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Speaker 1: Get in tests with technology with text stuff from how

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Speaker 1: stuff Works dot com. Hey there, everyone, and welcome to

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Speaker 1: tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren and uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, I have a bright outlook on life. Now

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Speaker 1: that the nice gentleman have had a little talk with me,

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Speaker 1: Johnathan is suddenly a shiny, happy person. I have had

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Speaker 1: what they like to call a personality readjustment. And I

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Speaker 1: just want to say, yet again, thank you to all

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Speaker 1: of the men and women who have worked at Lockey

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Speaker 1: Skunk Works, the C I, A, N. S A, uh

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Speaker 1: and all other type of secret organizations. Please God bless America. Yeah, exactly,

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Speaker 1: all right, let's move on to what was our timeline, right,

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Speaker 1: that was where we left off. Yeah, we were right

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Speaker 1: about to get to the sun Town. Yeah. Which that's

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Speaker 1: something that Lauren and I know a lot about, seeing

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Speaker 1: is how we're both such a complete translucent Yeah, we

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Speaker 1: are vampire people. We we are the ones who hiss

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Speaker 1: when the sun comes out. But the sun tan does

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Speaker 1: not refer to anyone designed to you know, get an

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Speaker 1: actual tan. That's not That's not what this is about.

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Speaker 1: I believe it was so named. I imagine it was

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Speaker 1: so named because it was a very high flying vehicle.

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Speaker 1: And also it was using liquid hydrogen, hydrogen being very

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Speaker 1: important with sun. Right, Yeah, hydrogens turned into helium the

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Speaker 1: temperature of millions of degrees to do. So, yeah, it

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Speaker 1: was meant to be a spy plane, So it was

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Speaker 1: a sun. The Suntann was a spy plane that would

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Speaker 1: fly on liquid hydrogen as its fuel. And as it

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Speaker 1: turns out, that's that's kind of scary to develop because

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this, but hydrogen tends

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Speaker 1: to be a volatile substance. Let's say. Yes, this project

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Speaker 1: came about because of photos from a UTUB mission over

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Speaker 1: Soviet Russia of hydrogen liquefication plants and they were afraid

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Speaker 1: that that. The U. S. Government was afraid that the

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Speaker 1: USSR was building a plane that could spy better than

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Speaker 1: the U two. And we just can't have any of that.

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Speaker 1: We could not have that. We do not truck with that,

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Speaker 1: so says gunk Works was given nineties six million dollars

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Speaker 1: to design their own hydrogen powered plane. So, uh, you

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Speaker 1: just imagine this the early days of testing your liquid

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Speaker 1: hydrogen production system. Uh, you you go to work in

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Speaker 1: a bomb shelter. The walls of which are eight feet

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Speaker 1: thick in case you happened to blow yourself up real

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Speaker 1: good while you're working with liquid hydrogen, so that you

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Speaker 1: don't blow your neighbors up real good as well. Really

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Speaker 1: builds confidence. So the facility ended up investing in lots

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Speaker 1: of stuff so that they could avoid any possible flames,

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Speaker 1: including all the tools were non sparking. You weren't allowed

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Speaker 1: to carry your keys in your pockets. To avoid any

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Speaker 1: potential sparks. You had to have grounded boots so that

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't create an electro statics charge. It was really

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Speaker 1: really important, and they did pretty well up until they

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Speaker 1: had a tiny, itsy bitsy fire. It was it was

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Speaker 1: a stove fire. It wasn't it wasn't really that big,

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Speaker 1: you know, and it but it took place like seven

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Speaker 1: feet away from the main hydroge in tank. Yeah, which

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Speaker 1: absolutely terrifying. I can't imagine what my reaction would be,

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Speaker 1: nor can I imagine what my reaction would be when

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Speaker 1: I found out the next thing that happened. Because this

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Speaker 1: project was top secret, they wouldn't let firefighters into the

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Speaker 1: building to control the flames, right, and they could not

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Speaker 1: get the flames out with fire extinguishers. They had gone

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Speaker 1: beyond that that level, and yet they could not also

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Speaker 1: allow firefighters in because this top secret they did wind up,

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Speaker 1: I mean, nothing exploded, turned out to be okay, Um,

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Speaker 1: California is still there, so it didn't go boom. But

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Speaker 1: but here's the things that the it really illustrated that

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Speaker 1: that accident illustrate how potentially dangerous this this project was.

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Speaker 1: And so because of its level of risk, it was

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Speaker 1: decided that it was too much for lockeed to endure,

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Speaker 1: and so they scrapped the project. Yeah. Also, Kelly, Kelly

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Speaker 1: Johnson who we mentioned in the previous episode, wasn't personally

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Speaker 1: sure whether these hydrogen engines were going to be able

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Speaker 1: to go faster further than a conventional kerosene burning jet,

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Speaker 1: and so you know, the final decision was like, here's

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Speaker 1: your ninety million of the original ninety six back US government. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: we don't want to blow things up like one. We cannot.

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Speaker 1: We can't guarantee that it's going to perform at what

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Speaker 1: we hope it will, and too, we can't guarantee it

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Speaker 1: won't explode. So as an interesting side note, part of

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Speaker 1: what spurred all this interest in liquid hydrogen was was

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Speaker 1: also the CIA's discovery that Soviet scientists named Peter Kapista

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Speaker 1: Yes had been taken out of a Soviet labor camp

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Speaker 1: and put into a research institute. Um he he was.

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Speaker 1: He was a specialist in in low pressure liquids, and

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Speaker 1: it had turned out that he was working on the

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Speaker 1: Sputnik for which he would win the Noble Prize in Sputnik,

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Speaker 1: which we also refer to as the Satellite that Went Deep.

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Speaker 1: And that's pretty much all it did apart from terrifying

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Speaker 1: entire country, apart from kicking off a whole new section

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Speaker 1: of the Cold War that we like to call the

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Speaker 1: Space Race. Yeah, but that that old that'll that'll play

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Speaker 1: in a little bit with Lockheed, although really skunk Works

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Speaker 1: had very limited uh operations with the Space Race, although

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Speaker 1: some of the people who would test fly some of

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Speaker 1: their jets would end up walking on the fricking Moon,

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Speaker 1: and NASA would continue to use some of their vehicles

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Speaker 1: in testing exactly so May nineteen sixty a very important

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Speaker 1: event happened, not directly related to Lockheed, but something that

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Speaker 1: would would end up impacting them down the line. That

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Speaker 1: was when the United States pilot Francis Gary Powers was

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Speaker 1: shot down. He was flying a YouTube plane over Russia.

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Speaker 1: Um he was shot down after I think they fired

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Speaker 1: something like seven or eight missiles at him, and they

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Speaker 1: also had a MiG in pursuit. The MiG got hit

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Speaker 1: by one of the missiles and was destroyed. Um and

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Speaker 1: Uh and Power said that he saw another parachute open

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Speaker 1: after he had to eject. He actually could have bailed earlier,

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Speaker 1: but stayed in his plane to make sure that would

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Speaker 1: crash in an unpopulated forest area as opposed to crashing

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Speaker 1: in a town, and he ejected from his plane. He

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Speaker 1: landed safely. He was captured by the Soviet Union and

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Speaker 1: sentenced to three years in prison, followed by seven years

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Speaker 1: hard labor, so ten years total. He would not have

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Speaker 1: to serve out all that time. In nineteen sixty two,

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Speaker 1: he was part of a prisoner exchange along with another

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Speaker 1: Soviet prisoner and Uh. He was exchanged for a Colonel

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Speaker 1: William Fisher. Uh It was was a Soviet KGB colonel

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Speaker 1: on every tenth nineteen sixty two in Berlin, so he

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Speaker 1: would return home. He was He was faced with lots

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Speaker 1: of criticism, people who said that he should have activated

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Speaker 1: a a self destruct mechanism that would have destroyed the

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Speaker 1: equipment aboard the You two so that the Soviets couldn't

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Speaker 1: get in charge of it. Some people said that he

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Speaker 1: should have taken the c I A cyanide pill and

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Speaker 1: committed suicide rather than be taken captured by the Soviets.

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Speaker 1: I guess it's your job or something. Yeah, he was

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Speaker 1: eventually like the Officially people said, you did exactly what

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Speaker 1: you were supposed to do, but he faced a lot

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Speaker 1: of criticism at home. Um this this also sparked discussions

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Speaker 1: about needs for for better spy plane. Something has to

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Speaker 1: replace the YouTube because remember the You two had been

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Speaker 1: launched the previous decade, and so you know clearly you

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Speaker 1: don't want to have that spy plane flying ten years later.

