15 Mysterious Locations

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


Also correct, but the part about the stealth bomber being there for 10 years without nobody knowing is false.

reply to post by Stealthbomber

The decision to produce the F-117A was made on 1 November 1978, and a contract was awarded to Lockheed Advanced Development Projects, popularly known as the Skunk Works, in Burbank, California.[20] The program was led by Ben Rich, who called on Bill Schroeder, a Lockheed mathematician, and Denys Overholser, a computer scientist, to exploit Ufimtsev's work. The three designed a computer program called "Echo", which made it possible to design an airplane with flat panels, called facets, which were arranged so as to scatter over 99% of a radar's signal energy "painting" the aircraft.[11][21][22] The first YF-117A, serial number 79-0780, made its maiden flight from Groom Lake, Nevada on 18 June 1981,[23] only 31 months after the full-scale development decision. The first production F-117A was delivered in 1982, and operational capability was achieved in October 1983.[8][24] The Air Force denied the existence of the aircraft until 1988

So, the decision to produce was made in 1978, and the airforce denied its existence until 1988. ( I think that is where the source got the ten years from )

and prior to that -

The F-117 was born after combat experience in the Vietnam War when increasingly sophisticated Soviet surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) downed heavy bombers.[12] It was a black project, an ultra-secret program for much of its life, until the late 1980s.[13] The project began in 1975 with a model called the "Hopeless Diamond"[14][15] (a wordplay on the Hope Diamond because of its appearance). The following year, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency issued Lockheed Skunk Works a contract to build and test two Stealth Strike Fighters, under the code name "Have Blue"

from wiki
I will read up more on it later as its quite interesting and I havent time now

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


Interesting. I think many of these places may be dimensional portals, usually opened by demonic rituals and sacrifices. Opening portals that the fallen ones AKA aliens AKA fallen angels AKA dimensional beings, whatever you choose to call them use to enter our physical universe. Like a portals to Hell.
I often wonder when Jesus said, "The gates of Hell will not stand against you" referring to his people. Gates are a way to pass from one place to another, Gateway etc. Maybe this is what he meant was these portals. I think there are probably quite a few of them around the world.

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


The story is.....not entirely accurate. There were a few details changed to protect people, but it's a very interesting story to read. It's pretty funny when you read about the radar tests.

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


Fantastic thread - thanks

reply to post by Stealthbomber

In the desert you can't just build based without showing some signs that construction has gone on..

I think Glenn Campbell was the person who used the phrase "the desert doesn't heal." I don't know if he coined it. The classic example is the wagon wheel tracks that are found in Death Valley.

If you hike off the trail in the desert, there are all sorts of places where you can see trauma to the land, though not really identifiable. That is, you don't know what happened, but something happened. The next time I visit the Jeremiah Weed F-4 crash, I will photograph such a spot. I assume the USAF never buries any debris at a crash site since they have trucks to haul debris away, so the obviously disturbed land is interesting. [As of late, the USAF fertilizes crash sites, and in the case of the Edwards F-22 crash, piles dirt over it.]

There are lots of Google Earth explorers that think they found stuff due to funny looking ground. The problem is sometimes the ground looks funny where it was disturbed, and sometimes it looks funny naturally. There could be a mineral deposit that changes the color. Bare areas are naturally bare if there is dense rock underneath it.

As the resolution of Google Earth improves, there are now specular reflections from crash debris. Of course, it helps to know the crash coordinates to find such reflections.

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha

So, the decision to produce was made in 1978, and the airforce denied its existence until 1988. ( I think that is where the source got the ten years from

You can't spot a plane until it is flown, so the clock starts on the date of the first flight. That would be in 1981. You really don't want to try to defend the Tonopah part of the thread since it is easily the most inaccurate.

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha

Just because they have a website doesnt mean that they could not test things or take part in things the public are not privy to. For example the NSA has a website

Except the thread reads:

About 70 miles northwest of Area 51 is a place so secret, even people in the U.S. intelligence community rarely talk about it.

Seriously, you can't defend the Tonopah part of the thread.

Further, the NSA WAS a secret, just like the NRO was at one time. When I talked the NSA recruiter, I made the joke "No Such Agency", because that was how it was referred to back in the day prior to the publication of Bamford's "Puzzle Palace."

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by Stealthbomber

 

Pine Gap is a good place to test airborne systems out. There are mountains (ok, hills), so they can fly them low level through the mountains (ok, hills) and see how they do. As well as test their ability to avoid radar and other detection methods.

