WEBVTT - Sniffing Out Skunk Works Part Two 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:07.160 Get in tests with technology with text stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:14.120 stuff Works dot com. Hey there, everyone, and welcome to 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.320 tech Stuff. I'm Jonathan Strickland and I'm Lauren and uh, 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.200 you know, I have a bright outlook on life. Now 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.640 that the nice gentleman have had a little talk with me, 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.400 Johnathan is suddenly a shiny, happy person. I have had 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.800 what they like to call a personality readjustment. And I 0:00:29.880 --> 0:00:32.319 just want to say, yet again, thank you to all 0:00:32.360 --> 0:00:34.360 of the men and women who have worked at Lockey 0:00:34.560 --> 0:00:37.440 Skunk Works, the C I, A, N. S A, uh 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:43.400 and all other type of secret organizations. Please God bless America. Yeah, exactly, 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.879 all right, let's move on to what was our timeline, right, 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:49.120 that was where we left off. Yeah, we were right 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:51.360 about to get to the sun Town. Yeah. Which that's 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:53.480 something that Lauren and I know a lot about, seeing 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:57.200 is how we're both such a complete translucent Yeah, we 0:00:57.240 --> 0:01:00.400 are vampire people. We we are the ones who hiss 0:01:00.400 --> 0:01:02.400 when the sun comes out. But the sun tan does 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.240 not refer to anyone designed to you know, get an 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:08.319 actual tan. That's not That's not what this is about. 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.280 I believe it was so named. I imagine it was 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:13.880 so named because it was a very high flying vehicle. 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:17.080 And also it was using liquid hydrogen, hydrogen being very 0:01:17.080 --> 0:01:20.840 important with sun. Right, Yeah, hydrogens turned into helium the 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.200 temperature of millions of degrees to do. So, yeah, it 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:26.120 was meant to be a spy plane, So it was 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:28.240 a sun. The Suntann was a spy plane that would 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:32.240 fly on liquid hydrogen as its fuel. And as it 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.200 turns out, that's that's kind of scary to develop because 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:37.520 I don't know if you know this, but hydrogen tends 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:42.240 to be a volatile substance. Let's say. Yes, this project 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:45.119 came about because of photos from a UTUB mission over 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:48.920 Soviet Russia of hydrogen liquefication plants and they were afraid 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:50.520 that that. The U. S. Government was afraid that the 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:53.160 USSR was building a plane that could spy better than 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:55.200 the U two. And we just can't have any of that. 0:01:55.280 --> 0:01:57.520 We could not have that. We do not truck with that, 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.720 so says gunk Works was given nineties six million dollars 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:05.560 to design their own hydrogen powered plane. So, uh, you 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.840 just imagine this the early days of testing your liquid 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:15.080 hydrogen production system. Uh, you you go to work in 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.520 a bomb shelter. The walls of which are eight feet 0:02:18.639 --> 0:02:21.200 thick in case you happened to blow yourself up real 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:23.440 good while you're working with liquid hydrogen, so that you 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:25.720 don't blow your neighbors up real good as well. Really 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:30.200 builds confidence. So the facility ended up investing in lots 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.720 of stuff so that they could avoid any possible flames, 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:36.520 including all the tools were non sparking. You weren't allowed 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.600 to carry your keys in your pockets. To avoid any 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:42.440 potential sparks. You had to have grounded boots so that 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.959 you wouldn't create an electro statics charge. It was really 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:49.480 really important, and they did pretty well up until they 0:02:49.520 --> 0:02:52.880 had a tiny, itsy bitsy fire. It was it was 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.800 a stove fire. It wasn't it wasn't really that big, 0:02:56.360 --> 0:02:58.399 you know, and it but it took place like seven 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:00.880 feet away from the main hydroge in tank. Yeah, which 0:03:01.760 --> 0:03:05.320 absolutely terrifying. I can't imagine what my reaction would be, 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:07.360 nor can I imagine what my reaction would be when 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.000 I found out the next thing that happened. Because this 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:13.160 project was top secret, they wouldn't let firefighters into the 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.480 building to control the flames, right, and they could not 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:17.960 get the flames out with fire extinguishers. They had gone 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.880 beyond that that level, and yet they could not also 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:25.000 allow firefighters in because this top secret they did wind up, 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.640 I mean, nothing exploded, turned out to be okay, Um, 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:33.040 California is still there, so it didn't go boom. But 