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84-472: Lockheed Have Blue was the code name for Lockheed 's proof of concept demonstrator for a stealth fighter. Have Blue was designed by Lockheed's Skunk Works division, and tested at Groom Lake , Nevada . The Have Blue was the first fixed-wing aircraft whose external shape was defined by radar engineering rather than by aerospace engineering . The aircraft's faceted shape was designed to deflect electromagnetic waves in directions other than that of

168-705: A Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 in Korea, although by this time the F-80 (as it was redesignated in June 1948) was already considered obsolete. Starting with the P-80, Lockheed's secret development work was conducted by its Advanced Development Division, more commonly known as the Skunk works . The name was taken from Al Capp 's comic strip Li'l Abner . This organization has become famous and spawned many successful Lockheed designs, including

252-474: A concussion , forcing him to retire from further test flights. Dyson, who was in the chase plane, recounted: "Just before touchdown the airplane pitched up... It seemed it slammed down on the ground real hard... He [Park] raised the gear on the go around, and when he tried to extend it on approach, only one of the mains and the nose wheel came down. All this time, gas was being consumed... I suggested he climb up to 10,000 feet for ejection... He started climbing, but

336-476: A four-month period, the two companies were each required to construct full-scale wooden mock-ups, which would then be evaluated at the USAF's Radar Target Scatter (RATSCAT) test facility at White Sands, New Mexico . To test the design's radar returns, Lockheed erected a $ 187,000 specially built pole upon which the model would be perched. In March 1976, a Lockheed model was transferred to the range before being tested;

420-508: A leafy texture. Lockheed ranked tenth among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. All told, Lockheed and its subsidiary Vega produced 19,278 aircraft during World War II, representing six percent of war production, including 2,600 Venturas , 2,750 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers (built under license from Boeing ), 2,900 Hudson bombers, and 9,000 Lightnings. During World War II, Lockheed, in cooperation with Trans-World Airlines (TWA), had developed

504-409: A preliminary low-RCS aircraft with faceted surfaces. At the same time, Overholser hired mathematician Bill Schroeder, with whom he had a prior working relationship – in fact, it was Schroeder who trained Overholser on mathematics relating to stealth aircraft. Kenneth Watson was hired as the senior lead aircraft designer. During the next few weeks, the team created a computer program which could evaluate

588-618: A radar receiver. It had highly swept wings and inward-canted vertical stabilizers , which led to it being nicknamed "the Hopeless Diamond"—a pun on the Hope Diamond . The first operational aircraft made its maiden flight on 1 December 1977. Two flyable vehicles were constructed. Both were lost due to mechanical problems. Nevertheless, Have Blue was deemed a success, paving the way for the first operational stealth aircraft, Senior Trend , or Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk . In

672-549: A seminal paper titled Method of Edge Waves in the Physical Theory of Diffraction . The work had been translated by the US Air Force Systems Command 's Foreign Technology Division.) ECHO 1 allowed the team to quickly decide which of the 20 possible designs were optimal, finally settling on the faceted delta-wing design. However, many within the division were skeptical of the shape, giving rise to

756-761: A significant threat to US aircraft. For this reason, strike aircraft during the war often required support aircraft to perform combat air patrols and suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD). The 1973 Yom Kippur War again highlighted the vulnerability of aircraft to SAMs – the Israeli Air Force lost 109 aircraft in 18 days. During the Cold War , the Soviet Union developed an integrated defense network, central to which were medium- to long-range surveillance radars. SAMs and AAAs would be set up around key locations to defend them from incoming enemy aircraft. If

840-620: A single 2,000-pound (910 kg) laser-guided bomb , or the B61 tactical nuclear bomb . Beset by early construction problems, the first FSD aircraft was transferred to Groom Lake in May 1981 inside a C-5. Further problems, this time with fuel leaks, delayed the first flight. Under the control of Harold Farley, the aircraft took off on 18 June for its maiden flight, eleven months after the July 1980 first flight originally envisaged. The first production F-117A