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Speaker 1: I say, as the You two is currently flying right now,

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Speaker 1: more than fifty years after. So um this the the

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Speaker 1: new project would be called the Youth three. Yeah, originally

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Speaker 1: that was the original designation. They of course would change that,

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Speaker 1: but that was what they first called it. And uh,

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Speaker 1: this is also when I wanted to take a little

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Speaker 1: side note to talk about what it's like to work

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Speaker 1: at Lockheed, because I was reading an article that had

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Speaker 1: an interview with Edward Lovick, who was a retired He

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Speaker 1: retired Lockeed employee, and he was a radar expert. And

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Speaker 1: the reason why I bring him up now is because

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Speaker 1: this is about when Lockheeds started looking into ways to

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Speaker 1: make planes harder to detect. So one of the ways

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Speaker 1: of makeing a better spy plane is making one that

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Speaker 1: can't be seen by radar or ground or whatever. And

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Speaker 1: so U Lovick, who was probably one of the leading

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Speaker 1: experts in radar at the time, simply he says, because

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Speaker 1: he just started playing with it earlier than most people were. Um,

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Speaker 1: he was very instrumental in trying to figure out what

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Speaker 1: would make a plane harder to see by radar, and

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Speaker 1: it took a while for them to figure this out.

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Speaker 1: He talked about the fact that he would go with

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Speaker 1: Kelly Johnson to some of these meetings with the CIA.

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Speaker 1: And by the way, at that time, Lockheed was referring

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Speaker 1: to the CIA as quote the customer end quote, which

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Speaker 1: I thought was a great way of putting it. And

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Speaker 1: he said that right before Lockeed got the new spy

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Speaker 1: plane contract, we went to a hotel room for a meeting.

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Speaker 1: It was Kelly Johnson. A few science advisors to the President,

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Speaker 1: someone from the CIA, and myself. Pillows were put over

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Speaker 1: the heating events and the room was checked for bugs

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Speaker 1: before any of us spoke. He said that at the

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Speaker 1: time he thought it was pretty silly, but by uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, here's the thing is that during the Cold

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Speaker 1: War there was a lot of spying going on on

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Speaker 1: both sides. So while it sounds like you were being

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Speaker 1: like incredibly paranoid to go to those kind of extremes

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Speaker 1: to make sure that no one's listening, the fact is

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Speaker 1: people were trying to listen. People are absolutely trying to listen. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Luck heat. Around the same time, it also instituted a

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Speaker 1: policy that if any of the employees were approached by

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Speaker 1: someone uh born out of the US who wished to

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Speaker 1: befriend them, that that they were supposed to inform management.

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Speaker 1: It ran, Yeah, yeah, you don't like your your friend

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Speaker 1: Boris who seems to be incredibly helpful and wants to

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Speaker 1: introduce you to cheese plates. Yeah, introduce you to this

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Speaker 1: new drink called vodka. You might want to report that first, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I love It also ended up talking about what it

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Speaker 1: was like to develop the technology they were working on

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Speaker 1: at the time because at this point they weren't using computers.

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Speaker 1: Computers were around in the in the fifties and sixties,

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Speaker 1: but very few places were using them at this point.

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Speaker 1: So he says that the engine years were actually going

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Speaker 1: about the old fashioned way with slide rules and just

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Speaker 1: they were actually writing things down, planning it out on paper,

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Speaker 1: and mixing chemicals by hand. Yeah, sometimes sometimes by feet.

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Speaker 1: He talked about how they would mix chemicals and vats

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Speaker 1: and it would often be like if you were stomping

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Speaker 1: on grapes for wine exactly. He said, it was exactly

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Speaker 1: the same stuff they were using. So they were really

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Speaker 1: using foot power power to mix some of the stuff,

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Speaker 1: which when you consider what some of that stuff is,

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Speaker 1: I'm not sure that all those people are okay. But

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Speaker 1: then we get to nineteen sixty two. This is when

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Speaker 1: they start working really seriously on developing a a stealth vehicle,

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Speaker 1: although at the time they had not quite perfected the

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Speaker 1: way of going about it, and they started with a

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Speaker 1: program called the A twelve also known as ox cart Um.

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Speaker 1: They wanted to make it an invisible plane. So nineteen

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Speaker 1: sixty two is when they started this ox cart program, right,

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Speaker 1: But the CIA wouldn't declassify it until two thousand seven. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's how secret it was. So it was again another

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Speaker 1: collaborative effort between air Force CIA and lockeed just like

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Speaker 1: the you two. It could travel at speeds of around

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Speaker 1: two thousand miles per hour, and it was meant to

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Speaker 1: reduce the radar cross section of the aircraft compared to

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Speaker 1: earlier vehicles by making it smaller and making it out

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Speaker 1: of other materials besides just you know, metal materials. Um.

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Speaker 1: This was before they had figured out that the real

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Speaker 1: secret to making a plane signature disappear was not in

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Speaker 1: how large or small the plane was, but rather in

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Speaker 1: the surface angles and how they create bounts of of

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Speaker 1: of the radar exactly. So you know, we would eventually

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Speaker 1: learned that you could actually have a pretty large aircraft

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Speaker 1: that could still be effectively invisible to radar if the

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Speaker 1: surfaces were shaped the right way. This was before we

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Speaker 1: knew that. So UM thirteen A twelve aircraft were produced

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Speaker 1: under ox Cart and they actually would be tested again

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Speaker 1: at Groom Lake, also known as Aera fifty one, which

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Speaker 1: while I still want to do that episode, I have

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Speaker 1: been convinced that we can put that off for a

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Speaker 1: little while uh So, anyway, there were other vehicle that

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Speaker 1: looked just like A twelves. And again it was another

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Speaker 1: one of those kind of cover stories, right, the idea

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Speaker 1: being that, well, if any of these vehicles are spotted,

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Speaker 1: we can always say no, no, no. That was this

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Speaker 1: other designation that looks just like the one you think

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Speaker 1: it is. Nineteen sixty four, that's when we get the

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Speaker 1: y F DASH twelve A interceptor, which was based on

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Speaker 1: the A twelve design. So that was the ox cart

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Speaker 1: design that was talking about just now, So same sort

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Speaker 1: of idea. So the A twelve ox Cart was really

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Speaker 1: meant as a surveillance vehicle, okay, but the y F

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Speaker 1: twelve A was meant as an interceptor and not one

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Speaker 1: of those fighters that could intercept other aircraft. Right. Um. Also,

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Speaker 1: as Jonathan was just saying, um so, so president the

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Speaker 1: president at the time was Lyndon B. Johnson, and he

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Speaker 1: announced its existence, you know, only a year or so

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Speaker 1: after it had been in existence. Um but uh and

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Speaker 1: and and that was in order to kind of shield

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Speaker 1: the fact that these other sneaky planes were flying around, right,

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Speaker 1: So this interceptor they they everyone acknowledged the fact that

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Speaker 1: these interceptors existed. They did not acknowledge that the A

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Speaker 1: twelves existed. So if you were to spun A twelve,

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Speaker 1: you would think it's just one of those y F

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Speaker 1: twelve ays and everything would be hunky dorry. And originally

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Speaker 1: the Air Force was going to end up purchasing a

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Speaker 1: bunch of planes the next generation of this, and that

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Speaker 1: designation was YF twelve B and and that would have

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Speaker 1: that would have really worked. We think this this one

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Speaker 1: was really mostly used as a test craft and as

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Speaker 1: that kind of decoy, right right, and um, that program

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Speaker 1: was canceled, didn't didn't happen. But one of the test

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Speaker 1: pilots for the y F twelve A interceptor was Jim

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Speaker 1: Irwin a k A. One of the astronauts who eventually

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Speaker 1: landed on the Moon. Yep, he uh, he's done a

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Speaker 1: moonwalk literally, you know, and maybe figuratively too, maybe did

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Speaker 1: the dance. I don't know, but he definitely has walked

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Speaker 1: on the moon. I imagine that there was a pop

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Speaker 1: culture imperative for anyone who had actually walked on the

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Speaker 1: moon to get a moon walk at some point, I suppose. So.

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Speaker 1: I don't know how you invent something retroactively, but I'm

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Speaker 1: sure they've worked on that. Also. In nineteen four, that's

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Speaker 1: when they introduced the s R. Well, they didn't introduce it.

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Speaker 1: They built it and it was in operation, but we

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Speaker 1: sure as heck didn't know about it yet, certainly not.

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Speaker 1: The SR also known as the Bird. This is a

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Speaker 1: gorgeous aircraft's scary looking. Again. You look at this and

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Speaker 1: then you look at the aircraft again in g I Joe,

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Speaker 1: like I mentioned the last podcast, Cobra's got some aircraft

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Speaker 1: that look like the Blackbird. They do. I had never

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Speaker 1: thought about that before because it's all sleek and and

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Speaker 1: and it just looks it looks like it's going fast. Wow,

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Speaker 1: it's staying still, but it could go very fast. This

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Speaker 1: this was a mock three plane, which is which is

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Speaker 1: like over two thousand miles per hour or like thirty

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Speaker 1: six thousand kilometers per hour, and it could fly even

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Speaker 1: higher than the YouTube. The YouTube that the cap on

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Speaker 1: the youtubo is about seventy thousand feet. This could go

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Speaker 1: eighty five thousand feet. So uh, the it flew a

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Speaker 1: lot of missions, but it would turn out that the

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Speaker 1: YouTube would end up being more reliable and less expensive

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Speaker 1: to maintain, and would end up remaining in service longer,

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Speaker 1: so the Blackbird ended up getting retired earlier. In fact

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Speaker 1: that Youtubo is still in operations, so it's not been retired.