I think they would find hills in a better location. First of all, if you are testing your assets against radar, that is done against foreign radar. [You also test your RWR at the same facility.] Basically that is the Have Glib program run at Site-4. But SIGINT facilities are located in areas void of RF smog if possible, so you don't want aircraft flying around. What comes in handy is to place your SIGINT near a facility that also likes a low RF smog, such as a radio observatory (hint hint).
RF smog free zone

The other problem with testing aircraft at Pine Gap is where do you divert for IFE? For instance, you might be flying a wonky foreign asset which you are testing against your radar. The foreign aircraft are maintained to the best of the ability of your air force, but since they are foreign, that can't be as good as maintaining your own planes.

reply to post by FlyInTheOintment

As opposed to devoting your life to 'stomping out nonsense' online, when you & I both know there are plenty of people paid to do that - and what is more, they don't need your amateurish assistance.

Oh, there is somebody being paid to correct posts on ATS. If so, they should be fired. Further, there is nothing amateurish about my replies. They are factual. Feel free to dispute my facts, but let us not make it a personal attack on me just for pointing out that the OP is full of errors.

reply to post by gariac


All that may be true, but at least one (the one my buddy saw) was tested down there (per the company). It also has the advantage of being in the middle of nowhere, similar to Nellis and other locations like that. I've also heard that a number of other odd aircraft were tested down there.

Originally posted by Pressthebutton
Great thread! My father did intelligence at Homestead before Hurricane Amdrew. He said it was quite an unusual place

I was stationed at Homestead 1986-1991. Never noticed or heard of anything unusual or out of the ordinary. The back remote areas of the base did have some really good fishing though.

I worked at the Navy site out on Card Sound Rd a few miles south of the base.
www.navycthistory.com... I usually just shopped the base PX/Commissary and fished, my daughter was born at the AFB hospital. There was great bass fishing behind our site also Lotta gators though.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by gariac

 

All that may be true, but at least one (the one my buddy saw) was tested down there (per the company). It also has the advantage of being in the middle of nowhere, similar to Nellis and other locations like that. I've also heard that a number of other odd aircraft were tested down there.

I've hanged out with one of the editors from Australian Aviation around the range and asked about Pine Gap. Nothing flying there. [I have a photo in the mag of one of the F111s at Red Flag, back in the day when they were still flying them.]

It is really useless to argue with statements like "my buddy saw this" since there is no physical evidence provided. That is how I roll. No proof, no belief.

reply to post by gariac


Well that's too bad, because there was more than just "my buddy saw", there were several articles about them being there, including a press release by the company. However, since I don't know the current status of the project, since it seems to have gone off the radar shortly after, I'm reluctant to talk about specifics.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Are they launching the aircraft from Pine Gap?

reply to post by Stealthbomber


They only said that they were testing at Pine Gap. I don't know if they launched from there, or from another location and went to Pine Gap.

reply to post by Zaphod58


yeah it seems an interesting read, I plan on spending more time on it tomorrow, thanks interesting stuff,

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


You should read some of the stuff from Desert Storm, the first real test of stealth. Some of the comments from the crews were priceless.

Originally posted by gariac
I think Glenn Campbell was the person who used the phrase "the desert doesn't heal." I don't know if he coined it. The classic example is the wagon wheel tracks that are found in Death Valley.

If you hike off the trail in the desert, there are all sorts of places where you can see trauma to the land, though not really identifiable. That is, you don't know what happened, but something happened. The next time I visit the Jeremiah Weed F-4 crash, I will photograph such a spot.

Here you go, gariac. The signs of that cleanup will probably last forever.


I have to say, half the locations in the ops original post are misinfo, disinfo, or thoroughly debunked. A little research would have determined that.

reply to post by Zaphod58


Let's put it this way. There is a conspiracy theory that there are two Obamas because he was sworn in twice. When I see the photo of both Obamas together, I will believe the rumor.

Pine Gap is a SIGINT facility. They don't don't appreciated getting pinged by C-band radar altimeters, let alone ground stations. Australia had plenty of empty places to do flight testing.

Further, I don't see the point of bringing up a topic then being reluctant to give any details. It is far better not to bring up the topic at all that can be said in mish mash. Keeping secrets is fine. I don't post everything I know, because there are leaks I like to exploit that I rather not see patched.