924-544: A slate of his own choosing, since he was the largest investor. His board nominations included former Texas Senator John Tower , the onetime chairman of the Armed Services Committee , and Admiral Elmo Zumwalt Jr ., a former Chief of Naval Operations. Simmons had first begun accumulating Lockheed stock in early 1989 when deep Pentagon cuts to the defense budget had driven down prices of military contractor stocks, and analysts had not believed he would attempt

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1008-644: A small amount of "bypass" ( turbofan ) to improve cooling and allow the engine bay to be lighter, as well as much more wing surface. The P-530 also included radar and other systems considered necessary on modern aircraft. When the Light Weight Fighter program was announced, the P-530 was stripped of much of its equipment to become the P-600, and eventually the YF-17 Cobra , which lost the competition to

1092-415: Is needed. Throughout the one and a half months after the start of ground tests, HB1001, the first of two demonstrators, underwent tests in preparations for the first flight. Flight instrumentation was checked first, followed by a thorough shakedown of the aircraft. In early November, two semi-trailers were parked parallel to each other outside Building 82; a camouflage net was thrown over the top to cover

1176-520: The C-5 program. Final assembly of HB1001 was originally scheduled to be completed in August 1977, before being ground tested until mid-October. The secret roll-out was envisaged to occur on 23 October, after which the aircraft would be dismantled and transported to the test area. On 1 September, however, with HB1001 partially complete, Lockheed machinists went on a four-month strike. A group of managers took over

1260-507: The DC-10 ) strongly opposed the bill and they feared the government would steer contracts to Lockheed to insure loan payments. Admiral Hyman G. Rickover condemned the bill saying it represented "a new philosophy where we privatize profits and socialize losses." The New York Times editorial board held that the Nixon administration was violating its own free enterprise principles by advocating for

1344-584: The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) started a study on low-observability aircraft, seeking to design and produce an operational stealth aircraft. Five companies were initially invited, three of which bowed out early. The remaining two were later joined by Lockheed. The Lockheed Have Blue was born out of a requirement to evade radar detection. During the Vietnam War , radar-guided SAMs and AAA posed

1428-751: The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon . Nevertheless, the YF-17 Cobra was modified with help from McDonnell Douglas to become the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet in order to fill a similar lightweight design competition for the US Navy . Northrop intended to sell a de-navalized version as the F-18L, but the basic F-18A continued to outsell it, leading to a long and fruitless lawsuit between

1512-499: The Have Blue demonstrators, Senior Trend aircraft were different from their predecessors in several aspects. The wings exhibited less sweep to resolve a center-of-gravity problem discovered during tests. The front fuselage was shortened to give the pilot a better view, and the vertical stabilizers were canted outwards from the centerline. Additionally, provisions were made to include two weapons bays, each of which would accommodate

1596-540: The Imperial Japanese Army . At the beginning of World War II, Lockheed – under the guidance of Clarence (Kelly) Johnson , who is considered one of the best-known American aircraft designers – answered a specification for an interceptor by submitting the P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft, a twin-engined, twin-boom design. The P-38 was the only American fighter aircraft in production throughout

1680-565: The L-049 Constellation , a radical new airliner capable of flying 43 passengers between New York and London at a speed of 300 mph (480 km/h) in 13 hours. Once the Constellation (nicknamed Connie ) went into production, the military received the first production models; after the war, the airlines received their original orders, giving Lockheed more than a year's head-start over other aircraft manufacturers in what

1764-800: The Lockheed Aircraft Company ( spelled phonetically to prevent mispronunciation) in Hollywood. This new company used some of the same technology originally developed for the Model S-1 to design the Vega Model . In March 1928, the company relocated to Burbank, California , and by year's end reported sales exceeding one million dollars. From 1926 to 1928 the company produced over 80 aircraft and employed more than 300 workers who by April 1929 were building five aircraft per week. In July 1929, majority shareholder Fred Keeler sold 87% of