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Speaker 1: The last Blackbird mission was in about although I've heard

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Speaker 1: the latest NASA still had one for environmental research, right right, yes,

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Speaker 1: so there are some that are being flown in non

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Speaker 1: military applications, but as a military vehicle it was retired

294
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Speaker 1: in It was another one of those that won one

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Speaker 1: of those Collier trophies, which is understandable. Uh, it made

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Speaker 1: a trip between New York to London in just under

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Speaker 1: two hours. It was like one hour fifty four minutes.

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Speaker 1: I can't get to Florida and under two hours on

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Speaker 1: on my airplanes. I mean they're not my airplanes there. Yeah,

300
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Speaker 1: we haven't gotten to the point yet where we have

301
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Speaker 1: our private aircraft. If anyone would like to donate an

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Speaker 1: aircraft tech stuff or you know, you just want to

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Speaker 1: convince somebody. Well Discovery anyway, So it beat the previous

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Speaker 1: speed record. So so the previous speed record was held

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Speaker 1: by a plane that did that same trip and just

306
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Speaker 1: under five hours, so three hours different, yea. So moving

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Speaker 1: up to nineteen sixties six, this seems really early to me.

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Speaker 1: We just did an episode about drones. When I say,

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Speaker 1: just did it actually isn't that recent, but in the

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Speaker 1: in the memorable past, and most of the drones that

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Speaker 1: we were talking about in that episode really didn't start

312
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Speaker 1: kicking off until or so and so's in sixty six

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Speaker 1: we we kep across the D twenty one. You have

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Speaker 1: the tag Board, which was an unmanned drone. It was

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Speaker 1: classified as above top secret, would not be declassified until

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Speaker 1: two thou seven. That that when c I. A was

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Speaker 1: just like, let's just go ahead and de classify all

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Speaker 1: this stuff. I'm here, let's get to give me the

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Speaker 1: D classify stamp. I'm just gonna go bunkers. So, yeah,

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Speaker 1: the the tag Board was a drone that was had antenna.

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Speaker 1: It was meant to receive commands through the antenna, so

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Speaker 1: you would actually control it from the ground or from

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Speaker 1: an aircraft. And in fact it was supposed to launch

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Speaker 1: off one of those A twelve ox Cart aircraft. Uh

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Speaker 1: right right, I've I've read that some Blackbirds were used

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Speaker 1: for this purpose. Is interesting. I was designed to fly

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Speaker 1: out over territory where the U S didn't strictly have

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Speaker 1: permission to fly over because the idea was that since

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Speaker 1: it was smaller, that it would be less likely to

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Speaker 1: be uh noticed, And it was meant to take photos

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Speaker 1: of sites like weapons facilities at altitudes of around fIF

332
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Speaker 1: feet pretty low. And then in June nineteen sixty six,

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Speaker 1: there was a tragic accident which, uh, what happened was

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Speaker 1: the drone was supposed to launch off the back of

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Speaker 1: one of these ox cart A twelve aircraft, but it

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Speaker 1: did not launch properly. It was going at an incredible

337
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Speaker 1: speed like mock three, and it didn't launch properly, and

338
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Speaker 1: it ended up cutting that aircraft in half. Yeah that

339
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Speaker 1: the pilot and test engineer both ejected safely. But um,

340
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Speaker 1: but I believe drowned. Well the test the test engineer did. Yeah,

341
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Speaker 1: what happened was apparently the face plate on his uniform

342
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Speaker 1: went up and water started rushing into his suit. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so he and he tragically drowned this accident, and uh,

344
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Speaker 1: and so the project was wound up being scrapped. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it was. People at Lockeed were absolutely devastated by this.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it was just a complete freak accident. It

347
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Speaker 1: was unforeseen, and it really shook things up back at Lockheed.

348
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Speaker 1: I mean it was you know, anytime anything like this happens,

349
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Speaker 1: obviously that's a terrible tragedy, and this one just really

350
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Speaker 1: affected them quite deeply. Uh. In nineteen seventy Lockheed would

351
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Speaker 1: then go on to fire the test pilot, Francis Gary

352
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Speaker 1: Powers were listening earlier. That's the guy who was in

353
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Speaker 1: the YouTube plane that got shot down over Russia. So

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Speaker 1: he came back and he was still working for Lockheed,

355
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Speaker 1: but then he he decided to write down some of

356
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Speaker 1: his experiences. Yeah, he published a memoir about the whole

357
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Speaker 1: experience and it was not really um shall we say,

358
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Speaker 1: favorable to the CIA in particular, and then mysteriously he

359
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Speaker 1: lost his job. Well, it may also be that, you know,

360
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Speaker 1: lockeed very very serious about this whole let's keep our

361
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Speaker 1: secrets kind of thing, and it may be that that

362
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Speaker 1: also played a pardon absolutely, But yeah, that was that happened. Two.

363
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Speaker 1: That's when this was crazy. The HMB one Glomar Explorer. Okay,

364
00:19:08,200 --> 00:19:11,640
Speaker 1: so this is a submersible barge, a barge that can

365
00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:14,119
Speaker 1: go under the water. It actually was designed to go

366
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Speaker 1: under the water and land on some underwater supports and

367
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Speaker 1: the whole purpose of this thing was to act as

368
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Speaker 1: a cover so that the United States could do a

369
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Speaker 1: salvage operation on a sunken Soviet submarine. The idea of

370
00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:30,560
Speaker 1: being that this thing would cover up all of their operation.

371
00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:33,920
Speaker 1: They would retrieve the submarine, pull it into the barge,

372
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Speaker 1: bring the barge back above water, and sail it back

373
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Speaker 1: and no one would have known that that's what they

374
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Speaker 1: had done. It sounds like it came out of Hunt

375
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Speaker 1: for October. If if Sean Connery was not aboard that

376
00:19:45,800 --> 00:19:48,879
Speaker 1: saying chump things don't react well to bullish, I'd be

377
00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:52,719
Speaker 1: really disappointed. We can only hope. And it ended up

378
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Speaker 1: eventually becoming once it finished its job. Now what do

379
00:19:57,240 --> 00:19:59,240
Speaker 1: you do with a big submersible barge at that point,

380
00:19:59,359 --> 00:20:03,400
Speaker 1: so it's been converted into a above water dry dock

381
00:20:03,920 --> 00:20:06,760
Speaker 1: where you the ships would come in and then be

382
00:20:06,880 --> 00:20:11,120
Speaker 1: serviced and fixed or decommissioned or whatever. For a long

383
00:20:11,160 --> 00:20:13,399
Speaker 1: time it was dry dock for another ship called the

384
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Speaker 1: Sea Shadow, which we will talk about shortly. And then

385
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Speaker 1: nine seven Here are two of my favorite aircraft that

386
00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:23,760
Speaker 1: have ever come out of skunk works. These were also

387
00:20:23,880 --> 00:20:29,080
Speaker 1: incredibly important. They were flown extensively at Groom Lake Slash

388
00:20:29,119 --> 00:20:31,639
Speaker 1: Area fifty one, So I wrote about them quite a

389
00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:33,680
Speaker 1: bit when I wrote my article about how Area fifty

390
00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:35,480
Speaker 1: one works. That's when the first time I ever learned

391
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:38,520
Speaker 1: about these These already have blue craft. Yeah one and

392
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,000
Speaker 1: two have Blue one and have Blue two. And these

393
00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:45,640
Speaker 1: were proof of concept prototypes. These two aircraft were incorporating

394
00:20:45,720 --> 00:20:49,240
Speaker 1: all the information that Lockeed had been gathering about stealth

395
00:20:49,280 --> 00:20:53,120
Speaker 1: technology in order to decrease their radar signature. So they

396
00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:56,919
Speaker 1: were again top secret vehicles. They were tested quite a

397
00:20:56,920 --> 00:20:59,440
Speaker 1: bit at Groom Lake, and the whole idea was now

398
00:21:00,080 --> 00:21:05,040
Speaker 1: that getting those angular uh surfaces. So it looked a

399
00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:08,240
Speaker 1: little weird because it had all these angles to to

400
00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:10,760
Speaker 1: bounce the radar in random places. It was almost like

401
00:21:10,760 --> 00:21:14,040
Speaker 1: a non Euclidean Cathulhu type aircraft. And it's not quite

402
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:15,399
Speaker 1: that much, but I mean it's like, you know, if

403
00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,920
Speaker 1: you've ever seen those old stealth bombers, they look clunky,

404
00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:20,879
Speaker 1: right because of those weird angles. Yeah, it's totally the

405
00:21:21,160 --> 00:21:23,280
Speaker 1: you know, like the opposite of the aero dynamic kind

406
00:21:23,280 --> 00:21:24,520
Speaker 1: of thing that you think of when you think of

407
00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:27,560
Speaker 1: something that's supposed to be flying. Its nickname wound up

408
00:21:27,560 --> 00:21:30,560
Speaker 1: being the hope the hopeless diamond. The hopeless diamond because

409
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:32,600
Speaker 1: it had these weird angles to it like the Hope

410
00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:34,640
Speaker 1: diamond does, because you know, it's been cut a very

411
00:21:34,640 --> 00:21:38,399
Speaker 1: specific way. So it's called the hopeless diamond. Um. Yeah,

412
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:40,760
Speaker 1: Like I said, you look at the s R seventy

413
00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:42,879
Speaker 1: one Blackbird and that thing looks like it's going fast

414
00:21:42,880 --> 00:21:45,199
Speaker 1: standing still. You look at one of these things and

415
00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:47,320
Speaker 1: you're like, that is not meant to go in the air.

