1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,800 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from my Heart Radio. 2 00:00:12,039 --> 00:00:14,240 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:16,520 Speaker 1: job and Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart 4 00:00:16,560 --> 00:00:19,479 Speaker 1: Radio and I love all things tech and it's time 5 00:00:19,520 --> 00:00:23,520 Speaker 1: for another classic episode of tech Stuff. This episode published 6 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:27,639 Speaker 1: November two thirteen. It's actually the second part of a 7 00:00:27,680 --> 00:00:30,560 Speaker 1: two parter. So if you haven't listened to Sniffing Out 8 00:00:30,600 --> 00:00:34,480 Speaker 1: skunk Works Part one that published last Friday, go check 9 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:39,720 Speaker 1: that out, because this is Sniffing Out Skunk Works Part two. Yeah. 10 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:42,680 Speaker 1: I was really creative with the titles back then, but 11 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,640 Speaker 1: we will continue to hear about the fascinating work done 12 00:00:46,680 --> 00:00:50,200 Speaker 1: at this top secret R and D facility. Let's listen 13 00:00:50,200 --> 00:00:54,640 Speaker 1: in all right, let's move on to what was our timeline? Right, 14 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:56,880 Speaker 1: that was where we left off. Yeah, we were right 15 00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:59,120 Speaker 1: about to get to the sun Town. Yeah. Which that's 16 00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:01,200 Speaker 1: something that Lauren and I know a lot about seeing 17 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:05,960 Speaker 1: is how we're both such a translucent are Empire people. 18 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:08,640 Speaker 1: We we are the ones who hiss when the sun 19 00:01:08,720 --> 00:01:10,800 Speaker 1: comes out. But the sun tan does not refer to 20 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:14,679 Speaker 1: anyone designed to you know, get an actual tan. That's 21 00:01:14,680 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 1: not That's not what this is about. I believe it 22 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:19,839 Speaker 1: was so named. I imagine it was so named because 23 00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:22,280 Speaker 1: it was a very high flying vehicle and also it 24 00:01:22,319 --> 00:01:26,360 Speaker 1: was using liquid hydrogen. Hydrogen very important with sun right, Yeah, 25 00:01:27,120 --> 00:01:30,319 Speaker 1: hydrogens turned into helium the temperature of millions of degrees 26 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:32,800 Speaker 1: to do. So, yeah, it's it was meant to be 27 00:01:32,840 --> 00:01:34,680 Speaker 1: a spy plane. So it was a sun the Sun 28 00:01:34,760 --> 00:01:37,080 Speaker 1: Tan was a spy plane that would fly on liquid 29 00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:40,560 Speaker 1: hydrogen as its fuel. And um, as it turns out, 30 00:01:40,680 --> 00:01:43,440 Speaker 1: that's that's kind of scary to develop because I don't 31 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:45,480 Speaker 1: know if you know this, but hydrogen tends to be 32 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:50,520 Speaker 1: a volatile substance. Let's say. Yes, this project came about 33 00:01:50,560 --> 00:01:53,919 Speaker 1: because of photos from a YouTube mission over Soviet Russia 34 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: of hydrogen liquefication plants, and they were afraid that that. 35 00:01:57,040 --> 00:01:58,920 Speaker 1: The U. S. Government was afraid that the USSR was 36 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:01,480 Speaker 1: building a plane that could spy better than the YouTube. 37 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:03,400 Speaker 1: And we just can't have any of that. We could 38 00:02:03,440 --> 00:02:08,160 Speaker 1: not have that, so says gunk Works was given nineties 39 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:11,920 Speaker 1: six million dollars to design their own hydrogen powered plane. 40 00:02:12,080 --> 00:02:17,040 Speaker 1: So you just imagine this the early days of testing 41 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:21,840 Speaker 1: your liquid hydrogen production system. Uh, you you go to 42 00:02:21,880 --> 00:02:25,639 Speaker 1: work in a bomb shelter, the walls of which are 43 00:02:25,680 --> 00:02:28,560 Speaker 1: eight feet thick in case you happened to blow yourself 44 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:31,040 Speaker 1: up real good while you're working with liquid hydrogen, so 45 00:02:31,040 --> 00:02:33,079 Speaker 1: that you don't blow your neighbors up real good as well. 46 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:37,359 Speaker 1: Really builds confidence. So the facility ended up investing in 47 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:41,440 Speaker 1: lots of stuff so that they could avoid any possible flames, 48 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:43,919 Speaker 1: including all of the tools were non sparking. You weren't 49 00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:47,079 Speaker 1: allowed to carry your keys in your pockets to avoid 50 00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: any potential sparks. You had to have grounded boots so 51 00:02:50,080 --> 00:02:53,280 Speaker 1: that you wouldn't create an electro statics charge. It was 52 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:57,040 Speaker 1: really really important, and they did pretty well up until 53 00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:00,520 Speaker 1: they had a tiny, itsy bitsy fire. It was it 54 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,560 Speaker 1: was a stove fire. It wasn't it wasn't really that big, 55 00:03:04,120 --> 00:03:06,400 Speaker 1: you know, and it but it took place like seven 56 00:03:06,600 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 1: feet away from the main hydrogen tank. Yeah, which absolutely terrifying. 57 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 1: I can't imagine what my reaction would be, nor can 58 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:15,440 Speaker 1: I imagine what my reaction would be when I found 59 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:18,320 Speaker 1: out the next thing that happened. Because this project was 60 00:03:18,400 --> 00:03:21,400 Speaker 1: top secret, they wouldn't let firefighters into the building to 61 00:03:21,440 --> 00:03:23,640 Speaker 1: control the flames, right, and they could not get the 62 00:03:23,639 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: flames out with fire extinguishers. They had gone beyond that 63 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:29,639 Speaker 1: that level, and yet they could not also allow firefighters 64 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:33,079 Speaker 1: in because this top secret. They did wind up, I mean, 65 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:37,240 Speaker 1: nothing exploded, turned out to be okay, Um, California is 66 00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:41,200 Speaker 1: still there, so it didn't go boom. But but here's 67 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,440 Speaker 1: the things that the it really illustrated that that accident 68 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:49,160 Speaker 1: illustrate how potentially dangerous this this project was. And so 69 00:03:49,920 --> 00:03:53,640 Speaker 1: because of its level of risk, it was decided that 70 00:03:53,680 --> 00:03:57,160 Speaker 1: it was too much for lockeed to endure, and so 71 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:00,880 Speaker 1: they scrapped the project. Yeah. Also, Kelly A. Johnson, who 72 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:03,960 Speaker 1: we mentioned in the previous episode wasn't personally sure whether 73 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:06,000 Speaker 1: these hydrogen engines were going to be able to go 74 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:09,720 Speaker 1: faster further than a conventional kerosene burning jet, and so 75 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:13,920 Speaker 1: you know, the final decision was, like, here's your ninety 76 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:17,520 Speaker 1: million of the original ninety six back US government. We 77 00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:19,920 Speaker 1: don't want to blow things up like one. We cannot. 78 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:22,320 Speaker 1: We can't guarantee that it's going to perform at what 79 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:24,400 Speaker 1: we hope it will, and too, we can't guarantee it 80 00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:27,880 Speaker 1: won't explode. So as an interesting side note, part of 81 00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:30,640 Speaker 1: what spurred all this interest in liquid hydrogen was was 82 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:35,400 Speaker 1: also the CIA's discovery that Soviet scientists named Peter Kapista 83 00:04:35,960 --> 00:04:38,560 Speaker 1: Yes had been taken out of a Soviet labor camp 84 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:42,080 Speaker 1: and put into a research institute. Um he he was. 85 00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:46,560 Speaker 1: He was a specialist in in low pressure liquids, and 86 00:04:47,160 --> 00:04:49,000 Speaker 1: it had turned out that he was working on the 87 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:51,960 Speaker 1: Sputnik for which he would win the Noble Prize, in 88 00:04:54,080 --> 00:04:56,600 Speaker 1: which we also refer to as the Satellite that Went Deep. 89 00:04:57,480 --> 00:04:59,920 Speaker 1: And that's pretty much all it did apart from terrify 90 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:03,239 Speaker 1: an entire country. It also did that from kicking off 91 00:05:03,320 --> 00:05:05,040 Speaker 1: a whole new section at the Cold War that we 92 00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:07,640 Speaker 1: like to call the Space Race. Yeah, but that that'll 93 00:05:07,680 --> 00:05:10,559 Speaker 1: that'll that'll play in a little bit with Lockheed, although 94 00:05:10,839 --> 00:05:15,039 Speaker 1: really skunk Works had very limited UH operations with the 95 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: Space Race, although some of the people who would test 96 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:19,800 Speaker 1: fly some of their jets would end up walking on 97 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:22,320 Speaker 1: the freaking move and NASA would continue to use some 98 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:26,560 Speaker 1: of their vehicles in testing exactly so May nineteen sixty, 99 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:30,120 Speaker 1: a very important event happened, not directly related to Lockheed, 100 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:33,120 Speaker 1: but something that would would end up impacting them down 101 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:36,080 Speaker 1: the line. That was when the United States pilot Francis 102 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:39,120 Speaker 1: Gary Powers was shot down. He was flying a YouTube 103 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:42,520 Speaker 1: plane over Russia. Um he was shot down after I 104 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 1: think they fired something like seven or eight missiles at him, 105 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:48,480 Speaker 1: and they also had a MiG in pursuit. The MiG 106 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:50,560 Speaker 1: got hit by one of the missiles and was destroyed. 