Hmmm...regarding the parachutes. The tarps I mentioned were actually parachutes. I called them "tarps" just to simplify the story. A dude said his dad saw them, and he was puzzled by the fact that no means of support could be seen. No landing gear, no pedestal, no ropes or cables.Interesting note: The F117 was developed and based in area 51 early in life, and they always kept them under parachutes. IN the hangars.
Not for security - it was the stealth features that played hell with the bats in the hangar - they couldn't "see" them, and used to regularly bash their brains out on them - resulting in damage to the fragile stealth coatings.
Also it wasn't magic why their polaroid pictures were all out of focus - the polaroid used an ultrasonic ranging circuit, that always thought it was shooting at infinity focus (no return echo for range)
Ben Rich's book about the stealth plane was out a year or so, and a stealth was on static display at O'Hare for a Military Open House.
The plane was surrounded by a taped off area that basically said: "we're not kidding - cross this line and it's that guy's DUTY to blow yer arse off"....
I had a conversation with one of the pilots, and started mentioning a few things as we talked - and this guy was getting greener and greener about the gills....
He finally says: "I gotta ask you to STOP"
I told him - "Ben Rich's book is out about the skonk works, and I'm DAMN sure he knew what he couldn't say (and they CHECKED) - so you guys gotta read the book so you know how much of the cat's out of the bag!!"
Like I said before: They're SERIOUS about security out there... and a low level Mach 1+ pass over those idjits is gonna have them looking for their fillings, once they uncross their eyes, pick themselves up off the ground and empty out their shorts.
I can't be any more specific about why I believed the story to be true.
The F117's minimal sonar signature is interesting. That must be a by-product of minimizing the radar signature. Unless some missiles use sonar (?)
The B-2 and the F117 make a lot of noise. They say the noise is focused behind the aircraft, but I heard F117 approach from about a mile away. It was flying really low, maybe 300 ft, and moving surprising slow for the amount noise it was generating. I wasn't directly in front of it, I would have been at the 2 o'clock position relative to the F117. Why it was flying over Kansas, I have no idea, but it happened in 1998 or 1999. It's the only time I've ever seen one.