416
00:21:48,280 --> 00:21:51,320
Speaker 1: That that is just wrong on every level. Um. But

417
00:21:51,359 --> 00:21:54,480
Speaker 1: you know, they decided to really go into this after

418
00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:58,720
Speaker 1: the Vietnam War because during the Vietnam War, U S

419
00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:03,480
Speaker 1: Forces kept on in countering trouble with surface to air

420
00:22:03,560 --> 00:22:07,480
Speaker 1: missiles where a lot of aircraft were getting shot at

421
00:22:07,520 --> 00:22:09,840
Speaker 1: and shot down by these missiles, and so they wanted

422
00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:14,080
Speaker 1: to have something that could operate without being spied, you know,

423
00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:17,159
Speaker 1: spied by. You don't want that to happen. So that

424
00:22:17,240 --> 00:22:20,360
Speaker 1: was the main purpose. Um. Now they have Blue one

425
00:22:20,359 --> 00:22:22,359
Speaker 1: and two. They were just men as prototypes. It was

426
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 1: really approve of concept was to show the US military, Hey,

427
00:22:26,520 --> 00:22:29,119
Speaker 1: this is going to work. We can build this into

428
00:22:29,160 --> 00:22:32,080
Speaker 1: an actual working aircraft that we will use for real

429
00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:36,280
Speaker 1: military purposes. We just need the funding, and uh so

430
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:38,560
Speaker 1: it wasn't ever meant to go into combat, didn't They

431
00:22:38,560 --> 00:22:41,200
Speaker 1: didn't really go anywhere but um, but the concepts behind

432
00:22:41,240 --> 00:22:44,199
Speaker 1: it would wind up being used later on, which we

433
00:22:44,240 --> 00:22:46,560
Speaker 1: will talk about in our second half. Yes, so let's

434
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:49,879
Speaker 1: take a quick break and thank our sponsor. All right,

435
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:53,199
Speaker 1: let's get back into talking about the super secret stuff.

436
00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:56,159
Speaker 1: So you know, we had just talked about to have

437
00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:58,959
Speaker 1: Blue one and two obviously not meant for combat. I mean,

438
00:22:58,960 --> 00:23:02,400
Speaker 1: they could got centered miles per hour, which is about

439
00:23:02,160 --> 00:23:05,919
Speaker 1: six kilometers per hour. That's not that fast compared to

440
00:23:05,960 --> 00:23:09,760
Speaker 1: other aircraft at the time. The prototype that's that's that's

441
00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:11,920
Speaker 1: as fast as um that that first P A D

442
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,919
Speaker 1: that we were talking about, right, So obviously that was

443
00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:17,119
Speaker 1: just sort of hey, look what we can do well.

444
00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:21,679
Speaker 1: One that's when we started seeing a new version of

445
00:23:21,680 --> 00:23:24,639
Speaker 1: the U two. Remember that was YouTube came out in

446
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:27,479
Speaker 1: the fifties and one you get. The U two are

447
00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:31,040
Speaker 1: also known as the t R one, also known as

448
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:34,600
Speaker 1: the Dragon Lady, which granted was the original designation for

449
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:37,399
Speaker 1: the c I A U two's way back when. But

450
00:23:37,480 --> 00:23:39,440
Speaker 1: that was the thing is that the YOU two had

451
00:23:39,520 --> 00:23:42,480
Speaker 1: largely become the domain of the Air Force, and now

452
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:46,200
Speaker 1: the You two ARE was this kind of super secret

453
00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:49,320
Speaker 1: version of the U two which had an increased fuel

454
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:51,480
Speaker 1: capacity so it could fly longer, and the t R

455
00:23:51,560 --> 00:23:56,680
Speaker 1: stood for Tactical Reconnaissance, and it had a super pod

456
00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,040
Speaker 1: which was kind of a little think of like a

457
00:24:00,080 --> 00:24:04,240
Speaker 1: bulbous kind of projection where all of their super secret

458
00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:09,199
Speaker 1: sensors were so very very um precisely tuned sensors to

459
00:24:09,200 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: get all kinds of information about the area they were

460
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:15,639
Speaker 1: flying over. Um. The current designation for this aircraft is

461
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:18,000
Speaker 1: now YOU two ARE, so it's no longer called the

462
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:20,399
Speaker 1: t R one, it's just the U two ARE. But

463
00:24:20,440 --> 00:24:22,639
Speaker 1: there are other you two rs that are that don't

464
00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,440
Speaker 1: have the superpods, so it's a little confusing. And there's

465
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,040
Speaker 1: been a whole bunch of different versions and designations of

466
00:24:28,119 --> 00:24:30,600
Speaker 1: this over the years. The U two S one one

467
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:34,080
Speaker 1: of those call your trophies. But the U two R

468
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:37,360
Speaker 1: I believe, is still the highest flying single engine airplane

469
00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:39,639
Speaker 1: in service. Yeah, and also you've got to remember that

470
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:42,439
Speaker 1: skunk Works did not work on every variation of the

471
00:24:42,520 --> 00:24:44,919
Speaker 1: U two. They worked on the first one, and they

472
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:47,800
Speaker 1: worked on the U two ARE, but by that time

473
00:24:47,960 --> 00:24:49,680
Speaker 1: a lot of that work was going out to other

474
00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:53,000
Speaker 1: branches of Lockeed, so this was, uh, you know, we're

475
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:55,159
Speaker 1: really just focusing on the skunk work stuff here. If

476
00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:57,480
Speaker 1: we were talking just about Lockeed, this we have to

477
00:24:57,520 --> 00:24:59,480
Speaker 1: do like in six Yeah, that would be like a

478
00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:02,520
Speaker 1: nine part. So let's talk about the F one seventeen,

479
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 1: the night Hawk. The night Hawk the first radar evading aircraft.

480
00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:10,800
Speaker 1: So we actually had these F one seventeen aircraft in

481
00:25:10,960 --> 00:25:15,639
Speaker 1: use during Operation Desert Storm back in Lauren. You wouldn't

482
00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:17,399
Speaker 1: remember that. You were I think, you know, two at

483
00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:23,560
Speaker 1: the time, so it was like nine okay. So the

484
00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:26,560
Speaker 1: that was, by the way, the only jet in the

485
00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:30,080
Speaker 1: coalition forces that had the authorization to strike targets within

486
00:25:30,119 --> 00:25:33,239
Speaker 1: the city limits of Baghdad, because they thought that it

487
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:35,000
Speaker 1: was the only one to g get close enough to

488
00:25:35,040 --> 00:25:38,159
Speaker 1: guarantee that the strike would hit the precise target and

489
00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:42,320
Speaker 1: not hit something else instead. Um it was often as

490
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:44,560
Speaker 1: referred to as a stealth fighter, although it was really

491
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:47,160
Speaker 1: an air took round combat vehicle, not air to air

492
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,160
Speaker 1: because when we think of fighters, we usually think of

493
00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:52,200
Speaker 1: you know, aircraft that are designed to shoot down other aircraft.

494
00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:56,399
Speaker 1: This was more of an attack vehicle than a fighter.

495
00:25:57,119 --> 00:25:59,159
Speaker 1: The designations get a little confusing. I would have to

496
00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:01,159
Speaker 1: keep looking them up, but because you know what can

497
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,120
Speaker 1: I'm a podcaster, not a fighter. So despite what Ben

498
00:26:04,119 --> 00:26:05,720
Speaker 1: Bowling will tell you, because I did shake him up

499
00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,399
Speaker 1: a bit this morning, I hear that that was for

500
00:26:08,480 --> 00:26:11,280
Speaker 1: completely legit work purpose. Yeah, there's gonna be a stuff

501
00:26:11,320 --> 00:26:13,240
Speaker 1: Mom never told you video that I will link out

502
00:26:13,320 --> 00:26:15,560
Speaker 1: so that you can see me rough up Ben Bowling.