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1848-516: The Mojave Desert near Palmdale , which allowed more accurate tests of the aircraft's RCS. In the event, the aircraft's RCS level confirmed ECHO 1's predictions. This meant Ben Rich won a quarter from Johnson, who previously insisted that the D-21 had less RCS than Have Blue . In the summer of 1975, DARPA informally invited Lockheed, Northrop and McDonnell Douglas to develop an aircraft under

1932-580: The Northrop Gamma and Northrop Delta . However, labor difficulties led to the dissolution of the corporation by Douglas in 1937, and the plant became the El Segundo Division of Douglas Aircraft . Northrop still sought his own company, and so in 1939 he established the "Northrop Corporation" in nearby Hawthorne, California , a site located by co-founder Moye Stephens . The corporation ranked 100th among United States corporations in

2016-545: The "Lockheed Loan". Even after its adoption, a further controversy developed when the Emergency Loan Guarantee Board set up by the Executive branch to oversee the loan refused to allow Congress' General Accounting Office to examine its records. They argued that the office was attempting "interference in the decision-making process" amounting to an effort to "bully" and "harass" the board. This claim

2100-401: The 1970s, it became increasingly apparent to U.S. planners that, in a military confrontation with Warsaw Pact forces, NATO aircraft would quickly suffer heavy losses. This came as a result of sophisticated Soviet defense networks, which used surveillance radars, radar-guided surface-to-air missiles (SAM), and anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) to seek and eliminate enemy aircraft. Consequently,

2184-603: The 1970s. Drowning in debt, in 1971 Lockheed (then the largest US defense contractor) asked the US government for a loan guarantee, to avoid insolvency. Lockheed argued that a government bailout was necessary due to the company's value for U.S. national security. On May 13, 1971, the Richard Nixon administration sent a bill titled "The Emergency Loan Guarantee Act" to Congress requesting a $ 250 million loan guarantee for Lockheed and its L-1011 Tristar airbus program. The measure

2268-461: The 1970s. In late 1975 and early 1976, a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate led by Senator Frank Church concluded that members of the Lockheed board had paid members of friendly governments to guarantee contracts for military aircraft. In 1976, it was publicly revealed that Lockheed had paid $ 22 million in bribes to foreign officials in the process of negotiating the sale of aircraft including

2352-549: The Constellation obsolete. However, the design proved underpowered. The company sought to purchase Convair in 1946, but the sale was blocked by the SEC . In 1943, Lockheed began, in secrecy, development of a new jet fighter at its Burbank facility. This fighter, the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star , became the first American jet fighter to score a kill. It also recorded the first jet-to-jet aerial kill, downing

2436-799: The F-104 Starfighter, the so-called Deal of the Century. The scandal caused considerable political controversy in West Germany , the Netherlands , Italy, and Japan. In the US, the scandal led to passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act , and nearly led to the ailing corporation's downfall (it was already struggling due to the poor sales of the L-1011 airliner). Haughton resigned his post as chairman. In

2520-612: The Lockheed Aircraft Company to Detroit Aircraft Corporation . In August 1929, Allan Loughead resigned. The Great Depression ruined the aircraft market, and Detroit Aircraft went bankrupt. A group of investors headed by brothers Robert and Courtland Gross, and Walter Varney , bought the company out of receivership in 1932. The syndicate bought the company for a mere $ 40,000 ($ 858,000 in 2023). Ironically, Allan Loughead himself had planned to bid for his own company, but had raised only $ 50,000 ($ 824,000), which he felt

2604-765: The Poseidon and Trident nuclear missiles. Lockheed developed the F-104 Starfighter in the late 1950s, the world's first Mach 2 fighter jet. In the early 1960s, the company introduced the C-141 Starlifter four-engine jet transport. During the 1960s, Lockheed began development for two large aircraft: the C-5 Galaxy military transport and the L-1011 TriStar wide-body civil airliner. Both projects encountered delays and cost overruns. The C-5