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.160 but here's the things that the it really illustrated that 0:03:36.160 --> 0:03:40.880 that accident illustrate how potentially dangerous this this project was. 0:03:41.000 --> 0:03:45.400 And so because of its level of risk, it was 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.160 decided that it was too much for lockeed to endure, 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.320 and so they scrapped the project. Yeah. Also, Kelly, Kelly 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:55.640 Johnson who we mentioned in the previous episode, wasn't personally 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:58.000 sure whether these hydrogen engines were going to be able 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:01.440 to go faster further than a conventional kerosene burning jet, 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:05.400 and so you know, the final decision was like, here's 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:09.640 your ninety million of the original ninety six back US government. Yeah, 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:12.160 we don't want to blow things up like one. We cannot. 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:14.560 We can't guarantee that it's going to perform at what 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:16.680 we hope it will, and too, we can't guarantee it 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.120 won't explode. So as an interesting side note, part of 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.880 what spurred all this interest in liquid hydrogen was was 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:27.680 also the CIA's discovery that Soviet scientists named Peter Kapista 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:30.800 Yes had been taken out of a Soviet labor camp 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:34.320 and put into a research institute. Um he he was. 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:38.800 He was a specialist in in low pressure liquids, and 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:41.240 it had turned out that he was working on the 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:46.240 Sputnik for which he would win the Noble Prize in Sputnik, 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:48.840 which we also refer to as the Satellite that Went Deep. 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:52.360 And that's pretty much all it did apart from terrifying 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.440 entire country, apart from kicking off a whole new section 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:57.919 of the Cold War that we like to call the 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:00.880 Space Race. Yeah, but that that old that'll that'll play 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:04.000 in a little bit with Lockheed, although really skunk Works 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:08.119 had very limited uh operations with the Space Race, although 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:10.000 some of the people who would test fly some of 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:12.839 their jets would end up walking on the fricking Moon, 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:15.360 and NASA would continue to use some of their vehicles 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:19.599 in testing exactly so May nineteen sixty a very important 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:23.000 event happened, not directly related to Lockheed, but something that 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:25.839 would would end up impacting them down the line. That 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.440 was when the United States pilot Francis Gary Powers was 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:32.640 shot down. He was flying a YouTube plane over Russia. 0:05:33.240 --> 0:05:35.480 Um he was shot down after I think they fired 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:38.039 something like seven or eight missiles at him, and they 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:41.240 also had a MiG in pursuit. The MiG got hit 0:05:41.279 --> 0:05:44.200 by one of the missiles and was destroyed. Um and 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:48.159 Uh and Power said that he saw another parachute open 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:52.640 after he had to eject. He actually could have bailed earlier, 0:05:52.760 --> 0:05:55.200 but stayed in his plane to make sure that would 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:59.040 crash in an unpopulated forest area as opposed to crashing 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.760 in a town, and he ejected from his plane. He 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:05.960 landed safely. He was captured by the Soviet Union and 0:06:07.040 --> 0:06:09.679 sentenced to three years in prison, followed by seven years 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.760 hard labor, so ten years total. He would not have 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.600 to serve out all that time. In nineteen sixty two, 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:18.719 he was part of a prisoner exchange along with another 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.120 Soviet prisoner and Uh. He was exchanged for a Colonel 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:26.280 William Fisher. Uh It was was a Soviet KGB colonel 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.359 on every tenth nineteen sixty two in Berlin, so he 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:32.520 would return home. He was He was faced with lots 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:36.200 of criticism, people who said that he should have activated 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.839 a a self destruct mechanism that would have destroyed the 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:42.440 equipment aboard the You two so that the Soviets couldn't 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:44.120 get in charge of it. Some people said that he 0:06:44.120 --> 0:06:47.080 should have taken the c I A cyanide pill and 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:51.880 committed suicide rather than be taken captured by the Soviets. 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.440 I guess it's your job or something. Yeah, he was 0:06:54.480 --> 0:06:58.359 eventually like the Officially people said, you did exactly what 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:00.160 you were supposed to do, but he faced a lot 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.400 of criticism at home. Um this this also sparked discussions 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.719 about needs for for better spy plane. Something has to 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.600 replace the YouTube because remember the You two had been 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:14.720 launched the previous decade, and so you know clearly you 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:17.520 don't want to have that spy plane flying ten years later. 