The results were a breakthrough in aircraft design. During an early outdoor test, the radar could not detect the model. The radar operator thought it had fallen off the pole. Then a reflection was picked up — from a crow that had perched on it. At the White Sands tests, the reflection from the pole was many times brighter than the model. It was also discovered that the model had to be kept clean. Bird droppings increased the return by 50 percent. The series of measurements showed that the Lockheed design had one-tenth the radar return of the Northrop model.[354]
In April 1976, Lockheed was named the winner. It was to build two XST aircraft for aerodynamic and RCS testing. The contract was for $32.6 million from DARPA and the air force. Lockheed had to add another $10.4 million of its own money. The latter represented a big gamble on Lockheed's part. The Skunk Works had spent much of the late 1960s and early 1970s in an unsuccessful effort to sell a series of fighter designs. At the same time, losses in the L-1011 airliner program had brought Lockheed to the edge of bankruptcy. Even with federal guaranteed loans, Lockheed was still near failure in 1975 and 1976. But the $10.4 million investment was to bring in several billion dollars.[355]
To this point, Project Harvey was unclassified, and stealth was freely talked about. In June 1975, Defense Daily carried a report that the air force was developing a small stealth fighter.[356] In August 1976, Aviation Week and Space Technology carried a brief story that Lockheed had won the development contract for a stealth fighter demonstrator.[357] The 1977-78 edition of Jane's All the World's Aircraft carried a one-paragraph item that a "small" stealth fighter was being built by Lockheed and was expected to fly in 1977.[358] A June 1977 issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology revealed that the "Stealth Fighter Demonstrator" used J85 engines, that Kelly Johnson had acted as a consultant on the project, and that it would make its first flight in 1977.[359]
Soon after work on the XST started, Jimmy Carter was elected president.
The program attracted the attention of the defense undersecretary for research and engineering, William J. Perry. The results of the model RCS tests indicated that stealth had the prospect of a fundamental breakthrough.
As a result, the XST became a Black airplane in early 1977. Control was transferred from the largely civilian-staffed DARPA to the Air Force Special Projects Office. The word "stealth" also disappeared; it could not be used in any public statement or in an unclassified context. The program was pushed, even as the defense budget underwent major cuts.[360]
The program also received a new two-word code name. Unlike Aquatone, Oxcart, and Tagboard, it was a computer selected designation. Because it was an aircraft technology development project, the prefix "have" was given to the program. This new Dark Eagle became the "Have Blue."
Have Blue was the first airplane whose shape was determined by electrical engineering, rather than aerodynamics. Not surprisingly, it had the aerodynamics of a household appliance. The design was inherently unstable in all three axes — pitch (longitudinal stability), roll (lateral stability), and yaw (directional stability). Every aircraft ever built had curved wing surfaces. On the Have Blue, the wings were made of long, wedged-shaped flat plates, meeting at a sharp edge.
The first Have Blue prototype would be used for aerodynamic and control tests. It had a long (and unstealthy) nose boom for the air-speed system.
Because of the design's instability, it used a fly-by-wire control system, built for the F-16A, that was modified to make the Have Blue stable in all three axes. (The F-16 was unstable only in the pitch axis.) Stability was critical if the design was to be developed into an attack aircraft; an unstable aircraft cannot bomb accurately.
The second Have Blue prototype would be used to demonstrate the design's stealth qualities. It had an operational air-speed system and lacked a drag chute. Development work was also done on improved RAM and better ways to apply it. The prototype would also test the practical details.
Unlike an RCS model, a real airplane has landing gear doors, a canopy, a fuel-fill door, screws, and vents. Any of these could greatly affect the plane's RCS. On the second Have Blue, greater care would be taken to insure that all gaps were sealed.
The Have Blue aircraft were 38 feet long and had a wingspan of 22.5 feet.
This was 60 percent of the size of the planned production aircraft. They would have a top speed of Mach 0.8 and were powered by a pair of J85 engines.
These lacked afterburners to reduce the infrared signature. There was no weapons bay and no inflight refueling equipment. Weight of the Have Blue was 12,500 pounds, and it was limited to a one-hour flight time.
To keep the development time short, as many existing components as possible were used. In addition to the F-16 fly-by-wire control system, the Have Blue aircraft used F-5 ejector seats, landing gear, and cockpit instruments. The J85-GE-4A engines were supplied by the navy from its T-2B trainer program. The Have Blue aircraft were built by hand, without permanent jigs (like […] As each part was designed, the plans were sent to the shop for fabrication. The work was done in a cordoned-off section of the Burbank plant. The two planes did not receive any air force serial numbers or designation, so Lockheed gave them the numbers 1001 and 1002.[361]
Two test pilots were selected to fly the Have Blue. Lockheed test pilot William Park would make the first flights. Park was so highly regarded at the Skunk Works that Ben Rich obtained a special exemption from the air force so he could be chief test pilot for the Have Blue. (He was not a test pilot school graduate, nor did he have an advanced engineering degree.) Years later, he recalled his first impression of the Have Blue: "Aerodynamically, it didn't look like it could fly at all… It really looked like something that flew in from outer space."[362] Lieutenant Colonel Norman Kenneth "Ken" Dyson would serve as the air force project pilot. As events turned out, he would do the RCS testing.
As with other Dark Eagles, the Have Blue personnel had their own patch.
It showed the cartoon character Wile E. Coyote holding a blue lightning bolt, signifying control of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the colorful code name. (The Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote's uncatchable nemesis, had been used in the 1960s as the symbol of the A-12 Oxcart.) The completion of Have Blue 1001 was complicated by a strike at Lockheed. When the strike began in late August 1977, the Have Blue was in final assembly, with no fuel or hydraulic systems, no electronics, no ejection seat or landing gear. A thirty-five-man shop crew was put together from managers and engineers to complete it and check out its systems. They put in twelve-hour days, seven days a week, for two months. The initial engine test runs were done on November 4. To hide the plane, 1001 was parked between two semitrailers and a camouflage net was draped over them. The tests were done at night, after Burbank airport had closed. The only attention the tests attracted was a noise complaint.
356
Jim Cunningham, "Cracks in the Black Dike: Secrecy, the Media, and the
357
"Lockheed California Co. Is Developing a Small Fighter Intended to Demonstrate Stealth, or Low Signature Technologies,"
358
John W. R. Taylor, ed.,
359
"First Flight of Lockheed's New Stealth Fighter Demonstrator Being Built by the Company's 'Skunk Works',"
362
Ralph Vartabedian,