Lockheed Have Blue - Misplaced Pages Continue

2688-538: The RCS of possible designs. The RCS-prediction software was called "ECHO 1". As tests with the program proceeded, it became apparent that edge calculations by the program were incorrect due to diffraction . To overcome this, Overholser incorporated elements of research by Soviet engineer Pyotr Ufimtsev into the software. (In 1962, Ufimtsev, as chief scientist of the Moscow Institute for Radio Engineering, published

2772-474: The Transfer Orbit Stage (under subcontract to Orbital Sciences Corporation ) and various satellite models. Lockheed's operations were divided between several groups and divisions, many of which continue to operate within Lockheed A partial listing of aircraft and other vehicles produced by Lockheed. Northrop Corporation Jack Northrop founded 3 companies using his name. The first

2856-706: The U-2 (late 1950s), SR-71 Blackbird (1962) and F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter (1978). The Skunk Works often created high-quality designs in a short time and sometimes with limited resources. In 1954, the Lockheed C-130 Hercules , a durable four-engined transport, flew for the first time. This type remains in production today. In 1956, Lockheed received a contract for the development of the Polaris Submarine Launched Ballistic Missile ( SLBM ); it would be followed by

2940-549: The XST competition, Lockheed was tasked with exploring possible operational aircraft. Just a month later, on the day HB1001 was transported to Groom Lake, the Air Force awarded the company a contract under the code name Senior Trend . The Air Force wanted to exploit the revolutionary technologies developed during the Have Blue program. Tactical Air Command ordered five full-scale development and twenty production aircraft. Based on

3024-515: The aircraft was destroyed. It was later discovered that an engine exhaust clamp had loosened, allowing the hot exhaust to migrate to the right engine compartment. The heat built up there, causing the hydraulic lines to fail. The debris from both aircraft was secretly buried somewhere within the Nellis Air Force Base Complex . Despite the crashes, Have Blue was considered a success. In October 1977, just prior to Phase 2 of

3108-466: The aircraft was inherently unstable . As a result, a quadruple redundant fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control system was integrated into the aircraft to give it normal flying characteristics. The flight control system was borrowed from the F-16 . The overwing engine inlet was covered by a low-RCS grid; blow-in doors were constructed at the upper fuselage to admit additional airflow during takeoffs, when more air

3192-495: The aircraft was used to test RCS returns, the unstealthy spin recovery chute was removed, and the aircraft was covered in radar-absorbent material. It first flew on 20 July 1978 with Dyson at the controls, who would be the only pilot to fly the aircraft. HB1002 was lost on 11 July 1979 during the aircraft's 52nd flight. A hydraulic leak caused an engine fire, resulting in the loss of hydraulic pressure , which in turn caused severe pitch oscillations . The pilot ejected safely, and

3276-565: The aircraft's flat surfaces – for the windscreen, special coatings were applied to give them metallic characteristics. The aircraft's gross weight of 9,200–12,500 lb (4,173–5,669 kg) enabled the aircraft to use the landing gear from the Northrop F-5 fighter. The aircraft's powerplants were two 2,950-pound-force (13.1 kN) General Electric J85 -GE-4As from the T-2C Buckeye . Because stealth took precedence above all else,

3360-661: The company should be allowed to go into bankruptcy citing the recent decision to leave Penn Central railroad to that fate, and the fact that the airbus program at issue was commercial rather than military. Naval scholar Thomas Paul Stanton notes that the opposition to the bill held it was "the beginning of the socialization of the American aircraft and aerospace industry." Proponents responded by claiming "this socializing process had taken place many years before", and some witnesses before Congress discounted "the very notion of 'free enterprise'." Treasury Secretary Connally pointed to

