In reconstructing the history of Black airplane programs that are still secret, such as the MiG operations, where reports are many, but the confirmed facts are few, one must take care not to be led astray. One observer noted, "Those who need to know, know; the trouble is that those who don't know are the ones doing the talking."[716] One need only recall the confusion over the D-21 and F-19 to understand the truth of this statement.
One such cautionary tale is the report of a MiG crash that occurred near the town of Rachel, Nevada. In 1994, an article on Groom Lake was published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It claimed that three MiGs had crashed, "including one that landed in a woman's backyard in Rachel."[717]
The possibility that debris from a crashed MiG was in someone's backyard attracted attention. An individual went to Rachel and was able to track down the crash site. It was located next to a dirt road and near a trailer.
When he asked the owner how she knew what type of plane it was, she said that "the word around town was that it was a MiG." On this note, he looked at the impact point. It had been cleaned up very well; the only visible debris was tiny bits of aluminum. He got out his rake and started "farming aluminum." The rake was soon pulling up compressor blades, hose clamps, and a data plate. These had part numbers, contract numbers, and inspection stamps. The way the debris was spread out was also consistent with a plane crash.
All this proved conclusively that the "MiG" had been built at General Dynamics Fort Worth. It was an F-16!
Later, he found a person in Rachel who had kept a scrapbook of newspaper articles about the town. The crash had occurred on July 10, 1986, (the day before the loss of Maj. Ross E. Mulhare's F-117A). A Royal Norwegian Air Force never confirms […]
Air Force F-16 at a Red Flag exercise clipped another plane, and the pilot was forced to eject. Several people in town saw the collision. The F-16 impacted about seventy-five yards from two different trailers and three hundred yards from the town's gas station. The Norwegian pilot landed safely by parachute and was picked up by one of the townspeople.
The local sheriff's office was called and told of the accident and that the pilot was safe. (The wingman's plane was not badly damaged, and he was able to return to Nellis.) No property on the ground was damaged, and the fire was allowed to burn itself out. The sheriff, his deputies, the paramedics from Alamo, and the Lincoln County SWAT team all showed up. Helicopters brought in an air force recovery crew. Because of the possibility of toxic fumes from the burning metal, it was decided that people living in the immediate area should go to the Stage Stop Saloon.
The next day, the locals set up a picnic for the air force recovery crew. A Major Flynn talked to the townspeople about the crash. Channel 8 from Las Vegas came out to film the crash site, and the Las Vegas Review-Journal called several people for interviews. On July 12, a truck came and carried away the remains of the F-16. Letters of appreciation were sent by the Nellis base commander and the Norwegian pilot.[718]
Over the subsequent years, the story had gotten "better." The facts had been forgotten, and the myth started to grow. The F-16 was transformed into a "MiG." Then the myth was printed, and the myth became "fact."
Beware.
Despite the secrecy that still surrounds MiG operations, there is no doubt that the United States has owned and flown MiGs. The public displays and photos of the MiGs in flight are proof enough. But stories are also told of another Black airplane. There are no photos of this Dark Eagle, no confirmation of its existence. There are only vague stories of a plane whose shape seems to change with every telling.
It is called "Shamu."
CHAPTER 11
Still Black
The Enigmatic Shamu
In such a case I must be deep and subtle. Then I can assess the truth or falsity of the… statements and discriminate between what is substantial and what is not.
By the mid-1980s, with stories of the stealth fighter increasing in frequency, suspicions began to grow that there were other Black airplanes. A small technology demonstrator like the Have Blue could be built at low cost and in a short time. Speculation grew that there was a kind of Black X-plane program, where different stealth configurations could be tested — one- or two-of-a-kind prototypes or aircraft with a very limited production run.
Reports, stories, and sightings of still-secret Dark Eagles began to appear.
Many of these dealt with the enigmatic "Shamu."
The story of Shamu began with the June 1, 1981, issue of Aviation Week and Space Technology. The magazine carried a report that a fighter-sized stealth aircraft built by Northrop was to make its first flight "soon."[719]
Northrop had lost the competition to build the Have Blue, but interest in stealth aircraft was not limited to attack aircraft. A stealth strategic bomber could render the huge Soviet air-defense network useless. As support for a "stealth bomber" grew in 1980-81, Northrop soon emerged as the leading contender. In the 1940s, John K. Northrop had designed the XB-35 and YB-49 flying wings. Perhaps the most graceful bombers ever flown, they were beset with a number of problems that prevented them from entering service.
The XB-35's propeller system was redesigned several times but never proved reliable. With the emergence of jets, a propeller-driven bomber was considered obsolete. The YB-49 was an all-jet conversion, but it suffered from short range and instability. The second prototype crashed during a stall check, killing the crew (including Capt. Glen Edwards, for whom Edwards Air Force Base is named).
Before the program ended, the YB-49 made several flights against a coastal radar site at Half Moon Bay, California. The aircraft proved hard to detect.[720] Even given the primitive state of radar technology in the late 1940s, it was clear that a large flying wing had good stealth properties. With RAM and the proper shape, a flying-wing stealth bomber could be as hard to detect as the Have Blue.
Such an aircraft would use a different design philosophy. Both the Lockheed and Northrop Have Blue designs used faceting, in order to make RCS calculations easier. The Northrop stealth bomber would use "smooth" stealth. Given the limitations of computers in the late 1970s, this would be much harder to design.
It was therefore assumed the "Northrop" aircraft described in the Aviation Week report was a Have Blue-like technology demonstrator, built to test smooth stealth. It could also insure the stability system would overcome the control and stability problems that had doomed the YB-49.
Several sightings were made in the 1980s of triangular aircraft from areas near Groom Lake. People who worked at various sites in Nevada said that such a triangular shape was quite familiar and "has been around a long time."[721] It was assumed these were sightings of the Northrop test aircraft.
Another sighting reportedly occurred in 1986. Despite the Groom Mountain land seizure, Greenpeace continued efforts to infiltrate the nuclear test site. During one such attempt, a group from Greenpeace was trespassing near the Groom Lake area. They reported seeing a black, triangular-shaped aircraft flying slowly overhead. The "group's hair stood on end" at the sight of the plane. Years later, several of the group said they thought it was a subscale flying prototype of the B-2.[722]
717
Keith Rogers, "Groom Lake toxic burning alleged,"
719
Clarence A. Robertson Jr., "Bomber Choices
720
Richard P. Hallion,
721
"Multiple Sightings of Secret Aircraft Hint at New Propulsion, Airframe Designs,"
722
Steve Douglass, "Project Black: The hunt for secret stealth aircraft,"