503
00:26:15,800 --> 00:26:17,720
Speaker 1: It happens on a daily basis anyway, but this time

504
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:19,800
Speaker 1: I was call on camera. Anyway. The night Hawk was

505
00:26:19,840 --> 00:26:22,080
Speaker 1: retired in two thousand and eight. It's another one of

506
00:26:22,080 --> 00:26:26,240
Speaker 1: those called your trophy winners. It's kind of interesting how

507
00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 1: many of these have one. That's when we get into

508
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,240
Speaker 1: something that's not an aircraft, the Sea Shadow. All right,

509
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:36,919
Speaker 1: this was a prototype stealth ship. Yes, so funky. Did

510
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:38,560
Speaker 1: you see a picture of this? I have not known.

511
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:40,080
Speaker 1: You got to look up a picture. When we're done,

512
00:26:40,160 --> 00:26:42,320
Speaker 1: I'll definitely have to link a picture of this on

513
00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:45,040
Speaker 1: social as well, because it just looks really odd. We

514
00:26:45,040 --> 00:26:47,439
Speaker 1: should make a gallery. We can do. That's the excited

515
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:49,600
Speaker 1: to the most excited I've ever been about making a

516
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:52,120
Speaker 1: gallery because there's some pretty cool jets in this. We'll

517
00:26:52,160 --> 00:26:54,480
Speaker 1: make a gallery for it. Sure. So the Sea Shadow

518
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,960
Speaker 1: is this prototype stealth ship. It had those weird angular

519
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:00,959
Speaker 1: surfaces kind of like stealth bombers, stealth fighters, that kind

520
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:03,720
Speaker 1: of thing. Um, but it think of it like it

521
00:27:03,960 --> 00:27:06,720
Speaker 1: almost felt like it was suspended over the water, Okay,

522
00:27:06,760 --> 00:27:09,119
Speaker 1: And you have these two wings that come down on

523
00:27:09,160 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 1: either side, like think of a manta ray that has

524
00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:15,040
Speaker 1: its wings down towards the ocean floor. Right. The edges

525
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,200
Speaker 1: of the wings are obviously in contact with the water.

526
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:21,119
Speaker 1: The rest of the body appears to be above the water,

527
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:23,439
Speaker 1: and it's bulky. So you're like, how the heck is

528
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:27,480
Speaker 1: this thing? Turns out it's got a submerged hull. There's

529
00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:30,680
Speaker 1: got this enormous hall that's underneath the water that submerged

530
00:27:30,720 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 1: that is keeping it bulliant so it's not sinking down

531
00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,159
Speaker 1: and just flopping over on its side. But yeah, you

532
00:27:37,200 --> 00:27:39,080
Speaker 1: look at this thing and you're like that just like

533
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:41,240
Speaker 1: the just like some of the aircraft like that should

534
00:27:41,240 --> 00:27:44,480
Speaker 1: not be allowed to happen. That doesn't look like that

535
00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:47,520
Speaker 1: only works if that's non Newtonian fluid in that ocean,

536
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:51,880
Speaker 1: and I know that waters Newtonian, so that can't be it. Yeah.

537
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:56,119
Speaker 1: It was also a designed to show off the usefulness

538
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:59,080
Speaker 1: of automation. The idea being that we could really have

539
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:03,159
Speaker 1: these vehicles that would need a relatively small crew because

540
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:05,440
Speaker 1: we automate as much of it as we possibly can.

541
00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:09,000
Speaker 1: So there are twelve bunks aboard crew of twelve UM

542
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:11,359
Speaker 1: and it had a microwave. That was the only uh

543
00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:14,160
Speaker 1: thing in the galley. There was no like stovetop or anything.

544
00:28:14,160 --> 00:28:18,200
Speaker 1: There was a microwave and twelve bunks, so luxury, um

545
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:20,680
Speaker 1: and UH. It was really just kind of designed to

546
00:28:20,720 --> 00:28:22,720
Speaker 1: be a proof of concept. It was never meant to

547
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:24,639
Speaker 1: be a production vehicle. It was never meant to go

548
00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:26,760
Speaker 1: to the military. Is more to say like, let's see

549
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 1: if this works kind of thing. Um So nothing. It

550
00:28:30,359 --> 00:28:33,720
Speaker 1: was never built into any other kind of ships. Eventually

551
00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:36,879
Speaker 1: it was retired. It went to that that barge I

552
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:39,560
Speaker 1: was talking about earlier, that was the dry dock. Uh.

553
00:28:39,920 --> 00:28:43,680
Speaker 1: And then the eventually the United States government allowed the

554
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:46,120
Speaker 1: I want to say it was I want to say

555
00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:47,880
Speaker 1: the Navy took control. I didn't write this down in

556
00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:50,560
Speaker 1: my notes, I remember reading it, but anyway, the military

557
00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:55,160
Speaker 1: organization in charge of the Sea Shadow decided to sell it, yeah,

558
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:57,120
Speaker 1: to to recoup some of some of this costs. They

559
00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:01,520
Speaker 1: sold it m to a company under under the stipulation

560
00:29:01,560 --> 00:29:03,880
Speaker 1: that they had to immediately dismantle it. Yeah, they could

561
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 1: not sail it. The United States government said, all right,

562
00:29:06,560 --> 00:29:09,320
Speaker 1: we're gonna sell this. We're gonna let you sell this

563
00:29:09,560 --> 00:29:12,880
Speaker 1: off to whoever bids the most. But they cannot sail it.

564
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:14,840
Speaker 1: They have you can look at all the bits, you

565
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:17,320
Speaker 1: have to take it apart. So it was it's been dismantled.

566
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:20,040
Speaker 1: So the Sea Shadow is no more. It was dismantled

567
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:21,720
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. So that's kind of sad

568
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:24,160
Speaker 1: because when you see pictures of this thing. As soon

569
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:26,000
Speaker 1: as I saw I thought, I hope this is at

570
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:27,959
Speaker 1: a museum somewhere where I can go and see it.

571
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,880
Speaker 1: And nope, it is gone. So maybe someone will build

572
00:29:30,880 --> 00:29:35,280
Speaker 1: a replica at some point. That's when they introduced the

573
00:29:35,440 --> 00:29:38,800
Speaker 1: y F twenty two, also known as Yeah and usually

574
00:29:38,840 --> 00:29:41,240
Speaker 1: we just called the F twenty two, which was a

575
00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:46,400
Speaker 1: stealth air superiority fighter superiority fighter. Yeah, it's meant to

576
00:29:46,440 --> 00:29:51,280
Speaker 1: be souper. It's a fifth generation supersonic fighter. Single seat

577
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 1: twin jet engine aircraft can also be an attack vehicle,

578
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:57,400
Speaker 1: so not just a fighter, but also can can act

579
00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 1: out against land based targets. And it can serve as

580
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:03,600
Speaker 1: a signals intelligence vehicle. So the n s A is

581
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:05,640
Speaker 1: probably pretty interested in these things. That means that it

582
00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:10,120
Speaker 1: can intercept electronic messages. UM and it formally entered the

583
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:12,840
Speaker 1: United States Air Force service in two thousand five. Son

584
00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:15,880
Speaker 1: is when they start really working on it. Two thousand

585
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:18,080
Speaker 1: five is when it enters into service. So that's a

586
00:30:18,200 --> 00:30:21,240
Speaker 1: long time, you know, more than a decade before it

587
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:23,600
Speaker 1: entered into service. Yeah, and there are still a few

588
00:30:23,600 --> 00:30:26,120
Speaker 1: squadrons of them in UH in service today. Yeah. I

589
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:31,160
Speaker 1: think there's somewhere something like ten squadrons totals something like that. UH.