107 00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: Um and Uh and Power said that he saw another 108 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:59,080 Speaker 1: parachute open after he had to eject. He actually could 109 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:02,320 Speaker 1: have bailed earlier, but stayed in his plane to make 110 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:05,680 Speaker 1: sure that would crash in an unpopulated forest area as 111 00:06:05,720 --> 00:06:09,040 Speaker 1: opposed to crashing in a town, and he ejected from 112 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:12,600 Speaker 1: his plane. He landed safely. He was captured by the 113 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:16,640 Speaker 1: Soviet Union and sentenced to three years in prison, followed 114 00:06:16,640 --> 00:06:19,880 Speaker 1: by seven years hard labor, so ten years total. He 115 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:21,919 Speaker 1: would not have to serve out all that time. In 116 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty two, he was part of a prisoner exchange 117 00:06:25,720 --> 00:06:29,359 Speaker 1: along with another Soviet prisoner and Uh. He was exchanged 118 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:34,040 Speaker 1: for Colonel William Fisher uh It was a Soviet KGB colonel. 119 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:37,120 Speaker 1: On every tenth nineteen sixty two in Berlin, so he 120 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:40,279 Speaker 1: would return home. He was He was faced with lots 121 00:06:40,279 --> 00:06:43,960 Speaker 1: of criticism, people who said that he should have activated 122 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:47,599 Speaker 1: a a self destruct mechanism that would have destroyed the 123 00:06:47,640 --> 00:06:50,200 Speaker 1: equipment aboard the You two so that the Soviets couldn't 124 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:51,840 Speaker 1: get in charge of it. Some people said that he 125 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:54,840 Speaker 1: should have taken the c I a cyanide pill and 126 00:06:54,880 --> 00:07:00,000 Speaker 1: committed suicide rather than be taken captured by the Soviets. 127 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,840 Speaker 1: It's your job or something. Yeah, he was eventually like 128 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:06,359 Speaker 1: the Officially people said, you did exactly what you were 129 00:07:06,360 --> 00:07:08,640 Speaker 1: supposed to do, but he faced a lot of criticism 130 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:12,920 Speaker 1: at home. Um. This this also sparked discussions about needs 131 00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:15,920 Speaker 1: for for better spy plane. Yes, something has to replace 132 00:07:15,960 --> 00:07:18,880 Speaker 1: the YouTube because remember the You two had been launched 133 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 1: the previous decade, and so you know clearly you don't 134 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:25,280 Speaker 1: want to have that spy plane flying ten years later. 135 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:28,600 Speaker 1: I say, as the You two is currently flying right now, 136 00:07:29,840 --> 00:07:33,480 Speaker 1: more than fifty years after. Yeah, so um this the 137 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:35,760 Speaker 1: the new project would be called the Youth three. Yeah, 138 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:38,360 Speaker 1: originally that was the original designation. They of course would 139 00:07:38,440 --> 00:07:40,920 Speaker 1: change that, but that was what they first called it. 140 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:43,080 Speaker 1: And uh, this is also when I wanted to take 141 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:46,360 Speaker 1: a little side note to talk about what it's like 142 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:49,520 Speaker 1: to work at Lockheed, because I was reading an article 143 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:53,640 Speaker 1: that had an interview with Edward Lovick, who was a 144 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:56,880 Speaker 1: retired he retired Locke to employee, and he was a 145 00:07:56,960 --> 00:08:00,000 Speaker 1: radar expert. And the reason why I bring him up 146 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:03,280 Speaker 1: now is because this is about when Lockeeds started looking 147 00:08:03,320 --> 00:08:07,080 Speaker 1: into ways to make planes harder to detect. So one 148 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:08,880 Speaker 1: of the ways of making a better spy plane is 149 00:08:08,880 --> 00:08:11,840 Speaker 1: making one that can't be seen by radar or ground 150 00:08:11,920 --> 00:08:15,360 Speaker 1: or whatever. And so Lovick, who was probably one of 151 00:08:15,360 --> 00:08:18,320 Speaker 1: the leading experts in radar at the time, simply he says, 152 00:08:18,400 --> 00:08:21,280 Speaker 1: because he just started playing with it earlier than most 153 00:08:21,280 --> 00:08:25,200 Speaker 1: people were. Um, he was very instrumental in trying to 154 00:08:25,200 --> 00:08:28,200 Speaker 1: figure out what would make a plane harder to see 155 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:29,800 Speaker 1: by radar, and it took a while for them to 156 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:32,280 Speaker 1: figure this out. He talked about the fact that he 157 00:08:32,320 --> 00:08:35,760 Speaker 1: would go with Kelly Johnson to some of these meetings 158 00:08:35,800 --> 00:08:38,560 Speaker 1: with the CIA. And by the way, at that time, 159 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:41,960 Speaker 1: Lockheed was referring to the CIA as quote the customer 160 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:44,760 Speaker 1: end quote, which I thought was a great way of 161 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:48,960 Speaker 1: putting it. And he said that right before lockeed got 162 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:51,720 Speaker 1: the new spy plane contract, we went to a hotel 163 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:54,200 Speaker 1: room for a meeting. It was Kelly Johnson, a few 164 00:08:54,280 --> 00:08:58,240 Speaker 1: science advisors to the President, someone from the CIA, and myself. 165 00:08:58,640 --> 00:09:01,199 Speaker 1: Pillows were put over the heat events and the room 166 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:04,320 Speaker 1: was checked for bugs before any of us spoke. He 167 00:09:04,360 --> 00:09:06,880 Speaker 1: said that at the time you thought it was pretty silly, 168 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:10,360 Speaker 1: but but you know, here's the thing is that during 169 00:09:10,400 --> 00:09:13,120 Speaker 1: the Cold War there was a lot of spying going 170 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,360 Speaker 1: on on both sides. So while it sounds like you 171 00:09:16,360 --> 00:09:18,520 Speaker 1: were being like incredibly paranoid to go to those kind 172 00:09:18,520 --> 00:09:21,840 Speaker 1: of extremes to make sure that no one's listening, the 173 00:09:21,840 --> 00:09:24,079 Speaker 1: fact is people were trying to listen. People are absolutely 174 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:26,480 Speaker 1: trying to listen. Yeah. Luck you. Around the same time, 175 00:09:26,480 --> 00:09:28,800 Speaker 1: it also instituted a policy that if any of the 176 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:33,080 Speaker 1: employees were approached by someone uh born out of the 177 00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:36,800 Speaker 1: US who wished to befriend them, that they were supposed 178 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:41,000 Speaker 1: to inform management it ly, Yeah, yeah, you don't like 179 00:09:41,520 --> 00:09:44,680 Speaker 1: your your friend Boris who seems to be incredibly helpful 180 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:48,080 Speaker 1: and wants to cheese plates. Yeah, introduce you to this 181 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:51,640 Speaker 1: new drink called vodka. You might want to report that first. Yeah, 182 00:09:51,679 --> 00:09:54,040 Speaker 1: I love It. Also ended up talking about what it 183 00:09:54,120 --> 00:09:57,200 Speaker 1: was like to develop the technology they were working on 184 00:09:57,240 --> 00:09:59,560 Speaker 1: at the time, because at this point they weren't using 185 00:09:59,600 --> 00:10:03,400 Speaker 1: computer computers, were around in the in the fifties and sixties, 186 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:06,640 Speaker 1: but very few places were using them at this point. 187 00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:08,920 Speaker 1: So he says that the engineers were actually going about 188 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:12,199 Speaker 1: the old fashioned way with slide rules and just they 189 00:10:12,200 --> 00:10:14,720 Speaker 1: were actually writing things down, planning it out on paper, 190 00:10:14,800 --> 00:10:18,400 Speaker 1: and mixing chemicals by hand. Yeah, sometimes sometimes by feet. 191 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:21,079 Speaker 1: He talked about how they would mix chemicals and vats 192 00:10:21,120 --> 00:10:23,960 Speaker 1: and it would often be like if you were stomping 193 00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:26,040 Speaker 1: on grapes for wine, exactly, and they said it was 194 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:28,600 Speaker 1: exactly the same stuff they were using. So they were 195 00:10:28,640 --> 00:10:31,600 Speaker 1: really using foot power power to mix some of the stuff, 196 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:33,760 Speaker 1: which when you consider what some of that stuff is, 197 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:37,360 Speaker 1: I'm not sure that all those people are okay. But 198 00:10:37,559 --> 00:10:39,640 Speaker 1: then we get to nineteen sixty two. This is when 199 00:10:39,679 --> 00:10:45,080 Speaker 1: they start working really seriously on developing a a stealth vehicle, 200 00:10:45,120 --> 00:10:47,719 Speaker 1: although at the time they had not quite perfected the 201 00:10:48,120 --> 00:10:51,600 Speaker 1: way of going about it, and they started with a 202 00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:55,240 Speaker 1: program called the A twelve also known as ox cart Um. 203 00:10:55,320 --> 00:10:58,840 Speaker 1: They wanted to make it an invisible plane. So nineteen 204 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:02,360 Speaker 1: sixty two is when they started this ox cart program, right, 205 00:11:02,400 --> 00:11:06,080 Speaker 1: but the CIA wouldn't declassify it until two thousand seven. Yeah, 206 00:11:06,120 --> 00:11:08,880 Speaker 1: that's how secret it was, so it was again another 207 00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:12,080 Speaker 1: collaborative effort between Air Force CIA and lockeed just like 208 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:14,120 Speaker 1: the you two. It could travel at speeds of around 209 00:11:14,120 --> 00:11:15,880 Speaker 1: two thousand miles per hour, and it was meant to 210 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:18,600 Speaker 1: reduce the radar cross section of the aircraft compared to 211 00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:21,319 Speaker 1: earlier vehicles by making it smaller and making it out 212 00:11:21,320 --> 00:11:25,040 Speaker 1: of other materials besides just you know, metal materials. This 213 00:11:25,160 --> 00:11:28,120 Speaker 1: was before they had figured out that the real secret 214 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,280 Speaker 1: to making a plane signature disappear was not in how 215 00:11:31,400 --> 00:11:33,640 Speaker 1: large or small the plane was, but rather in the 216 00:11:33,760 --> 00:11:37,080 Speaker 1: surface angles and how they create bounts of of of 217 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:40,600 Speaker 1: the radar signal exactly. So you know, we would eventually 218 00:11:40,679 --> 00:11:42,880 Speaker 1: learned