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:20.840 I say, as the You two is currently flying right now, 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.880 more than fifty years after. So um this the the 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:28.600 new project would be called the Youth three. Yeah, originally 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.080 that was the original designation. They of course would change that, 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:33.680 but that was what they first called it. And uh, 0:07:33.920 --> 0:07:35.760 this is also when I wanted to take a little 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:39.280 side note to talk about what it's like to work 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:43.520 at Lockheed, because I was reading an article that had 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:46.640 an interview with Edward Lovick, who was a retired He 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.680 retired Lockeed employee, and he was a radar expert. And 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:53.160 the reason why I bring him up now is because 0:07:53.520 --> 0:07:56.200 this is about when Lockheeds started looking into ways to 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.720 make planes harder to detect. So one of the ways 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:01.640 of makeing a better spy plane is making one that 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.360 can't be seen by radar or ground or whatever. And 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.080 so U Lovick, who was probably one of the leading 0:08:08.120 --> 0:08:11.040 experts in radar at the time, simply he says, because 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:15.120 he just started playing with it earlier than most people were. Um, 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.080 he was very instrumental in trying to figure out what 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:21.040 would make a plane harder to see by radar, and 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:22.720 it took a while for them to figure this out. 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:25.440 He talked about the fact that he would go with 0:08:25.680 --> 0:08:28.679 Kelly Johnson to some of these meetings with the CIA. 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.800 And by the way, at that time, Lockheed was referring 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.880 to the CIA as quote the customer end quote, which 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.079 I thought was a great way of putting it. And 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:41.960 he said that right before Lockeed got the new spy 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:44.880 plane contract, we went to a hotel room for a meeting. 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:48.160 It was Kelly Johnson. A few science advisors to the President, 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.960 someone from the CIA, and myself. Pillows were put over 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.360 the heating events and the room was checked for bugs 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:57.400 before any of us spoke. He said that at the 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.920 time he thought it was pretty silly, but by uh, 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:02.960 you know, here's the thing is that during the Cold 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.640 War there was a lot of spying going on on 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:08.960 both sides. So while it sounds like you were being 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.680 like incredibly paranoid to go to those kind of extremes 0:09:11.720 --> 0:09:14.480 to make sure that no one's listening, the fact is 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.360 people were trying to listen. People are absolutely trying to listen. Yeah. 0:09:17.720 --> 0:09:19.720 Luck heat. Around the same time, it also instituted a 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:23.040 policy that if any of the employees were approached by 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:27.240 someone uh born out of the US who wished to 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.079 befriend them, that that they were supposed to inform management. 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:34.640 It ran, Yeah, yeah, you don't like your your friend 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:37.440 Boris who seems to be incredibly helpful and wants to 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.320 introduce you to cheese plates. Yeah, introduce you to this 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:43.920 new drink called vodka. You might want to report that first, Yeah, 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:46.280 I love It also ended up talking about what it 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:49.440 was like to develop the technology they were working on 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:52.400 at the time because at this point they weren't using computers. 0:09:52.679 --> 0:09:55.640 Computers were around in the in the fifties and sixties, 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:58.880 but very few places were using them at this point. 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:00.880 So he says that the engine years were actually going 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.040 about the old fashioned way with slide rules and just 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:06.960 they were actually writing things down, planning it out on paper, 0:10:07.040 --> 0:10:10.640 and mixing chemicals by hand. Yeah, sometimes sometimes by feet. 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.319 He talked about how they would mix chemicals and vats 0:10:13.360 --> 0:10:16.200 and it would often be like if you were stomping 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:18.880 on grapes for wine exactly. He said, it was exactly 0:10:18.920 --> 0:10:21.080 the same stuff they were using. So they were really 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:23.840 using foot power power to mix some of the stuff, 0:10:24.240 --> 0:10:26.000 which when you consider what some of that stuff is, 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:29.600 I'm not sure that all those people are okay. But 0:10:29.800 --> 0:10:31.880 then we get to nineteen sixty two. This is when 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:37.320 they start working really seriously on developing a a stealth vehicle, 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:39.959 although at the time they had not quite perfected the 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.880 way of going about it, and they started with a 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.480 program called the A twelve also known as ox cart Um. 