590
00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:33,880
Speaker 1: And the final F twenty two was delivered to the

591
00:30:33,920 --> 00:30:36,480
Speaker 1: United States Air Force on May second, two thousand twelve,

592
00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:39,560
Speaker 1: so not long ago, no longer in production, but just barely. Yeah,

593
00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:41,760
Speaker 1: these things. By the way, obviously, when you put in

594
00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:46,280
Speaker 1: an order for two thousand, five hundred UH jets, it

595
00:30:46,360 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 1: takes a while to fill that order, as as you

596
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:54,960
Speaker 1: could possibly imagine. UM. UH corporate note in Lockheed and

597
00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:58,600
Speaker 1: Martin would combine in what was called a merger of equals, right,

598
00:30:58,640 --> 00:31:01,440
Speaker 1: So we've been talking about Lockeed all this time. But

599
00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,160
Speaker 1: remember if you listen to the beginning of the last podcast,

600
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:07,560
Speaker 1: we talked about how the Martin Company was also instrumental

601
00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:10,560
Speaker 1: in early days in aircraft. Well, they had been quite

602
00:31:10,560 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 1: busy themselves and it developed many aircraft that also were

603
00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,480
Speaker 1: incredibly innovative. And at this point the two companies merged

604
00:31:18,520 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 1: together to make a mega innovative aircraft company. Meanwhile, in

605
00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:27,360
Speaker 1: n they come out with the Lockeed. Martin skunk Works

606
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:30,880
Speaker 1: come out with the r Q three A Dark Star

607
00:31:31,360 --> 00:31:34,080
Speaker 1: Dark Star also known as Tier three or sometimes Tier

608
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:37,800
Speaker 1: three Minus, which was an unmanned aerial vehicle designed to

609
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:41,959
Speaker 1: be a high altitude drone. So, uh, this was another

610
00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:46,160
Speaker 1: one of those innovative approaches to trying to do surveillance

611
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:49,200
Speaker 1: without putting an actual human pilot at risk, right, And

612
00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:51,680
Speaker 1: and this was a project that would I I think

613
00:31:51,680 --> 00:31:56,160
Speaker 1: that both Tagboard and have Blue Um really influenced this

614
00:31:56,240 --> 00:31:59,280
Speaker 1: one definitely. Yeah, because it had stealth technology making it

615
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:02,440
Speaker 1: harder to to act. It also had a lot of autonomy.

616
00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:06,080
Speaker 1: It could take off, fly to its mission, complete its mission,

617
00:32:06,160 --> 00:32:09,440
Speaker 1: and come back and land all without a human controller

618
00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:13,480
Speaker 1: taking control of that but also it had the ability

619
00:32:13,480 --> 00:32:15,760
Speaker 1: for a human controller to get in there and change

620
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:19,000
Speaker 1: the parameters of the mission on the fly. So it

621
00:32:19,080 --> 00:32:21,920
Speaker 1: wasn't like, you know, you had this preprogrammed route that

622
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:23,920
Speaker 1: it had to take and once you press play, that's it.

623
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:26,160
Speaker 1: You gotta wait till it comes back. You could actually

624
00:32:26,240 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 1: change things on the fly and change the programming. So

625
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:32,959
Speaker 1: really innovative, particularly in nineteen. And it had a jet engine.

626
00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:35,760
Speaker 1: It used jet engines for propulsion. It wasn't like a

627
00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:39,520
Speaker 1: little rotor based drone. This is this is a jet

628
00:32:40,240 --> 00:32:44,560
Speaker 1: um So officially that program was shelved sometime around nineteen,

629
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:48,280
Speaker 1: but there are some rumors that it's not really shelf

630
00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:51,520
Speaker 1: shelved so much as totally in operation. Yeah, and and

631
00:32:51,560 --> 00:32:54,320
Speaker 1: like totally secret. And uh, that's all I'm gonna say

632
00:32:54,360 --> 00:32:58,520
Speaker 1: about that, because honestly, I do not need another coffee break. Um.

633
00:32:58,600 --> 00:33:01,440
Speaker 1: So two thousand, that's when we get the F thirty

634
00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:04,600
Speaker 1: five Lightning or Lightning Too. Yeah, Lightning Too. It's the

635
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:07,240
Speaker 1: sequel to Lightning. So if you remember in our previous

636
00:33:07,320 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 1: episode we talked about the first Lightning jet aircraft, which

637
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:15,200
Speaker 1: was way back in the very earliest days for Lockheed

638
00:33:15,480 --> 00:33:17,760
Speaker 1: when they were doing their work with the military. So

639
00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 1: the Lightning two is sort of the idea of the

640
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:24,760
Speaker 1: next generation of military aircraft. It's a single seat, single engine,

641
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:28,080
Speaker 1: multi roll fighter. So multi roll also means they can

642
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:31,080
Speaker 1: do multiple things. It can be the ground attack, the

643
00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 1: air defense, reconnaissance. That yeah, it's like, you know, throw

644
00:33:34,600 --> 00:33:37,360
Speaker 1: it at me, bro, I'm gonna do it. So there

645
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:40,840
Speaker 1: are three variations on the F thirty five that allow

646
00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:44,000
Speaker 1: it to take off or land in different environments. So,

647
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:46,440
Speaker 1: for example, there's one version of the F thirty five

648
00:33:46,760 --> 00:33:50,040
Speaker 1: that can land and take off from aircraft carriers, but

649
00:33:50,080 --> 00:33:53,400
Speaker 1: the others don't have that capability that sort of thing. Um,

650
00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:56,440
Speaker 1: So depending on what you need, you use that particular

651
00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:59,440
Speaker 1: type of of F thirty five. And the military has

652
00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 1: ordered a bunch these happen things. Yeah more uh, and

653
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: they are going to the Air Force, the Navy, and

654
00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:07,320
Speaker 1: the Marines. Different branches are using them. For those of

655
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:10,600
Speaker 1: you who aren't familiar with the branches of the military

656
00:34:10,600 --> 00:34:13,800
Speaker 1: in the United States, there are pilots in these different

657
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:17,400
Speaker 1: branches like air forces. Obviously you would you would immediately

658
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:20,040
Speaker 1: assume Air Force. I remember talking to a friend of

659
00:34:20,040 --> 00:34:22,839
Speaker 1: mine who was telling me about how much he thought

660
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:25,239
Speaker 1: it was weird the way that the Air Force was

661
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:27,440
Speaker 1: depicted in Top Gun, and said, do you mean the Navy,

662
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 1: because those were Navy pilots. The top Gun program was

663
00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:33,360
Speaker 1: a Navy program, not an Air Force program. I'm not

664
00:34:33,520 --> 00:34:37,440
Speaker 1: entirely positive that, um that the strict military accuracy was

665
00:34:37,440 --> 00:34:40,120
Speaker 1: what people are watching Top Gun for. I don't know either.

666
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:41,799
Speaker 1: I I knew that by the end of it, I

667
00:34:41,800 --> 00:34:45,680
Speaker 1: I too had the need the need for speed. But yeah,

668
00:34:45,840 --> 00:34:47,840
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly how accurate it was all the

669
00:34:47,880 --> 00:34:50,600
Speaker 1: way from the beginning to end. But anyway. Two one,

670
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:53,960
Speaker 1: that was the introduction of the Desert Hawk, and that's

671
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,040
Speaker 1: another drone. Yeah, another ua V on manned aerial vehicle.

672
00:34:57,160 --> 00:35:00,600
Speaker 1: It was designed to be really portable. It was dreamly light.

673
00:35:00,640 --> 00:35:02,600
Speaker 1: In fact, the original Desert Hawk was made out of

674
00:35:02,680 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 1: essentially kind of foam, So think of like styrofoam or

675
00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:08,920
Speaker 1: packing foam that you would find in a box. That's

676
00:35:09,000 --> 00:35:11,080
Speaker 1: essentially what this thing was made out of. That makes

677
00:35:11,120 --> 00:35:13,360
Speaker 1: more sense. Your next note is that they were launched

678
00:35:13,360 --> 00:35:15,680
Speaker 1: by hand, and therefore, okay, I get that now. I

679
00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:17,719
Speaker 1: think they even use bungee cords, so it's almost like

680
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:20,120
Speaker 1: a slingshot. Launch, and they had electric motors, so they

681
00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:24,880
Speaker 1: were almost silent. Yeah, incredibly light, incredibly quiet. We now

682
00:35:25,000 --> 00:35:28,160
Speaker 1: no longer use the Desert Hawk actively. We have a replacement,

683
00:35:28,200 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 1: the Desert Hawk three. I'm just given over too, but

684
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:32,520
Speaker 1: the Desert Hawk three is what we use today. It's

685
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:35,319
Speaker 1: much more sophisticated and it uses a gyro stabilized three

686
00:35:35,680 --> 00:35:38,560
Speaker 1: sixty degree sensor turret has mounted on the bottom of it.

687
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:41,800
Speaker 1: It's pretty awesome. It's also made out of very lightweight

688
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:45,200
Speaker 1: composite material, so it's it's gone beyond the pham, but

689
00:35:45,280 --> 00:35:49,040
Speaker 1: it's still very lightweight. Two thousand six. This might be

690
00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:53,719
Speaker 1: my favorite, the hybrid. This is a This is an airship, right, yeah,

691
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:56,480
Speaker 1: so that if you are at all of the steampunk vein,

692
00:35:57,360 --> 00:35:59,520
Speaker 1: this is the aircraft for you. It looks like a

693
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:03,279
Speaker 1: blimp or a dirigible. It's it's an airship and it

694
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:07,520
Speaker 1: is beautiful and so it's meant to act as transportation.