that you could actually have a pretty large aircraft 219 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:45,480 Speaker 1: that could still be effectively invisible to radar if the 220 00:11:45,559 --> 00:11:48,520 Speaker 1: surfaces were shaped the right way. This was before we 221 00:11:48,600 --> 00:11:52,560 Speaker 1: knew that. So UM thirteen A twelve aircraft were produced 222 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:56,120 Speaker 1: under ox Cart and they actually would be tested again 223 00:11:56,160 --> 00:11:58,880 Speaker 1: at groom Lake, also known as A fifty one, which 224 00:11:59,200 --> 00:12:01,600 Speaker 1: while I still want to do that episode, I have 225 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:03,839 Speaker 1: been convinced that we can put that off for a 226 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:07,960 Speaker 1: little while. Uh So, anyway, there were other vehicles that 227 00:12:08,120 --> 00:12:10,480 Speaker 1: looked just like A twelves. And again it was another 228 00:12:10,520 --> 00:12:12,680 Speaker 1: one of those kind of cover stories, right, the idea 229 00:12:12,760 --> 00:12:15,800 Speaker 1: being that, well, if any of these vehicles are spotted, 230 00:12:15,840 --> 00:12:18,439 Speaker 1: we can always say no, no, no. That was this 231 00:12:18,559 --> 00:12:21,840 Speaker 1: other designation that looks just like the one you think 232 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:25,280 Speaker 1: it is. Nineteen sixty four. That's when we get the 233 00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:29,400 Speaker 1: y F dash twelve A interceptor, which was based on 234 00:12:29,440 --> 00:12:31,360 Speaker 1: the A twelve design. So that was the ox Cart 235 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:34,600 Speaker 1: design that was talking about just now, So same sort 236 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:36,440 Speaker 1: of idea. So the A twelve ox Cart was really 237 00:12:36,440 --> 00:12:39,839 Speaker 1: meant as a surveillance vehicle, okay, but the y F 238 00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:42,360 Speaker 1: twelve A was meant as an interceptor, notther one of 239 00:12:42,400 --> 00:12:46,079 Speaker 1: those fighters that could intercept other aircraft. Right. Um. Also, 240 00:12:46,160 --> 00:12:49,719 Speaker 1: as Jonathan was just saying, um so, so president the 241 00:12:49,760 --> 00:12:51,600 Speaker 1: president at the time was Lyndon B. Johnson, and he 242 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:54,400 Speaker 1: announced its existence, you know, only a year or so 243 00:12:54,559 --> 00:12:57,920 Speaker 1: after it had been in existence. Um but uh and 244 00:12:57,920 --> 00:12:59,960 Speaker 1: and and that was in order to kind of shield 245 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:03,600 Speaker 1: old the fact that these other sneaky planes were flying around, right, 246 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:08,360 Speaker 1: So this interceptor. They everyone acknowledged the fact that these 247 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:12,520 Speaker 1: interceptors existed. They did not acknowledge that the A twelves existed, 248 00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:14,920 Speaker 1: so if you were to spun A twelve, you would 249 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:17,040 Speaker 1: think it's just one of those y F twelve a's 250 00:13:17,600 --> 00:13:21,000 Speaker 1: and everything would be hunky dorry. And originally the Air 251 00:13:21,040 --> 00:13:23,880 Speaker 1: Force was going to end up purchasing a bunch of 252 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:27,719 Speaker 1: planes the next generation of this, and that designation was 253 00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:30,640 Speaker 1: YF twelve B, and and that would have that would 254 00:13:30,640 --> 00:13:33,320 Speaker 1: have really worked. We think this this one was really 255 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:36,040 Speaker 1: mostly used as a test craft and as that kind 256 00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:39,800 Speaker 1: of decoy, right right, and um that program was canceled, 257 00:13:40,000 --> 00:13:42,720 Speaker 1: didn't didn't happen. But one of the test pilots for 258 00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:45,280 Speaker 1: the y F twelve A interceptor was Jim Irwin a 259 00:13:45,400 --> 00:13:47,600 Speaker 1: k A. One of the astronauts who eventually landed on 260 00:13:47,640 --> 00:13:51,680 Speaker 1: the moon. Yep, he uh, he's done a moonwalk literally, 261 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:54,520 Speaker 1: you know, and maybe figuratively too, maybe did the dance. 262 00:13:54,559 --> 00:13:57,040 Speaker 1: I don't know, but he definitely has walked on the moon. 263 00:13:57,320 --> 00:14:00,040 Speaker 1: I imagine that there was a pop culture impair it 264 00:14:00,280 --> 00:14:02,319 Speaker 1: for anyone who had actually walked on the moon to 265 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:04,600 Speaker 1: get moon walk at some point, I suppose. So. I 266 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:07,520 Speaker 1: don't know how you invent something retroactively, but I'm sure 267 00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:11,160 Speaker 1: they've worked on that. Also. In nineteen four, that's when 268 00:14:11,160 --> 00:14:13,720 Speaker 1: they introduced the s R. Well, they didn't introduce it. 269 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:16,160 Speaker 1: They built it and it was in operation, but we 270 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:18,400 Speaker 1: sure as heck didn't know about it yet, certainly not. 271 00:14:18,480 --> 00:14:23,040 Speaker 1: The SR also known as the Blackbird. This is a 272 00:14:23,080 --> 00:14:26,560 Speaker 1: gorgeous aircraft's scary looking. Again. You look at this and 273 00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:29,120 Speaker 1: then you look at the aircraft again in g I Joe, 274 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:32,600 Speaker 1: like I mentioned the last podcast, Cobra's got some aircraft 275 00:14:32,560 --> 00:14:34,880 Speaker 1: will look like the Blackbird. They do. I had never 276 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:38,160 Speaker 1: thought about that before because it's all sleek and and 277 00:14:38,600 --> 00:14:41,600 Speaker 1: and it just looks it looks like it's going fast. Wow, 278 00:14:41,720 --> 00:14:45,880 Speaker 1: it's staying still, but it could go very fast. This 279 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:48,280 Speaker 1: this was a mock three plane, which is which is 280 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:51,720 Speaker 1: like over two thousand miles per hour or like thirty 281 00:14:51,880 --> 00:14:54,640 Speaker 1: six thousand kilometers per hour, and it could fly even 282 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:57,720 Speaker 1: higher than the YouTube. The YouTube, the cap on the 283 00:14:57,720 --> 00:14:59,840 Speaker 1: youtubo is about seventy thousand feet. This could go eight 284 00:15:00,040 --> 00:15:03,840 Speaker 1: five thousand feet. So, uh. The it flew a lot 285 00:15:03,920 --> 00:15:05,640 Speaker 1: of missions, but it would turn out that the You 286 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:08,320 Speaker 1: two would end up being more reliable and less expensive 287 00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:11,240 Speaker 1: to maintain and would end up remaining in service longer. 288 00:15:11,280 --> 00:15:14,360 Speaker 1: So the Blackbird ended up getting retired earlier. In fact, 289 00:15:14,400 --> 00:15:15,960 Speaker 1: that you two is still in operations, so it's not 290 00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:19,640 Speaker 1: been retired. The last Blackbird mission was in about although 291 00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:23,600 Speaker 1: I've heard the latest NASA still had one for environmental research, 292 00:15:23,800 --> 00:15:25,960 Speaker 1: right right, Yes, so there are some that are being 293 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:29,320 Speaker 1: flown in non military applications, but as a military vehicle 294 00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:32,400 Speaker 1: it was retired in It was another one of those 295 00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:36,560 Speaker 1: that won one of those Collier trophies, which is understandable. Uh, 296 00:15:36,840 --> 00:15:40,080 Speaker 1: it made a trip between New York to London in 297 00:15:40,280 --> 00:15:42,840 Speaker 1: just under two hours. It was like one hour fifty 298 00:15:42,840 --> 00:15:45,640 Speaker 1: four minutes. I can't get to Florida and under two 299 00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:49,680 Speaker 1: hours on on my airplanes. I mean they're not my airplanes. There. Yeah, 300 00:15:49,720 --> 00:15:51,120 Speaker 1: we haven't gotten to the point yet where we have 301 00:15:51,120 --> 00:15:53,920 Speaker 1: our private aircraft. If anyone would like to donate an 302 00:15:53,920 --> 00:15:56,120 Speaker 1: aircraft tech stuff or you know, you just want to 303 00:15:56,120 --> 00:16:00,000 Speaker 1: convince somebody. Well Discovery anyway, So it beat the previous 304 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,680 Speaker 1: speed record. So so the previous speed record was held 305 00:16:02,720 --> 00:16:04,800 Speaker 1: by a plane that did that same trip and just 306 00:16:05,040 --> 00:16:11,840 Speaker 1: under five hours, so three hours different. So moving up 307 00:16:11,880 --> 00:16:14,880 Speaker 1: to nineteen sixty six, this seems really early to me. 308 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:18,880 Speaker 1: We just did an episode about drones. When I say 309 00:16:18,960 --> 00:16:21,440 Speaker 1: just did. It actually isn't that recent, but in the 310 00:16:21,520 --> 00:16:25,000 Speaker 1: in the memorable past, and most of the drones that 311 00:16:25,040 --> 00:16:28,040 Speaker 1: we were talking about in that episode really didn't start 312 00:16:28,440 --> 00:16:31,280 Speaker 1: kicking off until or so and so it's in sixty 313 00:16:31,320 --> 00:16:33,680 Speaker 1: six we we came across the dent one. We have 314 00:16:33,760 --> 00:16:36,240 Speaker 1: the tag Board, which was an unmanned drone. It was 315 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:40,040 Speaker 1: classified as above top secret. It would not be declassified 316 00:16:40,120 --> 00:16:43,200 Speaker 1: until two thousand seven top secret. That when c I 317 00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:45,400 Speaker 1: was just like, let's just go ahead and de classify 318 00:16:45,480 --> 00:16:48,240 Speaker 1: all this stuff. I'm here, let's get to give me 319 00:16:48,280 --> 00:16:51,760 Speaker 1: the d classify stamp. I'm just gonna go bonkers. So, yeah, 320 00:16:51,800 --> 00:16:56,360 Speaker 1: the the tag Board was a drone that was and antenna. 321 00:16:56,560 --> 00:16:59,000 Speaker 1: It was meant to receive commands through the antenna, so 322 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:02,040 Speaker 1: you would actually roll it from the ground or from 323 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:04,680 Speaker 1: an aircraft. And in fact it was supposed to launch 324 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:09,119 Speaker 1: off one of those a twelve ox Cart aircraft, right right. 325 00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:11,320 Speaker 1: I've I've read that some Blackbirds were used for this purpose. 