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:51.120 They wanted to make it an invisible plane. So nineteen 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.600 sixty two is when they started this ox cart program, right, 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:58.320 But the CIA wouldn't declassify it until two thousand seven. Yeah, 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:01.120 that's how secret it was. So it was again another 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.320 collaborative effort between air Force CIA and lockeed just like 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:06.360 the you two. It could travel at speeds of around 0:11:06.360 --> 0:11:08.120 two thousand miles per hour, and it was meant to 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:10.840 reduce the radar cross section of the aircraft compared to 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:13.559 earlier vehicles by making it smaller and making it out 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:17.040 of other materials besides just you know, metal materials. Um. 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:19.800 This was before they had figured out that the real 0:11:19.960 --> 0:11:23.240 secret to making a plane signature disappear was not in 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:25.720 how large or small the plane was, but rather in 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:29.240 the surface angles and how they create bounts of of 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.840 of the radar exactly. So you know, we would eventually 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:35.080 learned that you could actually have a pretty large aircraft 0:11:35.120 --> 0:11:37.720 that could still be effectively invisible to radar if the 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.760 surfaces were shaped the right way. This was before we 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:44.800 knew that. So UM thirteen A twelve aircraft were produced 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:48.360 under ox Cart and they actually would be tested again 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:51.120 at Groom Lake, also known as Aera fifty one, which 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:53.840 while I still want to do that episode, I have 0:11:54.000 --> 0:11:56.079 been convinced that we can put that off for a 0:11:56.120 --> 0:12:00.240 little while uh So, anyway, there were other vehicle that 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:02.720 looked just like A twelves. And again it was another 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:04.880 one of those kind of cover stories, right, the idea 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:08.040 being that, well, if any of these vehicles are spotted, 0:12:08.080 --> 0:12:10.679 we can always say no, no, no. That was this 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:14.080 other designation that looks just like the one you think 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:17.520 it is. Nineteen sixty four, that's when we get the 0:12:17.679 --> 0:12:21.640 y F DASH twelve A interceptor, which was based on 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:23.600 the A twelve design. So that was the ox cart 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:26.840 design that was talking about just now, So same sort 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:28.680 of idea. So the A twelve ox Cart was really 0:12:28.720 --> 0:12:32.079 meant as a surveillance vehicle, okay, but the y F 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:34.520 twelve A was meant as an interceptor and not one 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:38.319 of those fighters that could intercept other aircraft. Right. Um. Also, 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:42.000 as Jonathan was just saying, um so, so president the 0:12:42.000 --> 0:12:43.840 president at the time was Lyndon B. Johnson, and he 0:12:43.880 --> 0:12:46.640 announced its existence, you know, only a year or so 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:50.160 after it had been in existence. Um but uh and 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:52.320 and and that was in order to kind of shield 0:12:52.600 --> 0:12:55.880 the fact that these other sneaky planes were flying around, right, 0:12:55.960 --> 0:13:00.440 So this interceptor they they everyone acknowledged the fact that 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.439 these interceptors existed. They did not acknowledge that the A 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.880 twelves existed. So if you were to spun A twelve, 0:13:06.880 --> 0:13:08.559 you would think it's just one of those y F 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:12.760 twelve ays and everything would be hunky dorry. And originally 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:15.360 the Air Force was going to end up purchasing a 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:19.240 bunch of planes the next generation of this, and that 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.520 designation was YF twelve B and and that would have 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.199 that would have really worked. We think this this one 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:27.800 was really mostly used as a test craft and as 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.520 that kind of decoy, right right, and um, that program 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.480 was canceled, didn't didn't happen. But one of the test 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:36.960 pilots for the y F twelve A interceptor was Jim 0:13:37.000 --> 0:13:39.319 Irwin a k A. One of the astronauts who eventually 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.120 landed on the Moon. Yep, he uh, he's done a 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:46.400 moonwalk literally, you know, and maybe figuratively too, maybe did 0:13:46.440 --> 0:13:48.920 the dance. I don't know, but he definitely has walked 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.040 on the moon. I imagine that there was a pop 0:13:51.080 --> 0:13:54.280 culture imperative for anyone who had actually walked on the 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:56.679 moon to get a moon walk at some point, I suppose. So. 0:13:56.760 --> 0:13:59.520 I don't know how you invent something retroactively, but I'm 0:13:59.559 --> 0:14:03.199 sure they've worked on that. Also. In nineteen four, that's 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.960 when they introduced the s R. Well, they didn't introduce it. 0:14:06.559 --> 0:14:08.400 They built it and it was in operation, but we 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:10.640 sure as heck didn't know about it yet, certainly not. 