3444-423: The construction and flight testing of two demonstrators as part of Phase 2. Northrop's and Lockheed's designs were generally similar, though the former's submission featured more angular and flat surfaces. The company used "GENSCAT", software similar to ECHO 1, to calculate the RCS of its designs. On 1 November 1975, Lockheed and Northrop were each awarded $ 1.5-million contracts to proceed with Phase 1 of XST. During

Lockheed Have Blue - Misplaced Pages Continue

3528-408: The demonstrator during outdoor engine runs. During the engine tests, a local resident complained about the noise, but Have Blue retained its secrecy. HB1001 received a layer of iron-coat paint; during the weekend of 12–13 November, the aircraft received a camouflage scheme devised by Alan Brown, Have Blue ' s chief technical engineer. The scheme, consisting of three colors, each with three tones,

3612-520: The demonstrators, Ben Rich had to raise $ 10.4 million from the Lockheed management, which was secured by June. Phase 2 encompassed three main objectives, which were the validation of: reduced visibility in the radio wave , infrared , and visual spectrums and reduced acoustical observability; acceptable flying qualities; and the "modeling capabilities that accurately predict low observable characteristics of an aircraft in flight". Construction of both Have Blue demonstrators used leftover tools from

3696-455: The engine started flaming out , from the lack of fuel, so he ejected." At the time of the crash, HB1002 was almost complete, with the lessons learned from the HB1001 incorporated into the aircraft, including the rebuilding of the aft fuselage. HB1002 was distinguished from the prototype in having a gray paint coat. It did not have the flight test instrumentation boom present on HB1001's nose. As

3780-566: The entirety of American involvement in the war, from Pearl Harbor to Victory over Japan Day . It filled ground-attack, air-to-air, and even tactical bombing roles in all theaters of the war in which the United States operated. The P-38 was responsible for shooting down more Japanese aircraft than any other U.S. Army Air Forces type during the war; it is particularly famous for being the aircraft type that shot down Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto 's airplane. The Lockheed Vega factory

3864-455: The faltering economy and worries about unemployment while testifying "the time has come within the United States when we have to look at things differently. Free enterprise is just not all that free." Questions arose whether letting Lockheed fail would be bad for the market due to decreased competition or good by screening out inefficient competitors and mismanagement. Lockheed's competitors, McDonnell Douglas and General Electric (collaborators on

3948-545: The fighter aircraft industry for 10 years, was not approached by DARPA in 1974. Ed Martin, Lockheed California Companies director of science and engineering, became aware of the research into stealth during his work at the Pentagon and Wright-Patterson AFB . Martin and Ben Rich , who at that time had recently become Skunk Works ' president, briefed Clarence "Kelly" Johnson on the program. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) gave Skunk Works permission to discuss with DARPA

4032-509: The flat surfaces come to a single point in one corner. Engineers later encountered the same difficulty fabricating the prototype on the factory floor." For early tests of the design, two ⅓-scale wooden mock-ups were constructed. One model, coated in metal foil, was used to verify ECHO 1's RCS calculations, while the other was earmarked for wind tunnel tests. Afterwards, a model was moved to the Grey Butte Range radar-testing facility in

4116-854: The following month Lockheed was pronounced the winner because the Northrop XST had a much higher side hemisphere RCS. DARPA, having realized the progress accumulated throughout the study, urged the Northrop team to remain together. The agency would later initiate the Battlefield Surveillance Aircraft-Experimental (BSAX), which evolved into the Tacit Blue and, ultimately, the B-2 bomber. Skunk Works now had to design, construct and flight test two crewed demonstrators as part of Phase 2, or Have Blue . To build

4200-485: The ground which forced the pilot, Bill Park, to abort the landing and make a second attempt. The impact had however been so hard that the landing gear had become jammed in a semi-retracted position. Efforts to lower the gear were unsuccessful and Bill Park was forced to climb again, and eject when his fuel ran out. The aircraft was destroyed on impact in the vicinity of the Groom Lake facility. Park survived, but suffered