326 00:17:11,359 --> 00:17:14,320 Speaker 1: Is interesting. I was designed to fly out over territory 327 00:17:14,320 --> 00:17:17,680 Speaker 1: where the U S didn't strictly have permission to fly over, 328 00:17:18,359 --> 00:17:20,520 Speaker 1: because the idea was that since it was smaller, that 329 00:17:20,600 --> 00:17:23,800 Speaker 1: it would be less likely to be noticed, and it 330 00:17:23,840 --> 00:17:26,480 Speaker 1: was meant to take photos of sites like weapons facilities 331 00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:30,679 Speaker 1: at altitudes of around feet pretty low. And then in 332 00:17:30,800 --> 00:17:34,600 Speaker 1: June nineteen sixty six, there was a tragic accident which, 333 00:17:35,040 --> 00:17:38,640 Speaker 1: uh what happened was the drone was supposed to launch 334 00:17:38,720 --> 00:17:40,359 Speaker 1: off the back of one of these ox cart A 335 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:44,000 Speaker 1: twelve aircraft, but it did not launch properly. It was 336 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:46,600 Speaker 1: going at an incredible speed like mock three, and it 337 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:49,480 Speaker 1: didn't launch properly, and it ended up cutting that aircraft 338 00:17:49,480 --> 00:17:52,440 Speaker 1: in half. Yeah that the pilot and test engineer both 339 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:56,720 Speaker 1: ejected safely, but um but I believe drowned. Well the 340 00:17:56,840 --> 00:17:59,760 Speaker 1: test the test engineer did. Yeah, what happened was apparently 341 00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:03,160 Speaker 1: the face plate on his uniform went up and water 342 00:18:03,200 --> 00:18:07,080 Speaker 1: started rushing into suit. Yeah, so he and he tragically 343 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:10,520 Speaker 1: drowned in this accident. And uh so the project was 344 00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:13,520 Speaker 1: wound up being scrapped. Yeah, it was. People at Lockeed 345 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:15,919 Speaker 1: were absolutely devastated by this. I mean, it was just 346 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:20,360 Speaker 1: a complete freak accident. It was unforeseen, and it really 347 00:18:20,359 --> 00:18:22,639 Speaker 1: shook things up back at Lockheed. I mean it was 348 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:25,800 Speaker 1: you know, anytime anything like this happens, obviously that's a 349 00:18:25,920 --> 00:18:30,040 Speaker 1: terrible tragedy and this one just really affected them quite deeply. Uh. 350 00:18:30,119 --> 00:18:33,639 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy Lockheed would then go on to fire 351 00:18:33,800 --> 00:18:37,600 Speaker 1: the test pilot, Francis Gary. Powers were listening earlier. That's 352 00:18:37,600 --> 00:18:39,240 Speaker 1: the guy who was in the YouTube plane that got 353 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:41,800 Speaker 1: shot down over Russia. So he came back and he 354 00:18:41,840 --> 00:18:44,399 Speaker 1: was still working for Lockheed. But then he decided to 355 00:18:44,440 --> 00:18:46,960 Speaker 1: write down some of his experiences. Yeah, he published a 356 00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:50,600 Speaker 1: memoir about the whole experience and it was not really 357 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:54,360 Speaker 1: um shall we say, favorable to the CIA in particular, 358 00:18:54,800 --> 00:18:58,000 Speaker 1: and then mysteriously he lost his job. Well, it may 359 00:18:58,119 --> 00:19:00,920 Speaker 1: also be that, you know, lockeed very very serious about 360 00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:03,199 Speaker 1: this whole let's keep our secrets kind of thing, and 361 00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:06,800 Speaker 1: it may be that that also played a pardon. But yeah, 362 00:19:06,880 --> 00:19:11,800 Speaker 1: that was that happened. Two. That's when this was crazy. 363 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:16,679 Speaker 1: The HMB one Glomar Explorer. Okay, so this is a 364 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:20,520 Speaker 1: submersible barge, a barge that can go under the water. 365 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:22,520 Speaker 1: It actually was designed to go under the water and 366 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:26,080 Speaker 1: land on some underwater supports and the whole purpose of 367 00:19:26,119 --> 00:19:29,120 Speaker 1: this thing was to act as a cover so that 368 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:32,320 Speaker 1: the United States could do a salvage operation on a 369 00:19:32,440 --> 00:19:36,280 Speaker 1: sunken Soviet submarine, the idea of being that this thing 370 00:19:36,320 --> 00:19:39,400 Speaker 1: would cover up all of their operation. They would retrieve 371 00:19:39,400 --> 00:19:42,720 Speaker 1: the submarine, pull it into the barge, bring the barge 372 00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:44,880 Speaker 1: back above water, and sail it back and no one 373 00:19:44,920 --> 00:19:47,280 Speaker 1: would have known that that's what they had done. It 374 00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:51,159 Speaker 1: sounds like it came out of Hunt for October. If 375 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:54,840 Speaker 1: if Sean Connery was not aboard that saying chumping ship 376 00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:59,000 Speaker 1: don't react well to bullish, I'd be really disappointed. We 377 00:19:59,040 --> 00:20:02,360 Speaker 1: can only hope, and ended up eventually becoming one once 378 00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:05,359 Speaker 1: it finished its job. Now what do you do with 379 00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:07,679 Speaker 1: a big submersible barge at that point? So it's been 380 00:20:07,720 --> 00:20:13,520 Speaker 1: converted into a above water dry dock where you ships 381 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,119 Speaker 1: would come in and then be serviced and fixed or 382 00:20:16,600 --> 00:20:19,480 Speaker 1: decommissioned or whatever. For a long time it was dry 383 00:20:19,520 --> 00:20:22,439 Speaker 1: dock for another ship called the Sea Shadow, which we 384 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:26,960 Speaker 1: will talk about shortly. And then seven. Here are two 385 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:30,240 Speaker 1: of my favorite aircraft that have ever come out of 386 00:20:30,240 --> 00:20:33,840 Speaker 1: skunk works. These were also incredibly important. They were flown 387 00:20:34,320 --> 00:20:38,480 Speaker 1: extensively at Groom like slash Area fifty one, so I 388 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:40,040 Speaker 1: wrote about them quite a bit when I wrote my 389 00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:42,240 Speaker 1: article about how Area fifty one works. That's when the 390 00:20:42,280 --> 00:20:44,840 Speaker 1: first time I ever learned about these these already have 391 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:47,320 Speaker 1: blue craft. Yeah one and two have Blue one and 392 00:20:47,359 --> 00:20:50,520 Speaker 1: have Blue two. And these were proof of concept prototypes. 393 00:20:50,640 --> 00:20:55,520 Speaker 1: These two aircraft were incorporating all the information that Lockeed 394 00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:59,120 Speaker 1: had been gathering about stealth technology in order to decrease 395 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:02,720 Speaker 1: their radars nature. So they were again top secret vehicles. 396 00:21:03,040 --> 00:21:05,560 Speaker 1: They were tested quite a bit at groom like and 397 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:11,399 Speaker 1: the whole idea was now that getting those angular uh surfaces. 398 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:15,159 Speaker 1: So it looked a little weird because it had all 399 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:17,879 Speaker 1: these angles to to bounce the radar in random places. 400 00:21:17,960 --> 00:21:21,000 Speaker 1: It was almost like a non Euclidean cthulhu type aircraft. 401 00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:22,720 Speaker 1: And it's not quite that much, but I mean it's like, 402 00:21:22,760 --> 00:21:24,960 Speaker 1: you know, if you've ever seen those old stealth bombers, 403 00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:28,320 Speaker 1: they look clunky, right, those weird angles. Yeah, it's totally 404 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:30,840 Speaker 1: the you know, like the opposite of the aero dynamic 405 00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:32,199 Speaker 1: kind of thing that you think of when you think 406 00:21:32,240 --> 00:21:35,160 Speaker 1: of something that's supposed to be flying. Its nickname wound 407 00:21:35,200 --> 00:21:37,960 Speaker 1: up being the Hope the Hopeless Diamond, the Hopeless Diamond 408 00:21:38,040 --> 00:21:40,080 Speaker 1: because it had these weird angles to it like the 409 00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:42,159 Speaker 1: Hope diamond does. Because you know, it's been cut a 410 00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:46,159 Speaker 1: very specific way, so it's called the Hopeless Diamond. Um. Yeah, 411 00:21:46,359 --> 00:21:48,560 Speaker 1: Like I said, you look at the s R seventy 412 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:50,639 Speaker 1: one Blackbird and that thing looks like it's going fast 413 00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:52,960 Speaker 1: standing still. You look at one of these things and 414 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:55,080 Speaker 1: you're like, that is not meant to go into the air. 415 00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:59,040 Speaker 1: That that is just wrong on every level. Um. But 416 00:21:59,119 --> 00:22:02,280 Speaker 1: you know, they decided to really go into this after 417 00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:06,520 Speaker 1: the Vietnam War because during the Vietnam War, U S 418 00:22:06,520 --> 00:22:12,080 Speaker 1: Forces kept on encountering trouble with surface to air missiles 419 00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:15,359 Speaker 1: where a lot of aircraft were getting shot at and 420 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:17,679 Speaker 1: shot down by these missiles, and so they wanted to 421 00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:21,840 Speaker 1: have something that could operate without being spied, you know, 422 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:24,920 Speaker 1: spied by. You don't want that to happen. So that 423 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,080 Speaker 1: was the main purpose. Um. Now they have Blue one 424 00:22:28,119 --> 00:22:30,119 Speaker 1: and two. They were just men as prototypes. It was 425 00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:34,240 Speaker 1: really approve of concept was to show the US military, Hey, 426 00:22:34,280 --> 00:22:36,879 Speaker 1: this is going to work. We can build this into 427 00:22:36,920 --> 00:22:39,840 Speaker 1: an actual working aircraft that we will use for real 428 00:22:39,920 --> 00:22:44,040 Speaker 1: military purposes. We just need the funding. And uh So 429 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:46,320 Speaker 1: it wasn't ever meant to go into combat. Didn't They 430 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:48,960 Speaker 1: didn't really go anywhere, but um, but the concepts behind 431 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:51,960 Speaker 1: it would wind up being used later on, which we 432 00:22:51,960 --> 00:22:54,560 Speaker 1: will talk about in our second half. We'll be back 433 00:22:54,640 --> 00:22:57,159 Speaker 1: with more from Sniffing Elt skunk Works Part two in 434 00:22:57,240 --> 00:22:59,919 Speaker 1: just a moment, but first let's take a quick break. 435 00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:10,399 Speaker 1: All right, let's get back into talking about the super 436 00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:13,880 Speaker 1: secret stuff. So you know, we had just talked about 437 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:16,639 Speaker 1: the have Blue one and two obviously not meant for combat. 