Posted on Jul 13, 2019
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I had an epiphany last night watching a documentary on the Northrop flying wing from the late 40's or maybe early 50's. I first became aware of this aircraft when I was about 5 or 6, late 1950' when I read about it in the Encyclopedia Britannica, and I thought it was cool as shit, and this was pretty much the first time I'd thought of it in 60 years. The documentary had all kinds of what I think are probably spurious reasons it didn't work and was dropped...but I'm pretty sure it wasn't dropped, but went black when they found it was highly stealthy. It looks so much like the B2 in profile from some angles, and they both look like the HO 229, built by the Horton brothers for the Nazi's, which was proven to be very stealthy and was from the '40's. Some of our own stuff has probably given rise to some of the UFO reports we see, for example, the first time I saw an SR take off, I knew where all the really fast orange fireball reports came from. It went straight up and all one could see was the big assed ball of fire behind it. Amazing. In the late '70's or early '80's. For that matter, when Kenneth Arnold first described "flying saucers" what he said was that they moved like saucers skipping on water, but what he described was very close to the flying wing.
Keep secrets? Yes, we can. Bearing in mind we don't want to give aid and comfort to our enemies who might read this open forum and some things are like 50 years classified, what have you seen like that? IE, stuff that was 50 years ahead of it's time and (rightly) kept secret from the public. Again, please be sure it's declassified now.
Keep secrets? Yes, we can. Bearing in mind we don't want to give aid and comfort to our enemies who might read this open forum and some things are like 50 years classified, what have you seen like that? IE, stuff that was 50 years ahead of it's time and (rightly) kept secret from the public. Again, please be sure it's declassified now.
Posted in these groups: 
Military History
Military History
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 5
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It's hard to keep anything secret these days. Open source information is everywhere and tracking that was once only available for military and governments is publicly available to everyone. There was a great article published recently about how its impossible to move troops, equipment and dignitaries covertly now because even though the flights are unregistered, people can see them and report them on the internet. A lot of what we are developing is common knowledge now. Our adversaries know are capabilities and technological gaps so they can predict what we would be working on. DARPA announces it's projects and has open calls to industry for development. The more classified parts are the exact specifications of those capabilities, manufacture, and flaws.
Where the US is really still buttoned up is our cyber capabilities. A few years ago I attended a recruiting brief for an agency and the brief required a clearance just to be present. They discussed some of the Intel gathering tools they work with. It was years ahead of where I imagined we were. Look at the capabilities of the programs Snowden revealed, then factor in that almost a decade has passed and our technology has grown exponentially, especially in the area of using AI to predict and solve problems.
Where the US is really still buttoned up is our cyber capabilities. A few years ago I attended a recruiting brief for an agency and the brief required a clearance just to be present. They discussed some of the Intel gathering tools they work with. It was years ahead of where I imagined we were. Look at the capabilities of the programs Snowden revealed, then factor in that almost a decade has passed and our technology has grown exponentially, especially in the area of using AI to predict and solve problems.
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The M1 tank was made 40 years ago. We have smart cluster bombs to take out heavy enemy armor forces. The next thresholds will laser and railgun technology. We are developing robots but they are expensive to make and how will they perform in an uncontrolled environment? It reminds me of some of the Tiger tanks that cost a lot to produce, and had frequent breakdowns. I think the Revolution in Military Affairs will be longer distance missiles that can be lethal at farther ranges, which will also impact stand off distances and reduce the freedom to maneuver.
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Excellent observation, MSgt J D McKee, and I agree. I’ve often thought that the U.S would never have retired the SR-71 unless we had something that was better (not necessarily a manned aircraft; just total technology).
I speculate that the classified and unknown technological and scientific capabilities of the United States are daunting and awesome, to say the least.
I speculate that the classified and unknown technological and scientific capabilities of the United States are daunting and awesome, to say the least.
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MSgt J D McKee
Another one--in the '80's, there was some talk of stealth, even a model sold that looked nothing like it. Then in 1991, what looked like a spaceship landed at my base during DS in the KSA. When we got back to our actual non-deployment base, an E6 who worked for me got a shit ton of medals for the time he spent guarding a well-known highly secret facility ending in 51. Medals=points for promotion. He got the medals only after stealth was declassified by open use. If he'd had the medals before, I might have been working for him. He'd worked for me about 18 moths at the time and I had no clue.
Pretty sure what's known is from the 60's and maybe '70's unless it has been outed by use.
Pretty sure what's known is from the 60's and maybe '70's unless it has been outed by use.
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