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

originally posted by: T3rrap1n
There have been emergency landings there before for military craft, no?

A quick google provided me with 2 examples already.

Example A


Example B

Did you see any of those? From experience the most remarkable things happen daily. The vast amount never get reported or recorded in the wrong way. I’ve also worked with our American cousins and I can say when they turn up to party nothing is impossible, the level of security and secrecy is impressive to say the least. I’m sure others on the forum will agree if they don’t want people to know you won’t.

Now look the guy who told had no reason to lie, but it’s up to you, I trusted him with my life for years as did he. All I was doing was passing on what I thought was a fun little thing he brought up. That’s all i’m Just going to go back to lurking now...

The Tonka was before my time but it makes sense to land there as the only place you could easily repair it.

First one I worked there but cant remember anything, there were regular Saudi aircraft as we trained Saudi pilots there, if it came in under its own power and landed you wouldn't really notice as the fire fighters regularly performed drills and I dont think anyone would be interested in the grapevine saying that C-130 loaded with Ejection Seats had to return cos it hit a seagul.

The air traffic controllers were not BAe employees afaik, never met them or knew anyone who knew them personally but as we were flying the Development Aircraft for Typhoon and had guys in the telemetry and debriefings with the test pilots you used to get a lot of information in our small team. We would get 10 minutes notice the Red Arrows were coming in a cleared to do a small display and we would call all our colleagues and everyone would be outside watching them come in.

The test pilots would tell us if they were going to do a full vertical after burn takeoff rather than the 15 degree? standard so we would go outside the hangar to watch.

I am not suggesting you are lying, like i said, Replica was built under pretty much all our noses, its a maintenance dream if you have an issue - it could quite easily be on standby if the americans were flying something secret and wanted to use it as a standby, all they would have to do is tell the ATC who would tell Warton you need to remain on standby and we will pay you and probably few questions would be asked, probably happens a bit if Blackpool Airport closes or Liverpool Airport.

Its just that something like that would involve a lot of non military regular guys who all socialised in the same pubs, Warton is like your grandad worked their, your neighbour worked there and his grandad knew yours, its one of the biggest employers in that area and I never once heard even a sniff of anything remotely like that.

But stranger things have happened!

a reply to: T3rrap1n

There is something in your inbox, dude. Click on the letter icon in the upper right corner near the search button

a reply to: Zaphod58 That looks like something hutch622 would do. Did they find crabs and empty tinnies in the cab?

Kind regards,

bally

originally posted by: Zaphod58
Fess up. Which one of you Aussies did it.

Hahahaha! I actually was expecting to click on that and see Luke AFBs pictures of the Rocks that have been "decorated" by some Aussie Ninjas in honour of Australia Day!

That article states the bloke didnt even have a pilot's license! The hell was he gonna do with a wingless Skipper!? Uber?

10 points for using a jerry can to gravity feed the engine though! Hahaha!

a reply to: Ironside800

We used to get so pissed when we'd get a jet back from down there. We always knew there was a damn kangaroo sticker somewhere, we just had to find the damn thing. Some of the RAAF guys got pretty good at hiding them.

Wonder if the Il62 from Aeroflot still has a Kangaroo on its wingtip after all these years..

a reply to: Zaphod58



some of the footage looks like the bomb came from somewhere else.

a reply to: penroc3

That's the fun of LGBs. To keep the designator on target, sometimes they'd have to circle around. Some of the El Dorado Canyon footage even flips upside down because of the designator passing over the target area.

a reply to: Zaphod58

true, the height of the observer aircraft seems a little low even if they had the ability to zoom

a reply to: penroc3

At 41.36 what is the model in the background...is it supposed to be an F117...??? If so if you look at the shadow the tail is all wrong for an F117...??

a reply to: Silentvulcan

idk??

a reply to: Silentvulcan


The quality isn't great so it's hard to make out real detail, out of the two models, the one to the right looks F14ish??

I`ll take a light grey or desert camo F-117 as my final answer. The light and shadow angle plus the low quality will trick you but that a Nighthawk. You cannot see the left vertical stabilizer shadow because its blended into the left wing shadow.

a reply to: StratosFear

at first glance it does seem to have a rounder cockpit and a longer body

but the real question is why is there always low key unicorns in most public media relating to the F117

a reply to: penroc3

Models are like morale patches. You can get anything you want made, so you can't always put stock in them.

a reply to: Zaphod58

but the unicorns?

i saw one in a briefing room and a commander office to name a few


ETA can you tell im on the hunt for that one documentary

originally posted by: Kurokage

originally posted by: mbkennel

originally posted by: Ironside800
a reply to: mightmight

Thanks for bringing up his quotes from the original thread!

I was going by memory and hadnt read that thread for quite some time.

Im in total agreement with SpeedFanatics OP and your subsequent posts that it operated in the SEAD/DEAD role by circumstance and not design. Mere common sense tells us that.

What was its originally designed role? Something related to nuclear? This was the B-1 era, right?

Earlier in the thread I was thinking out loud along the lines of defence/EW/SEAD for, or along side the B1, it being fast, low level, swing wing and also like the "companion" had its mission changed.

As I remember vaguely the original mission of the B-1 was to find and destroy mobile Soviet missiles. (good luck). Perhaps the companion had passive or even active radiological detectors to find fissile warheads and distinguish from decoys? Or maybe was also used in peacetime for clandestine investigation of whether they were adhering to arms control treaty?

a reply to: penroc3

I've heard of a few desks that had models based on nothing but a concept drawing. There might be one or two that give something away, but they're not going to be sitting on a desk during an interview.

a reply to: Zaphod58

except that one time

a reply to: penroc3

the real question is with the name and mission figured out.

the actual shape of the craft is almost not needed other than crousity if i did know what it looked like would i share it? would anyone?