438 00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:18,960 Speaker 1: I mean they could go six hundred miles per hour, 439 00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,960 Speaker 1: which is about six kilometers per hour. That's not that 440 00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:27,000 Speaker 1: fast compared to other aircraft at the time. The prototype 441 00:23:27,119 --> 00:23:29,560 Speaker 1: that's that's as fast as um that that first p 442 00:23:29,680 --> 00:23:32,480 Speaker 1: A D that we were talking about, right, So obviously 443 00:23:32,560 --> 00:23:34,760 Speaker 1: that was just sort of hey, look what we can do. 444 00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:39,639 Speaker 1: That's when we started seeing a new version of the 445 00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:42,560 Speaker 1: U two. Remember that was You two came out in 446 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:45,359 Speaker 1: the fifties and one you get. The You two are 447 00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:48,919 Speaker 1: also known as the t R one, also known as 448 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:52,520 Speaker 1: the Dragon Lady, which granted was the original designation for 449 00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:55,320 Speaker 1: the c I A U two's way back when. But 450 00:23:55,400 --> 00:23:57,320 Speaker 1: that was the thing is that the You two had 451 00:23:57,400 --> 00:24:00,400 Speaker 1: largely become the domain of the Air Force, and now 452 00:24:00,520 --> 00:24:04,080 Speaker 1: the You two are was this kind of super secret 453 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:07,240 Speaker 1: version of the U two which had an increased fuel 454 00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:09,359 Speaker 1: capacity so it could fly longer, and the t R 455 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:15,120 Speaker 1: stood for Tactical reconnaissance, and it had a superpod which 456 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:18,480 Speaker 1: was kind of a little think of like a bulbous 457 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:23,080 Speaker 1: kind of projection where all of their super secret sensors 458 00:24:23,119 --> 00:24:27,280 Speaker 1: were so very very um precisely tuned sensors to get 459 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:31,600 Speaker 1: all kinds of information about the area they were flying over. Um. 460 00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:34,400 Speaker 1: The current designation for this aircraft is now you two ARE, 461 00:24:34,680 --> 00:24:37,320 Speaker 1: so it's no longer called the t R one, it's 462 00:24:37,359 --> 00:24:38,960 Speaker 1: just the U two ARE. But there are other you 463 00:24:39,080 --> 00:24:41,600 Speaker 1: two rs that are that don't have the superpod, so 464 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:44,000 Speaker 1: it's a little confusing. And there's been a whole bunch 465 00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,879 Speaker 1: of different versions and designations of this over the years, 466 00:24:46,960 --> 00:24:49,520 Speaker 1: and the utwo S one one of those, call your trophies. 467 00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:53,080 Speaker 1: But the U two R, I believe, is still the 468 00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:56,560 Speaker 1: highest flying single engine airplane in service. Yeah, and also 469 00:24:56,640 --> 00:24:58,800 Speaker 1: you've got to remember that skunk Works did not work 470 00:24:58,840 --> 00:25:01,960 Speaker 1: on every very a of the U two. They worked 471 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:03,560 Speaker 1: on the first one, and they worked on the U 472 00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:06,359 Speaker 1: two ARE, but by that time a lot of that 473 00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:09,240 Speaker 1: work was going out to other branches of Lockeed. So 474 00:25:09,400 --> 00:25:11,840 Speaker 1: this was, uh, you know, we're really just focusing on 475 00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:14,000 Speaker 1: the skunkworks stuff here. If we were talking just about 476 00:25:14,040 --> 00:25:16,840 Speaker 1: Lockeed this, we'd have to do like a six. Yeah, 477 00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:18,960 Speaker 1: that would be like a nine party. So let's talk 478 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:21,520 Speaker 1: about the F one seventeen. That is the night Hawk. 479 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:25,560 Speaker 1: The night Hawk the first radar evading aircraft. So we 480 00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:29,560 Speaker 1: actually had these F one seventeen aircraft in use during 481 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:33,960 Speaker 1: Operation Desert Storm back in Lauren. You wouldn't remember that. 482 00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:35,680 Speaker 1: You were I think, you know, two at the time, 483 00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:42,040 Speaker 1: so it was like nine okay. So the that was, 484 00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:45,560 Speaker 1: by the way, the only jet in the coalition forces 485 00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,399 Speaker 1: that had the authorization to strike targets within the city 486 00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,399 Speaker 1: limits of Baghdad, because they thought that it was the 487 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:53,679 Speaker 1: only one that he get close enough to guarantee that 488 00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:56,600 Speaker 1: the strike would hit the precise target and not hit 489 00:25:56,720 --> 00:26:00,760 Speaker 1: something else instead. Um it was off is referred to 490 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:02,800 Speaker 1: as a stealth fighter, although it was really an air 491 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,479 Speaker 1: took round combat vehicle, not air to air because when 492 00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:07,679 Speaker 1: we think of fighters, we usually think of you know, 493 00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:10,800 Speaker 1: aircraft that are designed to shoot down other aircraft. This 494 00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:14,359 Speaker 1: was more of an attack vehicle than a fight fighter. 495 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:17,040 Speaker 1: The designations get a little confusing. I would have to 496 00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:19,280 Speaker 1: keep looking them up because you know what, can I'm 497 00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:22,280 Speaker 1: a podcaster, not a fighter. So despite what Ben Bowling 498 00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:23,680 Speaker 1: will tell you, because I did shake them up a 499 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:26,880 Speaker 1: bit this morning, I hear that that was for completely 500 00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,400 Speaker 1: legit work purpose. Yeah, there's gonna be a stuff Mom 501 00:26:29,400 --> 00:26:31,320 Speaker 1: never told you video that I will link out so 502 00:26:31,359 --> 00:26:33,760 Speaker 1: that you can see me rough up Ben Bowling. It 503 00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:35,639 Speaker 1: happens on a daily basis anyway, but this time I 504 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:38,280 Speaker 1: was calm camera anyway. The night Hawk was retired in 505 00:26:38,359 --> 00:26:40,320 Speaker 1: two thousand and eight. It's another one of those called 506 00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:44,600 Speaker 1: your trophy winners. It's kind of interesting how many of 507 00:26:44,640 --> 00:26:48,240 Speaker 1: these have one. That's when we get into something that's 508 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:51,600 Speaker 1: not an aircraft, the Sea Shadow, right, this was a 509 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:55,159 Speaker 1: prototype stealth ship. Yes, so funky. Did you see a 510 00:26:55,200 --> 00:26:56,840 Speaker 1: picture of this? I have not known. You got to 511 00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:58,600 Speaker 1: look up a picture. When we're done, I'll definitely have 512 00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:01,040 Speaker 1: to link a picture of this on social as well, 513 00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:04,280 Speaker 1: because it just looks really odd. We should make a gallery. 514 00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:06,480 Speaker 1: We can do. That's the excited to the most excited 515 00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:08,919 Speaker 1: I've ever been about making a gallery because there's some 516 00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:11,120 Speaker 1: pretty cool jets in this. We'll make a gallery for it. Sure. 517 00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:14,199 Speaker 1: So the Sea Shadow is this prototype stealth ship. It 518 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:17,879 Speaker 1: had those weird angular surfaces kind of like stealth bombers, 519 00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:21,000 Speaker 1: stealth fighters, that kind of thing. Um, but it think 520 00:27:21,040 --> 00:27:23,199 Speaker 1: of it like it almost felt like it was suspended 521 00:27:23,320 --> 00:27:25,840 Speaker 1: over the water, Okay, And you have these two wings 522 00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:28,000 Speaker 1: that come down on either side, like think of a 523 00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:31,760 Speaker 1: manta ray that has its wings down towards the ocean floor. Right. 524 00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:35,680 Speaker 1: The edges of the wings are obviously in contact with 525 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:38,000 Speaker 1: the water. The rest of the body appears to be 526 00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:40,720 Speaker 1: above the water, and it's bulky. So you're like, how 527 00:27:40,760 --> 00:27:44,400 Speaker 1: the heck is this thing? Turns out it's gut submerged hole. 528 00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:48,000 Speaker 1: There's got this enormous hole that's underneath the water that 529 00:27:48,119 --> 00:27:51,400 Speaker 1: submerged that is keeping it bulliant so it's not sinking 530 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:54,920 Speaker 1: down and just flopping over on its side. But yeah, 531 00:27:55,000 --> 00:27:56,679 Speaker 1: you look at this thing and you're like that just 532 00:27:56,880 --> 00:27:58,760 Speaker 1: like the just like some of the aircraft, like that 533 00:27:58,800 --> 00:28:02,000 Speaker 1: should not be to happen. That doesn't look like any 534 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,800 Speaker 1: thing that only works if that's non Newtonian fluid in 535 00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:08,240 Speaker 1: that ocean, and I know that waters Newtonian, so that 536 00:28:08,280 --> 00:28:11,800 Speaker 1: can't be it. Yeah, it was also a designed to 537 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,679 Speaker 1: show off the usefulness of automation. The idea being that 538 00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:19,080 Speaker 1: we could really have these vehicles that would need a 539 00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:22,439 Speaker 1: relatively small crew because we automate as much of it 540 00:28:22,480 --> 00:28:25,000 Speaker 1: as we possibly can. So there are twelve bunks aboard 541 00:28:25,560 --> 00:28:28,080 Speaker 1: crew of twelve UM and it had a microwave. That 542 00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:30,760 Speaker 1: was the only uh thing in the galley. There was 543 00:28:30,800 --> 00:28:32,800 Speaker 1: no like stovetop or anything. It was a microwave and 544 00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:37,600 Speaker 1: twelve bunks, So luxury, um and UH. It was really 545 00:28:37,640 --> 00:28:39,520 Speaker 1: just kind of designed to be a proof of concept. 