the YF-24 is BS, but one of the theories might be true though - but you know what they say about throwing excrement against a wall. Something will stick.

Anyway back on topic. I'm pretty sure Gariac knows a lot about the F-117. And the F-117 was designed to operate in isolation - without communications. How then, did they work together?

a reply to: Forensick
I assume Zaph is still in contact. Pretty sure Boomer was talking about going back into the service to train other boom operators as he missed it. Of course "training" could involve many things which might result in him having to stay quiet. Much in the way intelgurl had to stop contributing so much. I'm sure he will pop up again someday.