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:15.280 The SR also known as the Bird. This is a 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:18.800 gorgeous aircraft's scary looking. Again. You look at this and 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:21.360 then you look at the aircraft again in g I Joe, 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:24.840 like I mentioned the last podcast, Cobra's got some aircraft 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.120 that look like the Blackbird. They do. I had never 0:14:27.160 --> 0:14:30.880 thought about that before because it's all sleek and and 0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:33.840 and it just looks it looks like it's going fast. Wow, 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:38.120 it's staying still, but it could go very fast. This 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:40.520 this was a mock three plane, which is which is 0:14:40.560 --> 0:14:43.960 like over two thousand miles per hour or like thirty 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.880 six thousand kilometers per hour, and it could fly even 0:14:47.000 --> 0:14:49.880 higher than the YouTube. The YouTube that the cap on 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:51.840 the youtubo is about seventy thousand feet. This could go 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.920 eighty five thousand feet. So uh, the it flew a 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:57.840 lot of missions, but it would turn out that the 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.600 YouTube would end up being more reliable and less expensive 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.520 to maintain, and would end up remaining in service longer, 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:06.600 so the Blackbird ended up getting retired earlier. In fact 0:15:06.640 --> 0:15:08.760 that Youtubo is still in operations, so it's not been retired. 0:15:08.800 --> 0:15:12.280 The last Blackbird mission was in about although I've heard 0:15:12.280 --> 0:15:16.840 the latest NASA still had one for environmental research, right right, yes, 0:15:16.880 --> 0:15:19.040 so there are some that are being flown in non 0:15:19.120 --> 0:15:22.120 military applications, but as a military vehicle it was retired 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:25.040 in It was another one of those that won one 0:15:25.040 --> 0:15:29.440 of those Collier trophies, which is understandable. Uh, it made 0:15:29.440 --> 0:15:33.160 a trip between New York to London in just under 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.640 two hours. It was like one hour fifty four minutes. 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.440 I can't get to Florida and under two hours on 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.960 on my airplanes. I mean they're not my airplanes there. Yeah, 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:43.360 we haven't gotten to the point yet where we have 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:46.160 our private aircraft. If anyone would like to donate an 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:48.360 aircraft tech stuff or you know, you just want to 0:15:48.360 --> 0:15:52.280 convince somebody. Well Discovery anyway, So it beat the previous 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:54.960 speed record. So so the previous speed record was held 0:15:54.960 --> 0:15:57.040 by a plane that did that same trip and just 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:03.920 under five hours, so three hours different, yea. So moving 0:16:04.000 --> 0:16:07.160 up to nineteen sixties six, this seems really early to me. 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:11.120 We just did an episode about drones. When I say, 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:13.680 just did it actually isn't that recent, but in the 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.280 in the memorable past, and most of the drones that 0:16:17.280 --> 0:16:20.280 we were talking about in that episode really didn't start 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.840 kicking off until or so and so's in sixty six 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:25.920 we we kep across the D twenty one. You have 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:28.480 the tag Board, which was an unmanned drone. It was 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:32.600 classified as above top secret, would not be declassified until 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.720 two thou seven. That that when c I. A was 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:37.880 just like, let's just go ahead and de classify all 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:40.560 this stuff. I'm here, let's get to give me the 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.960 D classify stamp. I'm just gonna go bunkers. So, yeah, 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:48.600 the the tag Board was a drone that was had antenna. 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:51.240 It was meant to receive commands through the antenna, so 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.240 you would actually control it from the ground or from 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:56.960 an aircraft. And in fact it was supposed to launch 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.200 off one of those A twelve ox Cart aircraft. Uh 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.000 right right, I've I've read that some Blackbirds were used 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:05.560 for this purpose. Is interesting. I was designed to fly 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.199 out over territory where the U S didn't strictly have 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.880 permission to fly over because the idea was that since 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:14.040 it was smaller, that it would be less likely to 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.040 be uh noticed, And it was meant to take photos 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.080 of sites like weapons facilities at altitudes of around fIF 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:24.560 feet pretty low. And then in June nineteen sixty six, 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:29.119 there was a tragic accident which, uh, what happened was 0:17:29.640 --> 0:17:31.520 the