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

a reply to: Zaphod58

ooooh new people. now all the forum members are jealous it's not us.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

Yes, but if it works out I'll have some amazing pics to share from both.

a reply to: Zaphod58

im sure we'd all enjoy a good pic thread when the time comes.

a reply to: BASSPLYR

It's ok, Zaph did actually try conversation once back 2006 when ATS had a chat function, I was there, took part, and I witnessed it, gods honest truth!!


What's your opinion on the birth of the "companion"??

originally posted by: Kurokage
a reply to: StratosFear


The postulated general description says that it's not a full triangle design, has an inward canted tail, and is "pointy".
Being a 70's/80's design could it be faceted? I also wondered if Chris Gibsons' sighted refuelling, along side two F1-11's over the north sea could have been the "companion" instead of the misnamed Aurora.

Well since you brought up the Gibson photo, i was going to post this on another thread but I found this on another website. Its a bit different than the image commonly floating around the A^*(^@ internet topics.

Noticeably longer and sleeker than the other aircraft.

a reply to: StratosFear

It's fake.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Why do you have to stomp all over their dreams like that?

Not stomped on by any means, we got to figure out whats fake and whats not.

a reply to: Barnalby

he has a sadistic streak.

when he was young his mom said some day youll find a way to make your natural tendancies pay. she said "be a dentist. he has a talent for causing things pain." zaph, be a dentist. people will pay you to be inhumane.

Speaking of weird what happened to that design of the box winged tanker in StratoFears pics was it ever actually thought of being built ? That looks awesome


Sorry if my reply seems strange I thought I was replying to the last comment but I was on the wrong page

I've just thought of something, the XB-70 Valkyrie. This maybe the wrong forum as apparently the companion isn't triangle shape (from what i gather from here) Just been looking at some pics, now what if you were to shorten the fuselage at the front the cockpit and nose would be a lot further back close to the wings. Almost like a Vulcan bomber

a reply to: StratosFear

They replaced the F-111 on the boom with that as a representation of what the alleged Aurora might look like on the boom.

a reply to: ThePeaceMaker

Another concept that proved to be not very feasible.

a reply to: Zaphod58

the valkyrie its self was infeasible? or you mean removing its goose neck and just having a cockpit at the root of the wings is unfeasible?

a reply to: BASSPLYR

I was responding to the first post. But redesigning the -70 to that extent would be a non-trivial challenge.

a reply to: Zaphod58

oh. derp. I suck sorry. what was it about the box wing design that worked wonky?

as for chopping off the neck of the 70. if you intended to keep the inlet as designed on the bottom a long with most of its internal design you'd have all sorts of issues with the aircraft's balance and with drag. might as well just start from scratch. the 70 though to me is venerable and much could come from considering it's designs in a modern adaption or remake.

a reply to: Ironside800

They arrived at Nellis this evening just before 5pm. First shot of them landing posted was A46-306.

Hhhmmm Brilliant Buzzard...
Boeing

a reply to: BASSPLYR

A stealthy tanker has proven to be a non-trivial challenge. They can get it stealthy with the boom up, not so much with it down. The receiver blocks some of the reflection, from certain angles, but it doesn't do much good to have a tanker that's stealthy if it throws a neon sign up when it refuels anything.

originally posted by: SpeedFanatic
Anyone thought about an idea that Companion became true Companion when Aardvark gone in the late 90's? Back in 1991, there were reports of a new stealth type deployed to take part in operation Desert Storm. Boomer never said that Companion was deployed to Desert Storm, instead, he admitted that it was used during the first few nights of OIF.

I looked it up, this Boomer post seems to confirm the participation of the Companion in Desert Storm:

"Ok here goes. Back during the first Gulf War, AWACS kept reporting that the Nighthawks were talking to an "unknown" aircraft during their bombing runs over secure voice radio. Not being privy to the level of classification as the "unknown" aircraft had, the controllers were told to maintain radio silence during the bombing runs on Baghdad. So who/what were these mystery aircraft? Well if you believe John Lear they were the infamous F-19's supposedly built right alongside the F-117's, on the other side of the curtain. It's known that there was some sort of partition built in the hanger where the F-117's were built, however builders and engineers from opposite programs weren't allowed to know the information from the other side of the curtain."
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Of course this is little more than hearsay, the rumors of other aircraft in Desert Storm have been around since before Boomers relevations. Maybe he had more to go on regarding Desert Storm, maybe not.