4284-459: The job of assembly, which was completed in six weeks, with ground tests beginning on 17 October. While superficially similar to the later F-117, the Have Blue prototypes were smaller aircraft, about one quarter the weight of the F-117, with a wing sweep of 72.5° and inward-canted vertical tails (inverse V-tail ). Radar-absorbent material (RAM), developed in a Lockheed laboratory, was applied to

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4368-553: The late 1980s, leveraged buyout specialist Harold Simmons conducted a widely publicized but unsuccessful takeover attempt on the Lockheed Corporation, having gradually acquired almost 20 percent of its stock. Lockheed was attractive to Simmons because one of its primary investors was the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the pension fund of the state of California. At

4452-407: The loan. (Later, historian Stephen J. Whitfield viewed the passage of the loan guarantee as a support for the argument that America was shifting away from Lockean liberalism. ) Following a fierce debate, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of the measure on August 2, 1971. President Nixon signed the bill into law on August 9, 1971 - which became colloquially known as

4536-535: The loss ratio of Israel during the Yom Kippur War was experienced by NATO forces during a military confrontation with the Warsaw Pact , NATO aircraft numbers would be depleted within two weeks. In 1974, DARPA secretly requested answers from five aircraft manufacturers regarding two considerations. The first was about the signature thresholds at which an aircraft is virtually undetectable. The second point

4620-427: The name "Experimental Survivable Testbed" (XST). McDonnell Douglas, having identified the thresholds at which aircraft were deemed undetectable, was unable to design and produce such an aircraft. Phase 1 of XST would see both Lockheed and Northrop build full-scale models to test their RCS, construct flyable vehicles, and wind-tunnel test their designs. Following Phase 1, a sole contractor would be selected to continue with

4704-484: The name "Hopeless Diamond" – Kelly Johnson said to Rich, "Our old D-21 drone has a lower radar cross-section than that goddamn diamond". In May 1975, the Skunk Works produced an internal report titled, "Progress Report No. 2, High Stealth Conceptual Studies." Within it was a concept study called "Little Harvey," including Kelly Johnson's drawing of an aircraft with smoothly blended shapes. Johnson advocated for

4788-576: The originating radar emitter, greatly reducing its radar cross-section . To design the aircraft, the Skunk Works' design team leveraged the mathematics published by Soviet physicist and mathematician Petr Ufimtsev regarding the reflection of electromagnetic waves. A stealth engineer at Lockheed, Denys Overholser, had read the publication and realized that Ufimtsev had created the mathematical theory and tools to perform finite element analysis of radar reflection. The eventual design characteristically featured faceted surfaces to deflect radar waves away from

4872-410: The ramifications of the Lockheed loan guarantee soon resurfaced in late 1975 with discussions on possible aid to New York City during its fiscal crisis . Lockheed finished paying off the $ 1.4 billion loan in 1977, along with about $ 112.22 million in loan guarantee fees. The Lockheed bribery scandals were a series of illegal bribes and contributions made by Lockheed officials from the late 1950s to

4956-515: The stealth characteristics of the A-12, M-21 and D-21 . On behalf of the company, Rich and Martin formally requested permission from DARPA to participate in the program, but the agency initially refused because there were insufficient funds; after much debate, Lockheed was allowed entry, albeit without a government contract. Preliminary designer Dick Scherrer requested possible shapes upon which he could base his low radar cross-section (RCS) design. He

5040-577: The takeover since he was also at the time pursuing control of Georgia Gulf . Merger talks between Lockheed and Martin Marietta began in March 1994, with the companies announcing their $ 10 billion planned merger on August 30, 1994. The headquarters for the combined companies would be at Martin Marietta headquarters in North Bethesda, Maryland . The deal was finalized on March 15, 1995, when

5124-465: The time, the New York Times said, "Much of Mr. Simmons's interest in Lockheed is believed to stem from its pension plan, which is over funded by more than $ 1.4 billion. Analysts said he might want to liquidate the plan and pay out the excess funds to shareholders, including himself." Citing the mismanagement by its chairman, Daniel M. Tellep , Simmons stated a wish to replace its board with

