Dark Eagles. A History of Top Secret U.S. Aircraft Programs.

378 Pages·1999·4.03 MB·English

by  Curtis Peebles

DARK EAGLES

DARK EAGLES
A History of Top Secret US, Aircraft Programs
Revised Edition
Curtis Peebles
PRESIDIO
Copyright © 1995 by Curtis Peebles
This revised edition printed 1999
Published by Presidio Press
505 B San Marin Dr., Suite 300
Novato,CA 94945-1340
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, record-
ing, or by any information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writ-
ing from the publisher. Inquiries should be addressed to Presidio Press, 505 B San
Marin Drive, Suite 300, Novato, CA 94945-1340.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Peebles, Curtis.
Dark Eagles : a history of top secret U.S. aircraft programs / by Curtis
Peebles.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-89141-535-1 (hardcover)
ISBN 0-89141-696-X (paperback)
1. Aeronautics, Military—Research—United States—History. 2. Air-
planes, Military—United States—History. 3. Defense information, Classified—
United States. I. Title.
UG643.P44 1995
623.7'46'0973—dc20 95-11086
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Introduction 1
1 The First Black Airplane: 3
The XP-59A Airacomet
2 The Angel of Paradise Ranch: 18
The U-2 Aquatone
3 The Archangel from Area 51: 47
The A-12 Oxcart
4 Alone, Unarmed, Unafraid, and Unmanned: 83
The Model 147 Lightning Bug
5 Orphaned Eagle: 114
The Model 154 Firefly
6 The Last Blackbird: 119
The D-21 Tagboard
7 The Dark Eagles of Dreamland: 135
The Have Blue Stealth Aircraft
8 The Black Jet of Groom Lake: 158
The F-117 A Senior Trend
9 The Return of Black Reconnaissance: 199
HALSOL and the GNAT-750
10 The MiGs of Red Square: 217
Have Doughnut and Have Drill
11 Still Black: 244
The Enigmatic Shamu
12 Tales of Darkness and Shadows: 251
The Illusive Aurora
13 Invisible Horizons 280
History, Stealth, and Innovation
Notes 293
Index 341
V

Introduction
On February 3, 1964, Lockheed test pilot James D. Eastham reached a
speed of nearly Mach 3.3 at an altitude of 83,000 feet during the test flight
of a new aircraft. This was a world's record for a jet-powered aircraft. For
ten minutes, the plane held this speed. This epic flight was the culmination
of five years of effort, frustration, and, finally, success. There was not one
word about this singular achievement in that evening's newspapers. There
was no mention of the event on the television news. No articles were pub-
lished about the flight in the technical press. As far as the larger world
knew, it had never happened.
This was because the airplane did not officially exist.
For the past five decades, some of the most significant advances in aero-
space technology were made by airplanes that the larger world knew noth-
ing about. Since 1941, the United States has produced a series of "Black"
airplanes—planes developed, tested, and operated in deep secrecy. Years,
even a decade or more, would pass before their existence was made public.
Some remain secret still.
The impact of these Dark Eagles has been profound. The first introduced
America to the jet age. The next revolutionized the way intelligence was
gathered. Another pushed aviation technology to its farthest limits. A series
of unmanned reconnaissance drones would venture to places too dangerous
for conventional aircraft. One group would change U.S. aerial combat tech-
niques and training. The latest series would fundamentally alter the role of
airpower and strategic bombing, leading the way to the Coalition victory in
the Gulf War. Each would do things most engineers thought impossible.
1

CHAPTER 1
The First Black Airplane
The XP-59A Airacomet
. . . come like the wind, go like the thunder.
Sun Tzu
ca. 400 B.C.
On the cool morning of October 1, 1942, a group of Bell Aircraft Company
engineers prepared their new plane for its first flight. Finally, shortly after
noon, the XP-59A stood ready. The aircraft had a midposition straight wing
and tricycle landing gear. The tail was on a raised boom, while the center
section of the fuselage seemed to bulge. The plane was painted dark olive
green with dark gray undersides and had the U.S. insignia of a white star in
a blue circle. It had no serial number. The XP-59A's design owed much to
Bell's earlier P-39 and P-63. But in one aspect, this first Dark Eagle had
nothing in common with any aircraft of the previous four decades of Ameri-
can aviation technology. It was the plane that separated all that was from all
that would follow.
The XP-59A had no propeller.
BIRTH OF THE JET AGE
The events that set in motion development of the first U.S. Black air-
plane had begun more than a decade before. In 1928 Royal Air Force (RAF)
Pilot Officer Frank Whittle, then only twenty, realized that the conventional
propeller engine was Hearing its performance limit. To fly faster, a larger,
more powerful engine was needed. Such an engine would burn more fuel,
thus requiring a larger, heavier airframe and canceling out any gain. As a
plane flew higher, it flew into thinner air. This resulted in a loss of engine
power. Propellers, as they approached supersonic speed, also lost efficiency.
The high-speed planes of the 1930s, such as the GeeBee racer, were little
3
DARK EAGLES
more than the biggest possible engine attached to the smallest possible air-
frame. They flew fast, but, like the GeeBee, often proved lethal.1
Whittle proposed the idea of using a gas turbine to power an aircraft.
Incoming air would be compressed, then mixed with fuel and ignited. The
hot gas would be vented out an exhaust pipe to produce thrust. This offered
speeds and altitudes far beyond the reach of propeller-driven fighters and
bombers. Whittle submitted his idea to the British Air Ministry, which
promptly rejected it as unattainable. For the next seven years, Whittle
struggled to find money to build his "Whittle Unit." It was not until 1937
that the Air Ministry agreed to a small study contract, and it was another
year before the money was actually provided.
In March 1939, the first Whittle jet engine was making test-bed runs. In
the meantime, Nazi Germany had absorbed Austria and taken over Czecho-
slovakia. With war clouds looming over Europe, a few far-sighted individu-
als realized the strategic advantages of jet aircraft. In July 1939, Whittle
was given a contract to develop the W.I jet engine, which would power the
experimental Gloster E28/39 Pioneer aircraft. Two months later, Germany
invaded Poland and World War II began. By the following summer, Hitler
was the master of Europe, and England stood alone. In the sky above Lon-
don, the RAF and the Luftwaffe fought the Battle of Britain to decide the
fate of Western Civilization.
As these monumental events were being played out, Whittle and a small
group of engineers were working in an empty factory near Coventry, En-
gland. The engine that was built was unlike any power plant ever flown
before. A conventional aircraft engine operated at 2,000 rpm. The W.l's
turbine spun at 17,750 rpm. The temperatures inside the combustion cham-
bers were also far higher than those of piston engines.
Equally daunting was the political situation. With London in flames and
England needing every Spitfire it could produce, Lord Beaverbrook, head of
the Ministry of Aircraft Production, stripped the W.I of its priority order.
By this time, however, Whittle had gained powerful supporters who were
able to convince Beaverbrook to restore the W.l's priority.2
By the spring of 1941, the first E28/39 aircraft was finished and Whittle
delivered a "lash-up" prototype engine, the W.1X. (The X indicated it was not
to be flown, but only used for taxi tests.) The taxi tests were made on April
7 and 8, 1941, by Flight Lieutenant P. E. G. Sayer, Gloster's chief test pilot.
In the final series, the aircraft lifted off on three short hops. On May 15, the
E28/39 was ready for its first flight. Due to poor weather, it was delayed.
Finally, at 7:35 P.M., Sayer took off for a seventeen-minute flight. It was the
culmination of more than a decade of efforts by Whittle. The Air Ministry did
not bother to send an official photographer to record the event.3