Quote:
Originally Posted by T haf
How this plane came to be is one of my favorite airplane stories. There is a book I've read a few times called SkunkWorks. It's written by Ben Rich, the man responsible for bringing this plane into reality. At the time it was being built it was THE biggest aviation advancement since the jet engine ~20 years prior. It has the radar cross section of a bumblebee. In the book they tell a story about one of the first 5 produced for the Airforce. The first 5 were expected to be the learning curve of the jet in regards to production. While they were doing some of the tests to ensure it met Lockheed's expectations they came across an issue. The radar was picking it up! It was reading as big as a barn door on radar. This baffled designers and made the government nervous that it was too good to be true. Upon further investigation they found that a single screw head was protruding 2mm above the surface of the jet. They tightened it back down and ran the tests again. To the expectation of some and the amazement of others, the plane completely disappeared off of radar. It was untraceable. This jet is the father of all stealth aircraft.
The book has some amazing stories about the SR-71, F117, U2, and some other once top secret projects in the Skunkworks department of Lockheed. I highly recommend a read or listen to.
I'm excited to see the model come together! It looks like it'll be a fun one. Can you post some pictures of the instructions. I'd love to see how it was designed to be built
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Happy to! I'll post a few instructions pics during the next update. Thanks for sharing this story - just makes the bird even more intriguing