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5208-500: The two companies' shareholders approved the merger. The segments of the two companies not retained by the new company formed the basis for L-3 Communications , a mid-size defense contractor in its own right. Lockheed Martin also later spun off the materials company Martin Marietta Materials . The company's executives received large bonuses directly from the government as a result of the merger. Norman R. Augustine who

5292-514: The two companies. Northrop continued to build much of the F-18 fuselage and other systems after this period, but also returned to the original F-5 design with yet another new engine to produce the F-20 Tigershark as a low-cost aircraft. This garnered little interest in the market, and the project was dropped. In 1985, Northrop bought northrop.com, the sixth .com domain created. Based on

5376-437: The two would be the only test pilots of Have Blue , alternating between the demonstrator and the chase plane. Flight test results allowed engineers to refine the FBW system. At the same time, they verified predictions made earlier by aerodynamic engineers on the aircraft's behavior. Flight tests proceeded fairly smoothly until 4 May 1978, when HB1001 was making its 36th flight. The aircraft pitched up just as it made contact with

5460-414: The use of blended shapes as the best way to achieve stealth, while Ben Rich advocated for faceted angles. Rich won the argument with Johnson, a rare occurrence. The design effort produced a number of wooden models. A 24-inch long model, made of balsa wood , demonstrated placement of internal structure and access doors. An Air & Space article noted "The model shop found it nearly impossible to make all

5544-413: The value of World War II military production contracts. It was there that the P-61 Black Widow night fighter , the B-35 and YB-49 experimental flying wing bombers, the F-89 Scorpion interceptor , the SM-62 Snark intercontinental cruise missile , and the F-5 Freedom Fighter economical jet fighter (and its derivative, the successful T-38 Talon trainer) were developed and built. The F-5

5628-473: The world in 1937. Subsequent designs, the Lockheed Model 12 Electra Junior and the Lockheed Model 14 Super Electra expanded their market. The Lockheed Model 14 formed the basis for the Hudson bomber, which was supplied to both the British Royal Air Force and the United States military before and during World War II . Its primary role was submarine hunting. The Model 14 Super Electra were sold abroad, and more than 100 were license-built in Japan for use by

5712-588: Was at the time CEO of Martin Marietta received an $ 8.2 million bonus. Both companies contributed important products to the new portfolio. Lockheed products included the Trident missile , P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft , U-2 and SR-71 reconnaissance airplanes , F-117 Nighthawk , F-16 Fighting Falcon , F-22 Raptor , C-130 Hercules , A-4AR Fightinghawk and the DSCS-3 satellite. Martin Marietta products included Titan rockets , Sandia National Laboratories (management contract acquired in 1993), Space Shuttle External Tank , Viking 1 and Viking 2 landers,

5796-492: Was built in any number (141 aircraft) was the Vega first built in 1927, best known for its several first- and record-setting flights by, among others, Amelia Earhart , Wiley Post , and George Hubert Wilkins . In the 1930s, Lockheed spent $ 139,400 ($ 2.29 million) to develop the Model 10 Electra , a small twin-engined transport. The company sold 40 in the first year of production. Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan , flew it in their failed attempt to circumnavigate

5880-477: Was built to vague initial requirements and suffered from structural weaknesses, which Lockheed was forced to correct at its own expense. The TriStar competed for the same market as the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 ; delays in Rolls-Royce engine development caused the TriStar to fall behind the DC-10. The C-5 and L-1011 projects, the canceled U.S. Army AH-56 Cheyenne helicopter program, and embroiled shipbuilding contracts caused Lockheed to lose large sums of money during

5964-449: Was delivered in 1982, and operational capability was achieved in October 1983; the 59th and last F-117A was delivered in 1990. Data from Crickmore, Donald, Aronstein and Piccirillo General characteristics Performance Related development Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era Related lists Lockheed Corporation The Lockheed Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer . