F-15 Eagle, Still King Of The Hill !

[Tyler Durden]

Back in the summer of '91, I did a weeklong trip to Kirtland and Holloman (sp?).  While at Kirtland we got to tour a specially outfitted KC-135 that was an airborne laser laboratory.   The plane was named Argus.  One of the guys there told us that they were flying off the coast of a particular country.  They were orbiting back and forth because they carried nuclear/radioactive type of sensors.  This country was about to do a test detonation of one of their nuclear bombs or warheads, underground I guess.  He said that this country shot a missile at them.  Now, I didn't ask specifics, but I am ASSuming that it was a surface to air missile...but who knows... it could have been an air to air missile launched from a fighter jet.

Well, our host went on to say that one of our planes shot the missile down.  We were all like 

So we asked him which plane it was....and before one of us could let him answer, somebody piped up with, "It must have been an F-15??"  He goes, "Nope, not fast enough."  Since I knew there had been "fighter" prototypes of the SR-71, I asked "Was it a YF-12 or some other version of the SR-71?"  His reply was, "NOPE!  Still not fast enough."

We were all like this:   

Enough that I still remember it to this day almost 20 years later. 

He never did say which plane it was.   

[tombogan03884]

 According to an article in Popular Mechanic's back around 01 or "02 the "Aurora" (the replacement for the SR71 ) operates on a "Pulse detonation" engine and is supposed to reach speeds even SR71 pilots think are ridiculous I don't remember specific numbers but it was Sci Fi type stuff. Another thing I remember reading about was "Super cruise" an engine development that allows planes to cruise for extended periods at speeds over mach 1 or 2 that is far more economical in fuel than what we are familiar with.

[GUNS-R-US]

There really ISN'T any thing at Area 51 (any more) the facility was old and visible from public land.
According to an article in Aviation Week a few years back all the "Skunk Works" type stuff has been moved to Pawnee Dry Lake where they have a modern, more private facility.
I don't know if the rest of you realize this, but the VAST majority of the technical intelligence the former KGB collected came from open sources such as trade journals. Each Embassy had at least one guy who did nothing but read local papers and technical Journals.Revell Model company offered a scale model of the F117 Night Hawk as far back s the Late 70's early 80's, they also offered a model of the Seashadow about 10 years before the navy admitted it existed.

Kelly Johnson was one of the Greats, he was the brains behind the P38 lightning.

I remember that model, actually had one in the mid 80's I think, but it wasn't quite right to scale. Though it was close.