546 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:41,800 Speaker 1: It was never meant to be a production vehicle. It 547 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:43,480 Speaker 1: was never meant to go to the military. Is more 548 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:45,920 Speaker 1: to say like let's see if this works kind of thing. 549 00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:49,920 Speaker 1: Um so nothing. It was never built into any other 550 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,680 Speaker 1: kind of ships. Eventually it was retired. It went to 551 00:28:53,760 --> 00:28:56,120 Speaker 1: that that barge I was talking about earlier, that was 552 00:28:56,160 --> 00:29:00,360 Speaker 1: the dry dock. Uh. And then the eventually the state's 553 00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:03,480 Speaker 1: government allowed the I want to say it was I 554 00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:05,480 Speaker 1: want to say the navy took control. I didn't write 555 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:07,840 Speaker 1: this down in my notes, I remember reading it. But anyway, 556 00:29:07,880 --> 00:29:11,719 Speaker 1: the military organization in charge of the Sea Shadow decided 557 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:14,200 Speaker 1: to sell it, yeah, to to recoup some of some 558 00:29:14,280 --> 00:29:17,080 Speaker 1: of this costs. They sold it to a company under 559 00:29:17,960 --> 00:29:21,440 Speaker 1: under the stipulation that they had to immediately dismantle it. Yeah, 560 00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:23,840 Speaker 1: they could not sail it. The United States government said 561 00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:26,760 Speaker 1: all right, we're gonna sell this. We're gonna let you 562 00:29:26,840 --> 00:29:29,800 Speaker 1: sell this off to whoever bids the most, but they 563 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:31,840 Speaker 1: cannot sail it. They have you can look at all 564 00:29:31,880 --> 00:29:33,960 Speaker 1: the bits you have to take it apart. So it was. 565 00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,040 Speaker 1: It's been dismantled. So the Sea Shadow is no more. 566 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:39,160 Speaker 1: It was dismantled a couple of years ago. So that's 567 00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:41,000 Speaker 1: kind of sad because when you see pictures of this thing. 568 00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:43,520 Speaker 1: As soon as I saw I thought, I hope this 569 00:29:43,640 --> 00:29:45,480 Speaker 1: is at a museum somewhere where I can go and 570 00:29:45,520 --> 00:29:48,360 Speaker 1: see it. And nope, it is gone. So maybe someone 571 00:29:48,400 --> 00:29:52,440 Speaker 1: will build a replica at some point. That's when they 572 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:56,280 Speaker 1: introduced the y F twenty two, also known as Yeah 573 00:29:56,280 --> 00:29:58,920 Speaker 1: and usually we just called the F twenty two, which 574 00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:03,920 Speaker 1: was a stealth air superiority fighter. Superiority fighter. Yeah, it's 575 00:30:03,920 --> 00:30:07,960 Speaker 1: meant to be souper. It's a fifth generation supersonic fighter. 576 00:30:08,480 --> 00:30:11,800 Speaker 1: Single seat twin jet engine aircraft can also be an 577 00:30:11,840 --> 00:30:14,280 Speaker 1: attack vehicle, so not just a fighter but also can 578 00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:18,240 Speaker 1: can act out against land based targets, and it can 579 00:30:18,280 --> 00:30:21,200 Speaker 1: serve as a signals intelligence vehicle. So the n s 580 00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:23,360 Speaker 1: A is probably pretty interested in these things. That means 581 00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:27,480 Speaker 1: that it can intercept electronic messages. UM. And it formally 582 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,440 Speaker 1: entered the United States Air Force service in two thousand five. 583 00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:33,360 Speaker 1: Son is when they start really working on it. Two 584 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:35,840 Speaker 1: thousand five is when it enters into service. So that's 585 00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:39,080 Speaker 1: a long time, you know, more than a decade before 586 00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:41,240 Speaker 1: it entered into service. Yeah, and there are still a 587 00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:44,000 Speaker 1: few squadrons of them in in service today. Yeah, I 588 00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:49,120 Speaker 1: think there's somewhere something like ten squadrons totals something like that. Uh. 589 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:51,760 Speaker 1: And the final F twenty two was delivered to the 590 00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:54,320 Speaker 1: United States Air Force on May second, two thousand twelve, 591 00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,920 Speaker 1: so now long ago, no longer in production. But these things, 592 00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:00,480 Speaker 1: by the way, obviously when you put in an for 593 00:31:00,960 --> 00:31:04,760 Speaker 1: two thousand, five hundred UH jets, it takes a while 594 00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:09,120 Speaker 1: to fill that order, as as you could possibly imagine. Um. UH. 595 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:14,560 Speaker 1: Corporate note in Lockheed and Martin would combine in what 596 00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:17,280 Speaker 1: was called a merger of equals. Right, so we've been 597 00:31:17,320 --> 00:31:20,000 Speaker 1: talking about Lockheed all this time. But remember if you 598 00:31:20,040 --> 00:31:22,400 Speaker 1: listen to the beginning of the last podcast, we talked 599 00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:25,960 Speaker 1: about how the Martin Company was also instrumental in early 600 00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:29,320 Speaker 1: days in aircraft. Well, they had been quite busy themselves 601 00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:33,960 Speaker 1: and it developed many aircraft that also were incredibly innovative. 602 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:36,880 Speaker 1: And at this point the two companies merged together to 603 00:31:36,920 --> 00:31:42,040 Speaker 1: make a mega innovative aircraft company. Meanwhile, in nine six 604 00:31:42,200 --> 00:31:45,480 Speaker 1: they come out with the Lockeed Martin skunk Works come 605 00:31:45,480 --> 00:31:49,440 Speaker 1: out with the r Q three A dark Star Dark 606 00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:52,680 Speaker 1: Star also known as Tier three or sometimes Tier three Minus, 607 00:31:53,280 --> 00:31:56,120 Speaker 1: which was an unmanned aerial vehicle designed to be a 608 00:31:56,240 --> 00:32:00,200 Speaker 1: high altitude drone. So uh, this was another one of 609 00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:04,680 Speaker 1: those innovative approaches to trying to do surveillance without putting 610 00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:07,320 Speaker 1: an actual human pilot at risking right, and and this 611 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:10,280 Speaker 1: was a project that would I I think that both 612 00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:15,320 Speaker 1: Tagboard and have Blue Um really influenced this one definitely. Yeah, 613 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,040 Speaker 1: because it had stealth technology making it harder to detect. 614 00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:21,440 Speaker 1: It also had a lot of autonomy. It could take off, 615 00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:24,600 Speaker 1: fly to its mission, complete its mission, and come back 616 00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:29,680 Speaker 1: and land all without a human controller taking control of that. 617 00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:32,240 Speaker 1: But also it had the ability for a human controller 618 00:32:32,280 --> 00:32:34,560 Speaker 1: to get in there and change the parameters of the 619 00:32:34,560 --> 00:32:37,840 Speaker 1: mission on the fly. So it wasn't like, you know, 620 00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:40,280 Speaker 1: you had this pre programmed route that it had to 621 00:32:40,280 --> 00:32:42,200 Speaker 1: take and once you press play, that's it. You gotta 622 00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:44,680 Speaker 1: wait till it comes back. You could actually change things 623 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:47,680 Speaker 1: on the fly and change the programming. So really innovative, 624 00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:51,040 Speaker 1: particularly in n and it had a jet engine. It 625 00:32:51,120 --> 00:32:53,920 Speaker 1: used jet engines for propulsion. It wasn't like a little 626 00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:58,320 Speaker 1: rotor based drone. This is this is a jet um 627 00:32:58,440 --> 00:33:03,600 Speaker 1: So officially that program was shelved sometime around but there 628 00:33:03,640 --> 00:33:06,800 Speaker 1: are some rumors that it's not really shelf shelved so 629 00:33:06,920 --> 00:33:10,520 Speaker 1: much as totally an operation. Yeah, and and like totally secret. 630 00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:12,560 Speaker 1: And uh, that's all I'm going to say about that, 631 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:16,440 Speaker 1: because honestly, I do not need another coffee break. Um 632 00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:19,640 Speaker 1: so thou That's when we get the F thirty five 633 00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,880 Speaker 1: Lightning or Lightning Too. Yeah, Lightning Too. It's the sequel 634 00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:25,720 Speaker 1: to Lightning. So if you remember in our previous episode 635 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:29,200 Speaker 1: we talked about the first Lightning jet aircraft, which was 636 00:33:29,720 --> 00:33:33,280 Speaker 1: way back in the very earliest days for Lockheed or 637 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:35,640 Speaker 1: when they were doing their work with the military. So 638 00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:37,840 Speaker 1: the Lightning two is sort of the idea of the 639 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:42,640 Speaker 1: next generation of military aircraft. It's a single seat, single engine, 640 00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:45,959 Speaker 1: multi roll fighter. So multi roll also means they can 641 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,960 Speaker 1: do multiple things. It can be the ground attack, the 642 00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:52,440 Speaker 1: air defense, reconnaissance. That yeah, it's like, you know, throw 643 00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,240 Speaker 1: it at me, bro, I'm gonna do it. So there 644 00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:58,760 Speaker 1: are three variations on the F thirty five that allow 645 00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:01,680 Speaker 1: it to take off our land and a front environment. 