Lockheed HAVE BLUE demonstrator in flight-RARE footage

Got my daily email from aviationintel.com and it consisted of a video of the HAVE BLUE demostrator in about 30 seconds of recordings in flight! You can definitely see it's the HAVE BLUE instead of the F-117 cause of the vertical tail fins are faced inward, something they changed on the F-117 for more control.

I asked Tyler from aviationintel where he got the footage on facebook and I'm waiting for a response. Then I looked at the rest of his story and there's a youtube link here


Says it was uploaded April 2011. Has anyone seen this before? Because to me its a pretty big deal to see possibly the first ever stealth aircraft the US build in flight...

aviationintel.com...

reply to post by boomer135


That is one beautiful creation!
Fierce looking to the max!

Lockheed SR-71 always been one of my favorites but this new HAVE BLUE in comparison is like a razor blade vs a flattened piece of Black licorice.

Awesome and sexy at the same time
They should rename it The Cody

Wonder when pics/vids of this caliber of the Aurora will surface?

I personally would like to see some flight video of HAVE BLUE's ugly cousin TACIT BLUE.

Originally posted by boomer135
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I asked Tyler from aviationintel where he got the footage on facebook and I'm waiting for a response.
aviationintel.com...

Did'nt this video pretty much have to come out of Dreamland? Where else was skunkworks testing this?

Originally posted by dashen

Originally posted by boomer135
.

I asked Tyler from aviationintel where he got the footage on facebook and I'm waiting for a response.
aviationintel.com...

Did'nt this video pretty much have to come out of Dreamland? Where else was skunkworks testing this?

I would assume so. I think the end of the video shows a little bit of area 51 in it. Basically it's been on youtube for almost two years, yet I couldn't find a post on ATS about it. Kinda strange.

Great little bit of footage there of what would probably account for a lot of ufo sightings from around that time with its triangle shape. And i also thought that was a bit of what could possibly have been Area 51 at the end.

What I found interesting is that when he lowers the landing gear, the nose gear hasn't extended, after the mains are down and locked.

reply to post by Moohide


Is it silent and can it hover and turn 90 degrees at speed?

I take it ths is pre F117?
Makes it that much more worth a peep......shes sure a beauty compared to the 117......odd how similar yet how much sleeker and faster she looks....
Thanks....id have missed this vid otherwise....!

I can't say that I've ever seen any footage like that and I've been a bit of a buff on the stealth stuff. Discovery and others have had lots of documentaries on various aspects of stealth and the Have Blue program but not that footage that I recall. I did find a foreign site with what must be the chain Have Blue fits into for the development cycle to all this. Lots of interesting stuff there I hadn't seen either.

Stealth and Drone tech examples

I'm with others about Aurora. Enough with the officially unofficial secret. We want to see it!

reply to post by signalfire

"Is it silent and can it hover and turn 90 degrees at speed? "

Dude the thing is unstable, near unflyable. The only thing keeping it aloft is the fly by wire computer system. So no 90 degree turns or hover capability just a very low profile radar signature.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
What I found interesting is that when he lowers the landing gear, the nose gear hasn't extended, after the mains are down and locked.

Likely part of the testing. Aerodynamics and ground radar comparisons. I'm sure it had the most thorough testing on the planet at the time.

I dug around and found that the Have Blue flight footage came from a German documentary on the NCTF ("back east"). However, I was unable to find the documentary name, nor where they got the footage.

Does anyone have further information?

reply to post by boomer135


I have a bit of history for you on HOW this film got to see the light of day.

If I remember correctly, In 1978/1979/1980 (it is unclear the exact year)
a private jet with John Dykstra (i.e. DykstraFlex camera inventor)
and a 2nd Unit film crew from Industrial Light and Magic (i.e. Lucasfilm) were finishing off
some B-Roll footage when some U.S. Air Force personnel were on the tarmac waiting
for them as they returned from their recent aerial filming in California airspace.


These Air Force technical personnel asked them for some help in filming a very special
new aircraft. Because the 2nd Unit director was British, he had to leave the aircraft and
ONLY the American crew were allowed and tasked with getting this air-to-air footage of
what is now known as the precursor to the F-117

After returning from the flight the crew were grinning ear-to-ear but couldn't say anything
about what they has just seen other than it was just "Out of This World!".

It has been incorrectly reported that it was Douglas Trumbull (another Star Wars camera veteran)
who was aboard but from what I understand it was actually John Dykstra because at the time
he was the ONLY ONE who was able to adjust and maintain the special mountings
and motion control system (i.e. similar to a Tyler Mount or to a motion stabilized Wescam System)
used for the in-flight Film Cameras.

So on a technical basis, Lucasfilm not only gave us STAR WARS, but also partly
gave rise to the modern Stealth Fighter.

---

Don't Ask!

This is from the horse's mouth -- That's all I have to say!

BUT as a hint, All you have to do is look for BRITISH 2nd unit film directors for Lucasfilm
or those within the employ of John Dykstra OR Douglas Trumbull (see IMDB movie database)
between the years 1978 and 1982 and then ask him how PO'ed he was after being kicked off
that very special air-to-air filming flight!


---

The DW (Deutche Welle) documentary CAME WAY AFTER the LucasFilm-originated Aerial Footage
and I don't think actually contained THIS specific footage but rather more "Official Air Force" footage...
but I can't be exactly sure because of the number of years that has passed.

reply to post by stirling


This was the technology demonstrator that led to the F-117. It was sort of a proof of concept test bed.

Welp! There's our pyramid shaped UFO we've been seeing! Case solved!

And the A-12 program was a front for the F-117 production. And actually the technology was already available to hover & turn via harrier research.

Wow, she's a beaut!
Excellent footage.