"F-19" confirmed (cough cough) at Tonopah Test Range

a reply to: intrptr

I built that Testors kit in 1985.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
a reply to: intrptr

I built that Testers kit in 1985.

Pics or it didn't happen.

But (like the model) the design concept is unworkable, the vertical fins and canards are fixed...

I built the Testors' Kit also back in 1985. Would it not be ironic if that was actually the plane(F-19)?; that it has been flying all these years, and every time someone gets a spy pic, they just say: "No that's just another fake pic of that old Testors' Kit, were not falling for that one again." Makes you wonder, as the F-117 was actually a Bomber.

a reply to: intrptr

Let me dig around. I might have a picture that I can scan.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
a reply to: intrptr

Let me dig around. I might have a picture that I can scan.

Heres a monogram kit, circa 1987...

monogram F19

Testors 1986 version...

Testors F19

Proceeded by the F18 hornet...

The first production F/A-18A flew on 12 April 1980. After a production run of 380 F/A-18As (including the nine assigned to flight systems development), manufacture shifted to the F/A-18C in September 1987.

a reply to: intrptr

OK. So it was 1986. It was definitely the Testors kit. That's a pretty cool website. I never knew that they made a model of the Eagle from Space 1999.

a reply to: JIMC5499

It had variable canards too. The shuttle first launched in 1981, everything back then was designed to look like orbiter, reentry 'planes'.

The skies the limit.

Not going anywhere with this post but...

Didnt the testors f19 depiction have a glass lense on the nose cone? Like for a laser designator or sonething.

That always struck me as interesting. Not saying their design was correct, but its been speculated that the f117 had a companion aircraft that did all the target designation and battle damage assesment for the f117s. And would likely need lasers and other similar targeting devices. Maybe they heard rumors about both the f19 and f117 and jumbled them together coming up with the testors model.

a reply to: intrptr

I remember watching the first Shuttle launch on TV. The first launch that I got to see live was Challenger in 1986.

originally posted by: JIMC5499
a reply to: intrptr

I remember watching the first Shuttle launch on TV. The first launch that I got to see live was Challenger in 1986.

Ewww, jealous, near saw any launch live.

Earth shaking. The closest I ever got to a launch was a static test of an SRB. Heard it rumble from miles away.

a reply to: intrptr

That was the launch where Challenger exploded.

Back when I built the Testors' Model, there was muddled talk by the "experts" that it could not be it, as the design was aerodynamically unworkable. It took me a while, but I found a YouTube Video of some German R/C Modelers that seem to show it is very workable, and even glides well when the engines are turned off:
From YouTube

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: EHowardHuntClub

Thats pretty sweet! Cool video

a reply to: BASSPLYR


That was an amazing video...I would be curious if they could build a radio controlled model of the F-117 as we know it is a Wobbly Goblin and needs FBW..........

originally posted by: JIMC5499
a reply to: intrptr

That was the launch where Challenger exploded.

Edit: Oh I get it, you saw challenger live. I was watching on TV.

originally posted by: BASSPLYR
Not going anywhere with this post but...

Didnt the testors f19 depiction have a glass lense on the nose cone? Like for a laser designator or sonething.

That always struck me as interesting. Not saying their design was correct, but its been speculated that the f117 had a companion aircraft that did all the target designation and battle damage assesment for the f117s. And would likely need lasers and other similar targeting devices. Maybe they heard rumors about both the f19 and f117 and jumbled them together coming up with the testors model.

The F-117 does some sort of pattern matching for guidance neat the target. (Remember, the plane has no radar.) The target location is pre-programed in the computer. The pilot just gets to decide go or no go. I don't know about BDA.

They plug in a storage device of sorts at the beginning of each mission with the flight plan.

The F-117 operation is weird enough that you can see the USAF welcoming something more conventional.

I am beginning to think 'the companion' is not an aircraft or it is conventional aircraft making a diversion or it is a computer named in this publication. She is the mistress of the dark.

www.dtic.mil...

Not a mention of anything if fact very supporting of what the F-117 can do on its own including its sensors.

Didn't realize there were RF-4 recon birds until I read this paper and saw in the training RF4 and looked them up.

There doesn't appear to be anything redacted that may make you question if there was another 'companion' so I would suggest there was no other aircraft.

a reply to: Forensick

The companion is very real, it's also not called the f-19, it follows the f-117 in its designation but not the fighter part.

a reply to: B2StealthBomber

I have never seen any evidence to support the contention that "the companion" is real. To begin with, it doesn't fit into the F-117A concept of operations. No one in the program has ever hinted at the existence, or even the need, for such an aircraft. There were never any compelling unidentified aircraft sightings as with the F-117A in the early days of off-range operations from Tonopah Test Range. There would have been no need to keep such an aircraft classified once the F-117A was revealed by the Defense Department. No one has discovered any program documentation through either releases or leaks. And, if there was an entire production line for these aircraft, some hardware should have turned up by now. Where is the evidence?

a reply to: Shadowhawk

I agree, I recall Boomer (I think) saying something about being told to ignore the triangles, and there were different ones at the end of the line of F-117 and I think a supposed picture taken by a British photographer in UK but that's about all.

If it needed a companion, did they offer to sell this to the Brits too and so how has this been overlooked in the latest releases? I know things are redacted but the readings on the F-117 missions and wars it fought in, all seem perfect without a companion, I don't see any missing part a companion could offer?