646 00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:04,080 Speaker 1: So for example, there's one version of the F thirty 647 00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:07,360 Speaker 1: five that can land and take off from aircraft carriers, 648 00:34:07,840 --> 00:34:11,319 Speaker 1: but the others don't have that capability that sort of thing. Um, 649 00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:14,320 Speaker 1: So depending on what you need, you use that particular 650 00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:17,319 Speaker 1: type of of F thirty five. And the military has 651 00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:19,040 Speaker 1: ordered a bunch of these have been things yeah more 652 00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:22,200 Speaker 1: than uh, and they are going to the Air Force, 653 00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:24,759 Speaker 1: the Navy, and the Marines. Different branches are using them. 654 00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:27,920 Speaker 1: For those of you who aren't familiar with the branches 655 00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:30,839 Speaker 1: of the military in the United States, there are pilots 656 00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:34,439 Speaker 1: in these different branches, like air forces. Obviously you would 657 00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:37,440 Speaker 1: you would immediately assume Air Force. I remember talking to 658 00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:40,120 Speaker 1: a friend of mine who was telling me about how 659 00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:42,480 Speaker 1: much he thought it was weird the way that the 660 00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:44,759 Speaker 1: Air Force was depicted in top gun and do you 661 00:34:44,760 --> 00:34:47,719 Speaker 1: mean the Navy, because those were Navy pilots. The top 662 00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:50,960 Speaker 1: Gun program was a Navy program, not an air Force program. 663 00:34:51,000 --> 00:34:55,120 Speaker 1: I'm not entirely positive that that the strict military accuracy 664 00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:57,600 Speaker 1: was what people are watching Top Gun for. I don't 665 00:34:57,640 --> 00:34:59,400 Speaker 1: know either. I I knew that by the end of it, 666 00:34:59,440 --> 00:35:02,200 Speaker 1: I I who had the need, the need for speed, 667 00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:05,440 Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know exactly how accurate it was 668 00:35:05,480 --> 00:35:08,560 Speaker 1: all the way from the beginning to end. We'll return 669 00:35:08,719 --> 00:35:12,160 Speaker 1: to the conclusion of our two part series on skunk 670 00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:23,880 Speaker 1: Works in just a second after this quick break. Two one. 671 00:35:25,160 --> 00:35:27,319 Speaker 1: That was the introduction of the Desert Hawk, and that's 672 00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:30,400 Speaker 1: another drone. Yeah, another u a v on manned aerial vehicle. 673 00:35:30,520 --> 00:35:33,960 Speaker 1: It was designed to be really portable. It was extremely light. 674 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:35,960 Speaker 1: In fact, the original Desert Hawk was made out of 675 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:39,560 Speaker 1: essentially kind of foam. So think of like styrofoam or 676 00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:42,279 Speaker 1: packing foam that you would find in a box. That's 677 00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:44,439 Speaker 1: essentially what this thing was made out of. That makes 678 00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:46,680 Speaker 1: more sense. Your next note is that they were launched 679 00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:49,040 Speaker 1: by hand, and therefore, okay, I get that now. I 680 00:35:49,040 --> 00:35:51,040 Speaker 1: think they even use bungee cords, so it's almost like 681 00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:53,480 Speaker 1: a slingshot launch, and they had electric motors, so they 682 00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:58,160 Speaker 1: were almost silent. Yeah, incredibly light, incredibly quiet. We now 683 00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:01,520 Speaker 1: no longer use the Desert Hawk actively. We have a replacement, 684 00:36:01,560 --> 00:36:04,239 Speaker 1: the Desert Hawk three I'm just given over to. But 685 00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:05,880 Speaker 1: the Desert Hawk three is what we use today. It's 686 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:08,640 Speaker 1: much more sophisticated and it uses a gyro stabilized three 687 00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:11,920 Speaker 1: sixty degree sensor turret that's mounted on the bottom of it. 688 00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:15,160 Speaker 1: It's pretty awesome. It's also made out of very lightweight 689 00:36:15,200 --> 00:36:18,560 Speaker 1: composite material, so it's it's gone beyond the foam, but 690 00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:22,399 Speaker 1: it's still very lightweight. Two thousand six. This might be 691 00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:27,080 Speaker 1: my favorite, the hybrid. This is a This is an airship, right, yeah, 692 00:36:27,160 --> 00:36:29,799 Speaker 1: so that if you are at all of the steampunk vein, 693 00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:32,920 Speaker 1: this is the aircraft for you. It looks like a 694 00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:36,640 Speaker 1: blimp or a dirigible. It's it's an airship and it 695 00:36:36,840 --> 00:36:40,879 Speaker 1: is beautiful. It's so it's meant to act as transportation. 696 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:43,120 Speaker 1: So it's got a large capacity for carrying lots of 697 00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:46,680 Speaker 1: people and low operating costs, and it can operate from 698 00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:49,640 Speaker 1: either existing infrastructure, meaning like some sort of landing field 699 00:36:49,719 --> 00:36:52,200 Speaker 1: or landing strip like an airport or it could just 700 00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:55,319 Speaker 1: land anywhere that's a remote open space. So as long 701 00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:57,720 Speaker 1: as there's not like stuff for it to bump into, 702 00:36:57,800 --> 00:37:00,560 Speaker 1: it can land there. And the first commercial airship is 703 00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:06,320 Speaker 1: scheduled for And uh, this is similar to another vehicle 704 00:37:06,760 --> 00:37:08,960 Speaker 1: that's actually more of a military vehicle. In fact, it 705 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:13,200 Speaker 1: is a military vehicle that is also a future item 706 00:37:13,239 --> 00:37:15,719 Speaker 1: that we'll be seeing from Lockheed won't maybe we won't 707 00:37:15,719 --> 00:37:18,080 Speaker 1: see it, but it'll see us. I'm talking about ISIS, 708 00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:22,160 Speaker 1: which is the integrated Sensor is Structure aircraft which looks 709 00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:26,040 Speaker 1: a lot like the Hybrid. It's another blimp type thing, 710 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:28,560 Speaker 1: but it's this is a stealth blimp. Yeah, and it's 711 00:37:28,560 --> 00:37:31,120 Speaker 1: spies on you. Um yeah. So it's got surveillance and 712 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:35,000 Speaker 1: communications gear and flies in the stratosphere. So for those 713 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:37,440 Speaker 1: of you who listen to our Google Loon podcast, you 714 00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:39,319 Speaker 1: know all about that. We're not gonna go over it again, 715 00:37:39,320 --> 00:37:42,600 Speaker 1: but you know that's really yeah. So, and it also 716 00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:45,759 Speaker 1: is able to actually detect targets that are undercover or 717 00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:50,080 Speaker 1: under camouflage. It's got like camouflage piercing radar. It's pretty 718 00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:53,160 Speaker 1: cool stuff. So it's similar to the hybrid, and it 719 00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:57,520 Speaker 1: also uses fuel cells so that makes sense because it's 720 00:37:57,560 --> 00:37:59,680 Speaker 1: like the Hybrid two and solar panels to to get 721 00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:02,400 Speaker 1: its hours. So right, the contract for this was was 722 00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:06,080 Speaker 1: awarded to Lockeed Martin in two thousand nine. But but 723 00:38:06,160 --> 00:38:09,080 Speaker 1: I think that we had did we have something else? 724 00:38:09,200 --> 00:38:11,360 Speaker 1: It's it's not. No, it's not. It's not going to be. 725 00:38:11,480 --> 00:38:14,040 Speaker 1: The isis. As far as I know, the delivery date 726 00:38:14,080 --> 00:38:18,480 Speaker 1: has not been divulged necessarily. I know that it's coming. 727 00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:20,920 Speaker 1: It is listed on Lockheed Martin's website. If you go 728 00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,040 Speaker 1: to their skunk Works website, they talk about it, so 729 00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:26,440 Speaker 1: you can actually read about it. Um it is able 730 00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:30,759 Speaker 1: to cover five million nautical square miles with surveillance from 731 00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:35,800 Speaker 1: one and then you can locate it relocated anywhere in 732 00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:38,880 Speaker 1: the world in within ten days for something that floats. 733 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:41,920 Speaker 1: That's pretty impressive. All right, So let's get back I 734 00:38:42,040 --> 00:38:44,799 Speaker 1: talked about the hybrid YAH. Also in two thousand nine, 735 00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:49,719 Speaker 1: they advanced composite cargo aircraft, the A C C A. 736 00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:53,239 Speaker 1: So again this is another look at using composite materials. 737 00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:56,040 Speaker 1: And the idea of using composite materials is finding something 738 00:38:56,080 --> 00:38:59,480 Speaker 1: that has the strength of something like steel but is 739 00:38:59,680 --> 00:39:02,440 Speaker 1: far lighter, so you want something that's really durable but 740 00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:04,680 Speaker 1: very light, so that it ends up making your aircraft 741 00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:07,239 Speaker 1: much more efficient you don't need as much fuel, and 742 00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:10,440 Speaker 1: also reducing the kind of problems that you get with metals, 743 00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:14,719 Speaker 1: like like corrosion and fatigue from those temperature differentials that 744 00:39:14,760 --> 00:39:16,680 Speaker 1: you're going to get going up and down. That's that's 745 00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:18,880 Speaker 1: very true. So this is a way of getting around that. 746 00:39:18,960 --> 00:39:22,400 Speaker 1: And uh, really again, this is one of those programs 747 00:39:22,440 --> 00:39:24,719 Speaker 1: where it's not like the A c c A is 748 00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:27,759 Speaker 1: going to become a leading aircraft. It's more like the 749 00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:32,080 Speaker 1: technologies being explored while they're design stuff blue kind of 750 00:39:32,120 --> 00:39:35,440 Speaker 1: thing where it's a working Yeah, we'll find it. It 751 00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:38,160 Speaker 1: will end up emerging in other aircraft, right that Lockheed 752 00:39:38,239 --> 00:39:40,759 Speaker 1: makes and that other companies make. Then we have two 753 00:39:40,760 --> 00:39:44,680 Speaker 1: thousand ten. That's when the Harvest Hawk took flight. So 754 00:39:44,719 --> 00:39:46,719 Speaker 1: you might remember back in the other episode I talked 755 00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:49,799 Speaker 1: about the Hercules cargo plane. I said, it's kind of 756 00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:53,359 Speaker 1: a cargo plane, you know, for for propell our cargo plane. 