The Lockheed demonstrator programme of the late 1970s that proved the faceted low-observable shaping behind the F-117A. It is used in The Hunt for Zero Point as the working example of how completely the American black world can conceal a real technology: General George Sylvester, head of the Air Force’s research and development programme in 1977, was not accessed to Have Blue even though the programme was run out of his own office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, having been cut out of the loop by the colonels running the Air Force’s share of the Black Budget.
Cook’s argument from this is that “we would have heard about it” carries very little weight against a compartmented system. The counter-observation, which the book does not quite make, is that stealth eventually surfaced because it was useful.
Connections
Black Budget · Wright-Patterson Air Force Base · The Hunt for Zero Point · Ben Rich · Groom Lake · Signature Management · Skunk Works · Bakersfield F-117 Crash 1986