drone was supposed to launch off the back of 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.600 one of these ox cart A twelve aircraft, but it 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.120 did not launch properly. It was going at an incredible 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:40.000 speed like mock three, and it didn't launch properly, and 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.720 it ended up cutting that aircraft in half. Yeah that 0:17:43.000 --> 0:17:47.520 the pilot and test engineer both ejected safely. But um, 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:50.840 but I believe drowned. Well the test the test engineer did. Yeah, 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:54.160 what happened was apparently the face plate on his uniform 0:17:54.240 --> 0:17:57.639 went up and water started rushing into his suit. Yeah, 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.800 so he and he tragically drowned this accident, and uh, 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:04.080 and so the project was wound up being scrapped. Yeah, 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.520 it was. People at Lockeed were absolutely devastated by this. 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:10.240 I mean, it was just a complete freak accident. It 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:14.400 was unforeseen, and it really shook things up back at Lockheed. 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:17.439 I mean it was you know, anytime anything like this happens, 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:20.080 obviously that's a terrible tragedy, and this one just really 0:18:20.080 --> 0:18:24.800 affected them quite deeply. Uh. In nineteen seventy Lockheed would 0:18:24.800 --> 0:18:27.840 then go on to fire the test pilot, Francis Gary 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:30.520 Powers were listening earlier. That's the guy who was in 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:33.240 the YouTube plane that got shot down over Russia. So 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:35.119 he came back and he was still working for Lockheed, 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:37.600 but then he he decided to write down some of 0:18:37.640 --> 0:18:41.000 his experiences. Yeah, he published a memoir about the whole 0:18:41.000 --> 0:18:44.400 experience and it was not really um shall we say, 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:48.159 favorable to the CIA in particular, and then mysteriously he 0:18:48.240 --> 0:18:51.240 lost his job. Well, it may also be that, you know, 0:18:51.280 --> 0:18:54.280 lockeed very very serious about this whole let's keep our 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:56.280 secrets kind of thing, and it may be that that 0:18:56.359 --> 0:19:01.960 also played a pardon absolutely, But yeah, that was that happened. Two. 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:08.159 That's when this was crazy. The HMB one Glomar Explorer. Okay, 0:19:08.200 --> 0:19:11.640 so this is a submersible barge, a barge that can 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:14.119 go under the water. It actually was designed to go 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.359 under the water and land on some underwater supports and 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:19.720 the whole purpose of this thing was to act as 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.959 a cover so that the United States could do a 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:27.520 salvage operation on a sunken Soviet submarine. The idea of 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.560 being that this thing would cover up all of their operation. 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:33.920 They would retrieve the submarine, pull it into the barge, 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.720 bring the barge back above water, and sail it back 0:19:36.720 --> 0:19:38.439 and no one would have known that that's what they 0:19:38.520 --> 0:19:41.000 had done. It sounds like it came out of Hunt 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:45.520 for October. If if Sean Connery was not aboard that 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.879 saying chump things don't react well to bullish, I'd be 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.719 really disappointed. We can only hope. And it ended up 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:57.199 eventually becoming once it finished its job. Now what do 0:19:57.240 --> 0:19:59.240 you do with a big submersible barge at that point, 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:03.400 so it's been converted into a above water dry dock 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:06.760 where you the ships would come in and then be 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:11.120 serviced and fixed or decommissioned or whatever. For a long 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:13.399 time it was dry dock for another ship called the 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:17.399 Sea Shadow, which we will talk about shortly. And then 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:21.560 nine seven Here are two of my favorite aircraft that 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:23.760 have ever come out of skunk works. These were also 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:29.080 incredibly important. They were flown extensively at Groom Lake Slash 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:31.639 Area fifty one, So I wrote about them quite a 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:33.680 bit when I wrote my article about how Area fifty 0:20:33.680 --> 0:20:35.480 one works. That's when the first time I ever learned 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:38.520 about these These already have blue craft. Yeah one and 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.000 two have Blue one and have Blue two. And these 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:45.640 were proof of concept prototypes. These two aircraft were incorporating 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:49.240 all the information that Lockeed had been gathering about stealth 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:53.120 technology in order to decrease their radar signature. So they 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.919 were again top secret vehicles. They were tested quite a 0:20:56.920 --> 0:20:59.440 bit at Groom Lake, and the whole idea was now 0:21:00.080 --> 0:21:05.040 that getting those angular uh surfaces. So it looked a 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.240 little weird because it had all these angles to to 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:10.760 bounce the radar in random places. It was almost like 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.040