757 00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:56,520 Speaker 1: It's pretty big, neat, looking sort of useless at the time. Yeah, 758 00:39:56,600 --> 00:39:59,960 Speaker 1: you know, like it wasn't useless, but it certainly wasn't 759 00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:02,239 Speaker 1: like super secret like it wasn't like some sort of 760 00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:06,160 Speaker 1: surveillance craft. Well, now we've got the Harvest talk, which 761 00:40:06,200 --> 00:40:08,799 Speaker 1: is the uh. The reason why it's called Hawk is 762 00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:12,840 Speaker 1: it's the Hercules Airborne Weapons Kit. So it's a weaponized 763 00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:18,359 Speaker 1: cargo transport aircraft. It's armed with hell Fire or Griffin missiles, 764 00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:22,000 Speaker 1: guided bombs, and a thirty millimeter cannon and it's operated 765 00:40:22,040 --> 00:40:27,120 Speaker 1: by the United States Marine Corps. I am terrified of this. 766 00:40:27,120 --> 00:40:30,680 Speaker 1: This is terrifying. And now we're up to current day, 767 00:40:30,719 --> 00:40:34,440 Speaker 1: two thousand thirteen and it's time to talk about the 768 00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:36,520 Speaker 1: s R seventy two. So this would be kind of 769 00:40:36,520 --> 00:40:40,040 Speaker 1: the the black Hawks successor. This is a concept aircraft. 770 00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:42,319 Speaker 1: It's one of those things that it hasn't even been 771 00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:45,520 Speaker 1: funded yet, but Lockheed skunk Works has been working on it, 772 00:40:45,920 --> 00:40:49,000 Speaker 1: and it would end up using two different jet systems 773 00:40:49,360 --> 00:40:54,360 Speaker 1: to have a hypersonic jet. Hypersonic being super wicked fast. 774 00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:58,040 Speaker 1: Here's the problem. So there are to the two different 775 00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:00,920 Speaker 1: types of engines. Would be your standard jet turbine engine, 776 00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:03,879 Speaker 1: which tends to work at speeds at mock two or 777 00:41:04,080 --> 00:41:07,799 Speaker 1: or slower, right, And that that's that's the kind of thing. 778 00:41:07,800 --> 00:41:10,200 Speaker 1: I mean, the thing with these ramjets that we've talked 779 00:41:10,200 --> 00:41:13,200 Speaker 1: a little bit about and scram jets, which stands for 780 00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:16,920 Speaker 1: a supersonic combustion ramjet. Although I just really like the 781 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:19,840 Speaker 1: word scramjet a whole bunch um is that you know, 782 00:41:20,239 --> 00:41:23,480 Speaker 1: they can't they can't start moving until they're going really 783 00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:26,560 Speaker 1: really fast because of that, because of that air drag 784 00:41:26,640 --> 00:41:29,680 Speaker 1: that they need in order to fuel their Combustiblewise it 785 00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,080 Speaker 1: just doesn't work. So you you have to be going 786 00:41:32,239 --> 00:41:36,520 Speaker 1: really fast to to operate your scramjet. So this combines 787 00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:39,000 Speaker 1: a jet engine and a scramjet using an over under 788 00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:41,520 Speaker 1: fuel approach because you can't use the same fuel for 789 00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:44,680 Speaker 1: both of these either. It's actually a very complex system. 790 00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:47,080 Speaker 1: But the idea is that the jet engine would get 791 00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:50,840 Speaker 1: the the SR seventy two moving at around mock three, 792 00:41:51,360 --> 00:41:53,759 Speaker 1: and then the scramjet would start to take over and 793 00:41:53,800 --> 00:41:55,960 Speaker 1: then you would get up to your full speed, which 794 00:41:56,000 --> 00:42:00,319 Speaker 1: is mock six, which is twice the old Blackbird and 795 00:42:00,600 --> 00:42:04,480 Speaker 1: is about four thousand, five hundred miles per hour or 796 00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:06,759 Speaker 1: I I recorded the other in meters per second and 797 00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:09,920 Speaker 1: it's about two thousands per second. But really fast is 798 00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:11,759 Speaker 1: what we're talking about here. Yeah, And they would be 799 00:42:11,880 --> 00:42:14,880 Speaker 1: armed with high speed strike weapons or h s S 800 00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:17,680 Speaker 1: double US and so you can just think of it 801 00:42:17,719 --> 00:42:21,280 Speaker 1: as a missile that is able to fly at hypersonic speeds. 802 00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:24,719 Speaker 1: So they hope that they'll have a demonstrator program demonstrating 803 00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:30,040 Speaker 1: this technological ability by prototype. Yeah so right now, like 804 00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:32,000 Speaker 1: I said, there's no funding as of the recording of 805 00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:34,000 Speaker 1: this podcast for this particular project, but it's one of 806 00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:36,160 Speaker 1: those things we're trying to do about. Yeah, there could 807 00:42:36,200 --> 00:42:37,799 Speaker 1: be I mean, c I A might be you know, 808 00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:40,160 Speaker 1: maybe an essay. Maybe they're like, we need to get 809 00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:43,520 Speaker 1: away now that we've been looking at everybody's stuff. Um, 810 00:42:43,520 --> 00:42:46,879 Speaker 1: But anyway, this could theoretically hit any target on any 811 00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:49,799 Speaker 1: continent in less than an hour. So it takes off 812 00:42:49,840 --> 00:42:52,279 Speaker 1: and within an hour anywhere in the world it could 813 00:42:52,360 --> 00:42:55,719 Speaker 1: hit its target. Keeping in mind it's both the aircraft 814 00:42:55,840 --> 00:42:58,400 Speaker 1: and the missile, which is HSSW. It goes at that 815 00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:03,520 Speaker 1: hypersonic speed. To big challenge involves actually heat management because 816 00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:06,000 Speaker 1: when traveling at that speed, the friction from the air 817 00:43:06,520 --> 00:43:09,240 Speaker 1: is intense. So they had kind of two different approaches 818 00:43:09,280 --> 00:43:11,600 Speaker 1: they could go. They could go with a sort of 819 00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:14,440 Speaker 1: a cool approach, which is where they use some form 820 00:43:14,480 --> 00:43:16,720 Speaker 1: of heat shielding type stuff, kind of like the stuff 821 00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:19,520 Speaker 1: that the Space Shuttle program used, or they could go 822 00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:22,520 Speaker 1: with a warm approach. Warm is a relative term. It's 823 00:43:22,520 --> 00:43:25,600 Speaker 1: actually quite high temperature where it allows the aircraft to 824 00:43:25,640 --> 00:43:29,400 Speaker 1: warm up, but you have the crew um sequestered in 825 00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:33,799 Speaker 1: some way where they are able to operate without being hurt. Cooked, yeah, 826 00:43:33,880 --> 00:43:37,320 Speaker 1: being cooked essentially. So if they go with the warm approaches, 827 00:43:37,320 --> 00:43:39,640 Speaker 1: which is what they said they're going to do, and 828 00:43:39,719 --> 00:43:42,439 Speaker 1: assuming it's going to be a manned vehicle, which that's 829 00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:44,680 Speaker 1: still I hate to use this phrase, No, I don't 830 00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:47,960 Speaker 1: know in the air. It's still up in the air. Um, 831 00:43:48,040 --> 00:43:50,280 Speaker 1: it could be manned or unmanned. But assuming it is manned, 832 00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:52,719 Speaker 1: that probably means that the cockpit will not be a 833 00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:55,200 Speaker 1: cockpit where you actually have a window out to see 834 00:43:55,280 --> 00:43:58,080 Speaker 1: where everything is. They would be flying this thing that's 835 00:43:58,120 --> 00:44:01,719 Speaker 1: traveling at mox six using inst meentation. So it's kind 836 00:44:01,719 --> 00:44:04,239 Speaker 1: of like operating a submarine, except you I'll bring a 837 00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:08,239 Speaker 1: submarine that's traveling at mocks six thousands of feet in 838 00:44:08,280 --> 00:44:10,680 Speaker 1: the air. So um, for those of you who have 839 00:44:11,000 --> 00:44:14,600 Speaker 1: fear of flying, imagine that where you can't see out 840 00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:17,439 Speaker 1: and you're going really fast. Yeah, yeah, again, I'm gonna 841 00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:20,160 Speaker 1: I'm gonna respectfully bow out of that particular job. I 842 00:44:20,160 --> 00:44:23,080 Speaker 1: think that podcaster is much better suited for me. Um 843 00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:26,160 Speaker 1: they have. They have also announced, though a collaboration with 844 00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:28,839 Speaker 1: Boeing to compete in the U. S. Air Forces Long 845 00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:32,840 Speaker 1: Range Strike Bomber Program, which is a challenge to deliver 846 00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:37,719 Speaker 1: stealth long range bombers for operation in the twenties, with 847 00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:41,000 Speaker 1: an upper price limit of only five fifty million dollars 848 00:44:41,000 --> 00:44:45,760 Speaker 1: per unit, which I say only but is really not 849 00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:49,719 Speaker 1: gone much for that thing prices people, We're just we 850 00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:54,000 Speaker 1: can't give these things away. Yeah, no, that's so I'm 851 00:44:54,040 --> 00:44:57,640 Speaker 1: excited to see whether they actually come up with anything 852 00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:01,359 Speaker 1: for that this. This was only announced I think in October. Um, 853 00:45:01,360 --> 00:45:03,600 Speaker 1: we are recording this at the beginning of November, and 854 00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:05,759 Speaker 1: who knows, maybe we won't actually see evidence of this 855 00:45:05,880 --> 00:45:09,080 Speaker 1: till because that will be when the CIA declassifies it 856 00:45:09,120 --> 00:45:11,840 Speaker 1: and let's us see it. I hope you guys enjoyed 857 00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:14,319 Speaker 1: that classic episode of tech Stuff. If you have any 858 00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:17,719 Speaker 1: suggestions for future episodes, please let me know. Reach out 859 00:45:17,719 --> 00:45:20,880 Speaker 1: to me on Twitter. The handle is text stuff hs W, 860 00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:29,240 Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you again really soon. Text Stuff 861 00:45:29,320 --> 00:45:32,520 Speaker 1: is an i heart Radio production. For more podcasts from 862 00:45:32,520 --> 00:45:36,279 Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 863 00:45:36,400 --> 00:45:38,400 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.