Did I just see...

[campbeme]

New current pictures of the RQ-170 in this months Combat Aircraft Mag,flying into Creech.
It's time Mike?

You know this past weekend I drove a good distance to go to a bookstore that I know sold this magazine only to find this months "September" issue right there on the shelf where it should be, grab it full of excitement, only to discover that you guys must be talking about October's issue or are getting a different issue than that one I was looking at because there wasn't anything in the one I was looking at about the RQ-170.

Yeah it's Octobers issue, I got it delivered to my IPad over the weekend. There are just two small photos of one flying over creech (but it could be anywhere as you only see the sky). Very good view of the landing gears.

Mark

[btaylo24]

Yeah I get mine on iPad now. All the big mags are on the Newsstand in Apple Store .Combat Aircraft, Classic Aircraft, Airliners World (don't laugh) Flypast, Air Forces Monthly.
Scramble Mag is also now on Ipad (and Android) Only $38 a year to subscribe to monthly mag

Just search for them in the Apple store.


Good pic of underneath as Mark says, looks like a optical window for camera/sensor??

[jimrodger]

Been busy playing with Nellis/Tonopah and pretty, pretty, pretty please...... oh go on please upload this.


Jim

[MIKE JG]

Jim the good news is that I will be finishing it here in the next couple weeks. Just trying to clear the backlog of projects on my computer these days.

[jimrodger]

You are a star, many, many thanks.

Jim

[dk1213]

What the hell is an RQ-170? I have never heard of it. Is it like a super drone? I don't keep track of those things, I should, there will probably be a time in my life that pilots are totally phased out.

[delbydoo]

What the hell is an RQ-170? I have never heard of it. Is it like a super drone? I don't keep track of those things, I should, there will probably be a time in my life that pilots are totally phased out.

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-d ... ver-osama/

[dk1213]

Wow. That thing must be awesome, lets think about this for a second. That drone is awesome, no doubt cool. Just think about the things we don't even have a clue are being developed, at this second that are a hundred times cooler than that. Someone acknowledged this thing "might exist" 16 months ago. If you take into account that research and development, testing, when do you think this thing was actually developed? From what I understand, when something becomes "operational" and put into active service, it is already ten years old. That just makes me think we see this thing rolling out now but what is being tested and developed to be rolled out ten years from now? This thing obviously can fly at high altitude and see Bin Laden inside that decrepid concrete shack he lived in, how did it do that? And if it can do that, what is the actual state of the art in military technology right now? The reports said he never left that dump and had couriers doing all the running around. So I wonder how did it see him or validate he was there, from say 50,000ft, at night when Bin Laden was indoors with no electric and no phone or internet nothing the whole time? Its crazy.

Skynet may just be the next new thing. Cyberdyne systems model 101. These will be the next to be rolled out on us



So we better get these packages out, and get ACG on Alconbury and Gutersloh before we are all simming from bunkers lol

[dk1213]

If that RQ -170 really could see Bin Laden inside from 50,000ft at night ...... can we get one to fly over the Playboy Mansion at 10,000ft during the day?

[MIKE JG]

I doubt it ever "saw" him. Maybe it saw a tall figure pacing around in the courtyard of that compound but it is well documented that CIA operatives had set up a continuous watch from a nearby house where direct observation of OBL was carried out.

It was reported however to have been overhead during the night raid that killed him. That part I do believe.

It appears to have been doing a lot of flying near or even inside the Iranian border. Well at least until they figured out how to bring it down then parade it in front of the national media.

What the Iranians showed us is that it wasn't that high tech to begin with. It used a screen similar to the F-117A to shield the engine's fan section (one of the most radar reflective part). It's raw shape probably makes it fairly stealthy to begin with but it wasn't even painted black or appeared to be painted with any sort of RAM coating.

I personally think it was a joint DARPA/Lockheed-Martin science project that actually worked pretty well so they built a couple of them and when they got really confident in its abilities, they shipped it to the Stan and began spying on the Iranians with it.

The technology on it was probably already 10 years old as you stated.

[dk1213]

Agreed. Well said.

[gatorflyer]

Mike: RQ-170 photos from Combat Aircraft Monthly can be found here:
http://blog.crouze.com/?p=425