695
00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:09,759
Speaker 1: So it's got a large capacity for carrying lots of

696
00:36:09,800 --> 00:36:13,359
Speaker 1: people and low operating costs, and it can operate from

697
00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:16,279
Speaker 1: either existing infrastructure, meaning like some sort of landing field

698
00:36:16,360 --> 00:36:18,840
Speaker 1: or landing strip like an airport, or it could just

699
00:36:18,960 --> 00:36:22,000
Speaker 1: land anywhere that's a remote open space. So as long

700
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:24,360
Speaker 1: as there's not like stuff for it to bump into,

701
00:36:24,440 --> 00:36:27,160
Speaker 1: it can land there. And the first commercial airship is

702
00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:32,960
Speaker 1: scheduled for And uh, this is similar to another vehicle

703
00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:35,600
Speaker 1: that's actually more of a military vehicle. In fact, it

704
00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:39,839
Speaker 1: is a military vehicle that is also a future item

705
00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:42,359
Speaker 1: that we'll be seeing from Lockeed won't Maybe we won't

706
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:44,720
Speaker 1: see it, but it'll see us. I'm talking about ISIS,

707
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:48,800
Speaker 1: which is the integrated Sensor is Structure aircraft which looks

708
00:36:48,840 --> 00:36:52,680
Speaker 1: a lot like the Hybrid. It's another blimp type thing,

709
00:36:52,920 --> 00:36:55,920
Speaker 1: but it's a stealth yeah, and it's spies on you.

710
00:36:56,360 --> 00:36:58,920
Speaker 1: Um yeah. So it's got surveillance and communications gear and

711
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:01,840
Speaker 1: flies in the st atosphere. So for those of you

712
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,400
Speaker 1: who listen to our Google Loon podcast, you know all

713
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:05,959
Speaker 1: about that. We're not going to go over it again,

714
00:37:05,960 --> 00:37:09,239
Speaker 1: but you know that's really yeah. So, and it also

715
00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:12,400
Speaker 1: is able to actually detect targets that are undercover or

716
00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,760
Speaker 1: under camouflage. It's got like camouflage piercing radar. It's pretty

717
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:19,799
Speaker 1: cool stuff. So it's similar to the hybrid, and it

718
00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:24,200
Speaker 1: also uses fuel cells, so that makes sense because it's

719
00:37:24,200 --> 00:37:26,399
Speaker 1: like the Hybrid two and solar panels to to get

720
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:29,440
Speaker 1: its powers right. The contract for this was was awarded

721
00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:32,920
Speaker 1: to Lackeed Martin in two thousand nine. But but I

722
00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:36,040
Speaker 1: think that we had did we have something else? It's

723
00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:38,040
Speaker 1: it's not. No, it's not. It's not going to be.

724
00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:40,680
Speaker 1: The isis. As far as I know, the delivery date

725
00:37:40,719 --> 00:37:45,120
Speaker 1: has not been divulged necessarily. I know that it's coming.

726
00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:47,560
Speaker 1: It is listed on Lockheed Martin's website. If you go

727
00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:49,680
Speaker 1: to their skunk works website, they talk about it, so

728
00:37:49,719 --> 00:37:53,080
Speaker 1: you can actually read about it. Um it is able

729
00:37:53,160 --> 00:37:57,399
Speaker 1: to cover five million nautical square miles with surveillance from

730
00:37:57,480 --> 00:38:02,440
Speaker 1: one and then you can locate it relocated anywhere in

731
00:38:02,480 --> 00:38:05,520
Speaker 1: the world in within ten days. For something that floats.

732
00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:08,600
Speaker 1: That's pretty impressive. All right, So let's get back I

733
00:38:08,680 --> 00:38:12,160
Speaker 1: talked about the hybrid. Yeah. Also in two thousand nine, uh,

734
00:38:12,239 --> 00:38:16,360
Speaker 1: they advanced composite cargo aircraft, the A C C A.

735
00:38:17,080 --> 00:38:19,880
Speaker 1: So again, this is another look at using composite materials.

736
00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:22,680
Speaker 1: And the idea of using composite materials is finding something

737
00:38:22,719 --> 00:38:26,160
Speaker 1: that has the strength of something like steel but is

738
00:38:26,360 --> 00:38:29,080
Speaker 1: far lighter. So you want something that's really durable but

739
00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:31,320
Speaker 1: very light, so that it ends up making your aircraft

740
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:33,879
Speaker 1: much more efficient. You don't need as much fuel, and

741
00:38:34,239 --> 00:38:36,399
Speaker 1: I also reducing the kind of problems that you get

742
00:38:36,440 --> 00:38:40,719
Speaker 1: with metals, like like corrosion and fatigue from those temperature

743
00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:42,719
Speaker 1: differentials that you're going to get going up and down.

744
00:38:42,800 --> 00:38:44,759
Speaker 1: That's that's very true. So this is a way of

745
00:38:44,760 --> 00:38:47,560
Speaker 1: getting around that. And uh, really again, this is one

746
00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:50,560
Speaker 1: of those programs where it's not like the A c

747
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,879
Speaker 1: c A is going to become a leading aircraft. It's

748
00:38:53,920 --> 00:38:58,040
Speaker 1: more like the technology is being explored while they're design stuff.

749
00:38:58,080 --> 00:39:01,279
Speaker 1: Have blue where it's you know, it's well working. Yeah,

750
00:39:01,320 --> 00:39:03,920
Speaker 1: we'll find it. It'll end up emerging in other aircraft,

751
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,879
Speaker 1: right that lockeed makes and that other companies make. Then

752
00:39:06,920 --> 00:39:09,560
Speaker 1: we have two thousand ten. That's when the Harvest Hawk

753
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:12,640
Speaker 1: took flight. So you might remember back in the other

754
00:39:12,680 --> 00:39:15,759
Speaker 1: episode I talked about the Hercules cargo plane and I said,

755
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:18,759
Speaker 1: it's kind of a cargo plane, you know, for for

756
00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:21,640
Speaker 1: propell our cargo plane. It's pretty big and neat, looking

757
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:23,759
Speaker 1: sort of useless at the time. Yeah, you know, like

758
00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:27,600
Speaker 1: it wasn't useless, but it certainly wasn't like super secret

759
00:39:27,719 --> 00:39:30,080
Speaker 1: like it wasn't like some sort of surveillance craft. Well,

760
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:34,319
Speaker 1: now we've got the Harvest talk, which is the the

761
00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:37,040
Speaker 1: reason why it's called Hawk is it's the Hercules Airborne

762
00:39:37,120 --> 00:39:42,399
Speaker 1: Weapons Kit. So it's a weaponized cargo transport aircraft. It's

763
00:39:42,520 --> 00:39:46,279
Speaker 1: armed with hell Fire or Griffin missiles, guided bombs, and

764
00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:49,640
Speaker 1: a thirty millimeter cannon and it's operated by the United

765
00:39:49,640 --> 00:39:54,560
Speaker 1: States Marine Corps. I am terrified of this. This is terrifying.

766
00:39:55,680 --> 00:39:58,440
Speaker 1: And now we're up to current day, two thousand thirteen

767
00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:02,359
Speaker 1: and it time to talk about the s R seventy two.

768
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:05,040
Speaker 1: So this would be kind of the the Blackhawks successor.

769
00:40:05,400 --> 00:40:07,799
Speaker 1: This is a concept aircraft. It's one of those things

770
00:40:07,800 --> 00:40:10,880
Speaker 1: that it hasn't even been funded yet, but Lockheed skunk

771
00:40:10,920 --> 00:40:13,239
Speaker 1: Works has been working on it. And it would end

772
00:40:13,320 --> 00:40:18,200
Speaker 1: up using two different jet systems to have a hypersonic jet.

773
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:23,799
Speaker 1: Hypersonic being super wicked fast. Here's the problem. So there

774
00:40:23,800 --> 00:40:25,640
Speaker 1: are to the two different types of engines. Would be

775
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:28,839
Speaker 1: your standard jet turbine engine, which tends to work at

776
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:32,759
Speaker 1: speeds at mock two or or slower, right, and then

777
00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:35,080
Speaker 1: that that's that's the kind of thing. I mean, the

778
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:37,279
Speaker 1: thing with these ramjets that we've talked a little bit

779
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:40,800
Speaker 1: about and and scram jets, which stands for a supersonic

780
00:40:40,960 --> 00:40:44,280
Speaker 1: combustion ramjet. Although I just really like the word scramjet

781
00:40:44,280 --> 00:40:47,400
Speaker 1: a whole bunch um is that you know, they can't

782
00:40:47,880 --> 00:40:50,760
Speaker 1: they can't start moving until they're going really really fast

783
00:40:50,880 --> 00:40:53,480
Speaker 1: because of that, because of that air drag that they

784
00:40:53,560 --> 00:40:57,080
Speaker 1: need in order to fuel their combust it just doesn't work.

