Pictures requested by popular demand of planes in Groom and the NTS

reply to post by Zaphod58


Thanks. It doesn't look particularly easy!

Wow. Yeah it's the same on the ucav. My question is how the hell did a kc-130 refuel an f-35 when the indicated airspeed for fighters is around 315 kias? I don't know of any c-130 that can fly that fast.

Originally posted by GroomLakePolishFAN

Originally posted by boomer135
reply to post by GroomLakePolishFAN

 

Nope. Didn't start flying there til after. But most likely there was.

So, do you think that the plane was in Groom in some hangar but it wasn't tested there in 1999?

No it's just saying it was spotted in 1999. It could have been flying out of groom for years for all we know. Or it could have started in 1999.

My question to all would be, does anybody know why the F-22 was picked over the YF-23 when the latter had far better performance and such? I'm willing to bet that the F-22 went into production in the white world while the FB-23 or some R variant stayed black world. Sure would explain alot of sighting of triangle shaped aircraft with it's delta wing design. Just food for thought.

reply to post by gariac


Here's a link for the X-47B using both probe and receptacle.
www.irconnect.com...

Originally posted by boomer135
Wow. Yeah it's the same on the ucav. My question is how the hell did a kc-130 refuel an f-35 when the indicated airspeed for fighters is around 315 kias? I don't know of any c-130 that can fly that fast.

Nevermind saw the answer. they are kc-130 J models which raised the airspeed from 100 to 275 indicated.

Not my pic but I'm getting excited...

I wish I could flag you again.

Keep up the great work.

reply to post by boomer135



One of these days I'm going to make a list of TV aircraft specials that don't suck. It will be a small list. ;-) One of the better shows was the "Battle of the X-Planes." It doesn't answer your question specifically, but it does go into how these aircraft competitions are decided.

www.pbs.org...
Not that I encourage this kind of stuff, but it still lives on bit torrent.




In the special, they show the Helendale Lockheed Martin RCS facility. I haven't watched it in a few years, but I don't think they state explicitly where they are, but like, it is kind of obvious to anyone who has seen the place.

It is worth reading the behind the scenes text and images on the webpage. For instance:

Igal had just framed up a well-composed shot of the C-5 when he heard several sets of Air Force-issue boots running up behind him followed by shouts of "Halt!" With M-16s drawn, the MPs escorted Neil and Igal to base security, where they confiscated the film and individually interrogated the pair for several hours before finally releasing them. When I arrive, I see that my two "tourists" are traumatized, and Igal, for one, pledges to stick solely to sound recording from now on.

In John Boyd's biography, the book goes into aircraft procurement. There are a lot of people championing this or that on the plane, and pretty soon it lives up to the expression that a camel is a horse designed by committee.

boomer135

Now, I know what you mean. There was one eyewitness who saw this "unusual" aircraft took off from Groom in September 1999.

Do you ever refuel some "black" aircraft which took off from Groom? in years 1999-2001?

Originally posted by GroomLakePolishFAN

boomer135

Now, I know what you mean. There was one eyewitness who saw this "unusual" aircraft took off from Groom in September 1999.

Do you ever refuel some "black" aircraft which took off from Groom? in years 1999-2001?

Not from 1999-2001. I Didn't start flying in groom until 2002.

I understand. I found on net, very interesting photos on this site: victor.camacho.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">photos

It's hard to estimate distance, but the aircraft for me had F-16 size.

Did you ever refuel some "black" aircraft which took off from Groom when you worked there?

Nemmimd. Didn't read far enough down.

Originally posted by GroomLakePolishFAN
I understand. I found on net, very interesting photos on this site: victor.camacho.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">photos

It's hard to estimate distance, but the aircraft for me had F-16 size.

Did you ever refuel some "black" aircraft which took off from Groom when you worked there?

edit on 28-10-2012 by GroomLakePolishFAN because: question

Your link doesn't work. At least on my computer. As for did I refuel black aircraft from groom I can't comment on specifics. I did do a lot of f-22, x-35 refuelings but they were mostly flying out of Edwards. But some special missions were flown in the box from time to time. The industry standard it seems is that there is anywhere from 7-11 manned aircraft still classified that have been flying since 1985 out of the NTS, not including UAV's. So you can venture a guess about what aircraft we have and what we got to refuel.

Sorry, my previous link doesn't work - my mistake.
Thanks for nice post


On this site it is impossible to write that long website adress, so you have to click on it:
web.archive.org... after forwarding paste this: victor.camacho.com... and click "Show All" and choose 1999 year and September 1. Then the website will be running without problems.

Here(in Poland) are also some sightings of strange objects flying overhead. Do you know something about planes which taking off from Groom and flying over Europe(also over Poland) for some tests?

And you want to talk that from NTS(include Groom Lake) from 1985 there was 7-11 classified aircraft types?

reply to post by GroomLakePolishFAN



I can't figure out how to link those photos. I loath putting photos I don't own on my website, but for the sake of discussion, here goes:









It isn't a very good photo unfortunately. But it doesn't look faked to me either. They shot this at dusk. You can see the reflection off the sign. The cloud deck doesn't look like flying weather to me, but if they were flying something, it would probably be low. But the plane is so far away, it could easily be beyond the box.

I trolled the website where the 3x F117a and it appears as if they are disavowing the sighting.

This is my photo of a F117 on the runway at Groom, done in 2004.



Since I know the properties of my gear, I was able to conclude it was a plain F-117a, at least as far as dimensions go. Since they flew it in the daytime and most likely knew I was on Tikaboo, they probably didn't care if it was known they had a F-117a at the base. Anything flown in the daytime, especially with witnesses, can't be too secret.

I see no logic in making a supersize F-117a since the computer software exists today to do better. If you ever built composites, those hard angles are not particularly a good idea. I have no idea how they do the F-117a shape in real life, but I know if I was doing a garage job composite, it would have to be unidirectional carbon fiber or else glass on the seam to get the sharp angle. Carbon fiber is very stiff. The rounded surfaces are much better in terms of construction with carbon fiber, i.e. they are stronger.

Originally posted by boomer135

Nope. Didn't start flying there til after. But most likely there was.

So, do you think that the plane was in Groom in some hangar but it wasn't tested there in 1999?

No it's just saying it was spotted in 1999. It could have been flying out of groom for years for all we know. Or it could have started in 1999.

My question to all would be, does anybody know why the F-22 was picked over the YF-23 when the latter had far better performance and such? I'm willing to bet that the F-22 went into production in the white world while the FB-23 or some R variant stayed black world. Sure would explain alot of sighting of triangle shaped aircraft with it's delta wing design. Just food for thought.

Interesting, that makes alot of sense. I always wondered if the AF has a special group of basically "special forces" aircraft. Basically a small, mobile, agile armada of fighters, bombers, etc. that could complete a specific mission that would be difficult for the "regular" air force. The F-23 would be perfect.

reply to post by Laxpla


Actually the stealth helicopter used in the UBL raid is a better example. It was stashed away, just waiting for a mission.

Originally posted by gariac
reply to post by Laxpla

 

Actually the stealth helicopter used in the UBL raid is a better example. It was stashed away, just waiting for a mission.

Ahh but there's more than one of those. And I'm pretty sure they weren't tested at groom. I heard New York somewhere.

reply to post by boomer135


The newspaper that can't be named indicates it was tested and stored in Nevada. Check out
"Test and Evaluation Project K". But you can't post the link since the forum blocks it. And for good reason since the paper was suing websites.

please post the TBR flying triangle