785
00:40:57,160 --> 00:41:00,040
Speaker 1: So you you have to be going really fast to

786
00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:03,800
Speaker 1: to operate your scramjet. So this combines a jet engine

787
00:41:03,800 --> 00:41:06,879
Speaker 1: and a scramjet using an over under fuel approach because

788
00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:08,959
Speaker 1: you can't use the same fuel for both of these either.

789
00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:12,520
Speaker 1: It's actually a very complex system. But the idea is

790
00:41:12,560 --> 00:41:15,320
Speaker 1: that the jet engine would get the the SR seventy

791
00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:18,920
Speaker 1: two moving at around mock three, and then the scramjet

792
00:41:18,960 --> 00:41:21,120
Speaker 1: would start to take over and then you would get

793
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:24,640
Speaker 1: up to your full speed, which which is six which

794
00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:28,480
Speaker 1: is twice the old blackbird um and is about four thousand,

795
00:41:28,640 --> 00:41:32,320
Speaker 1: five hundred miles per hour or I I recorded the

796
00:41:32,320 --> 00:41:34,240
Speaker 1: other in meters per second and it's about two thousand

797
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:37,120
Speaker 1: meters per second. But really fast is what we're talking

798
00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:39,320
Speaker 1: about here. Yeah, And they would be armed with high

799
00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:42,840
Speaker 1: speed strike weapons or h s S double US and

800
00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:44,600
Speaker 1: uh so you can just think of it as a

801
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:48,080
Speaker 1: missile that is able to fly at hypersonic speeds. So

802
00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:51,520
Speaker 1: they hope that they'll have a demonstrator program demonstrating this

803
00:41:51,600 --> 00:41:57,000
Speaker 1: technological ability prototype. Yeah so right now, like I said,

804
00:41:57,000 --> 00:41:59,280
Speaker 1: there's no funding as of the recording of this podcast

805
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:02,480
Speaker 1: for this particular project. But it's one of those things. Yeah,

806
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:04,040
Speaker 1: there could be I mean, c I A might be

807
00:42:04,239 --> 00:42:06,560
Speaker 1: you know, maybe an essay. Maybe they're like, we need

808
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:10,160
Speaker 1: to get away now that we've been looking at everybody's stuff. Um,

809
00:42:10,200 --> 00:42:13,520
Speaker 1: But anyway, this could theoretically hit any target on any

810
00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:16,440
Speaker 1: continent in less than an hour. So it takes off

811
00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:18,719
Speaker 1: and then within an hour anywhere in the world it

812
00:42:18,760 --> 00:42:21,759
Speaker 1: could hit its target. Keeping in mind it's both the

813
00:42:21,800 --> 00:42:25,040
Speaker 1: aircraft and the missile, which is HSSW because at that

814
00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:30,160
Speaker 1: hypersonic speed, to big challenge involves actually heat management because

815
00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:32,400
Speaker 1: when you're traveling at that speed, the friction from the

816
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:35,440
Speaker 1: air is intense. So they had kind of two different

817
00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:38,200
Speaker 1: approaches they could go. They could go with sort of

818
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:41,080
Speaker 1: a cool approach, which is where they use some form

819
00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:43,360
Speaker 1: of heat shielding type stuff, kind of like the stuff

820
00:42:43,400 --> 00:42:46,160
Speaker 1: that the Space Shuttle program used, or they could go

821
00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:49,160
Speaker 1: with a warm approach. Warm is a relative term. It's

822
00:42:49,160 --> 00:42:52,239
Speaker 1: actually quite high temperature where it allows the aircraft to

823
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:56,040
Speaker 1: warm up, but you have the crew um sequestered in

824
00:42:56,120 --> 00:43:00,439
Speaker 1: some way where they are able to operate without being hurt. Yeah,

825
00:43:00,560 --> 00:43:03,920
Speaker 1: being cooked essentially. So if they go with the warm approaches,

826
00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:06,279
Speaker 1: which is what they said they're going to do, and

827
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:09,080
Speaker 1: assuming it's going to be a manned vehicle, which that's

828
00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:11,319
Speaker 1: still I hate to use this phrase, No, I don't

829
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:14,680
Speaker 1: know in the air. It's still up in the air. Um,

830
00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:16,920
Speaker 1: it could be manned or unmanned. But assuming it is manned,

831
00:43:17,040 --> 00:43:19,360
Speaker 1: that probably means that the cockpit will not be a

832
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:21,840
Speaker 1: cockpit where you actually have a window out to see

833
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:24,719
Speaker 1: where everything is. They would be flying this thing that's

834
00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:28,480
Speaker 1: traveling at MOX six using instrumentation. So it's kind of

835
00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:31,360
Speaker 1: like operating a submarine, except you're o bring a submarine

836
00:43:31,360 --> 00:43:35,200
Speaker 1: that's traveling at mos six thousands of feet in the air.

837
00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:38,360
Speaker 1: So um, for those of you who have fear of flying,

838
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:41,919
Speaker 1: imagine that where you can't see out and you're going

839
00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:45,200
Speaker 1: really fast. Yeah, yeah, again, I'm gonna I'm gonna respectfully

840
00:43:45,239 --> 00:43:47,680
Speaker 1: bow out of that particular job. I think that podcaster

841
00:43:47,880 --> 00:43:50,440
Speaker 1: is much better suited for me. Um they have. They

842
00:43:50,440 --> 00:43:53,880
Speaker 1: have also announced though a collaboration with Boeing to compete

843
00:43:53,920 --> 00:43:57,600
Speaker 1: in the U. S. Air Forces Long Range Strike Bomber Program,

844
00:43:57,640 --> 00:44:00,960
Speaker 1: which is a challenge to deliver eight one hundred stealth

845
00:44:01,160 --> 00:44:04,799
Speaker 1: long range bombers for operation in theies, with an upper

846
00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:08,239
Speaker 1: price limit of only five fifty million dollars per unit,

847
00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:13,239
Speaker 1: which I say only but is really not much for

848
00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:16,680
Speaker 1: that thing. That's bargain prices people. We're just we can't

849
00:44:16,719 --> 00:44:21,080
Speaker 1: give these things away. Yeah, no, that's so I'm excited

850
00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:24,560
Speaker 1: to see whether they actually come up with anything for that.

851
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:28,000
Speaker 1: This this was only announced I think in October. UM.

852
00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:30,239
Speaker 1: We are recording this at the beginning of November, and

853
00:44:30,239 --> 00:44:32,440
Speaker 1: who knows, maybe we won't actually see evidence of this

854
00:44:32,520 --> 00:44:35,719
Speaker 1: till because that will be when the CIA declassifies it

855
00:44:35,760 --> 00:44:37,960
Speaker 1: and lets us see it. Anyway, this has been really

856
00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:40,840
Speaker 1: an interesting subject to tackle. I mean, it's it's always

857
00:44:40,920 --> 00:44:43,720
Speaker 1: kind of weird to take a subject that was under

858
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:48,240
Speaker 1: such secrecy for so long and now it's much more open.

859
00:44:48,280 --> 00:44:50,880
Speaker 1: Although we know there's obviously our projects that are from

860
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:56,360
Speaker 1: the sixties, is much more open decades. There's a website

861
00:44:56,360 --> 00:44:59,320
Speaker 1: where they list the stuff they're working on. Now, granted,

862
00:44:59,360 --> 00:45:01,520
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean that's everything. In fact, I would I

863
00:45:01,520 --> 00:45:05,920
Speaker 1: would be shocked if it's even a significant percentage of everything,

864
00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:09,040
Speaker 1: But the fact that they show anything is kind of

865
00:45:09,280 --> 00:45:12,640
Speaker 1: interesting to me. So anyway, skunk Works is interesting, and

866
00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:15,720
Speaker 1: as soon as that car moves away from the corner,

867
00:45:15,800 --> 00:45:17,840
Speaker 1: I'll start planning on when we'll do our Area fifty

868
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:22,600
Speaker 1: one podcast. But man, they are persistent. So in the meantime,

869
00:45:22,640 --> 00:45:24,759
Speaker 1: if you guys have any suggestions for topics that we

870
00:45:24,800 --> 00:45:27,239
Speaker 1: should cover an up future episodes of tech Stuff, let

871
00:45:27,320 --> 00:45:29,560
Speaker 1: us know. Send us a message our emailog just as

872
00:45:29,680 --> 00:45:32,320
Speaker 1: tech stump at Discovery dot com, or drop us a

873
00:45:32,360 --> 00:45:35,400
Speaker 1: line on Facebook, Tumbler or Twitter. You can find our

874
00:45:35,440 --> 00:45:38,279
Speaker 1: handle It is tech Stuff hs W M Lauren and

875
00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:44,120
Speaker 1: I will talk to you again really soon for more

876
00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:46,440
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics. Does it how

877
00:45:46,480 --> 00:45:47,479
Speaker 1: staff works dot Com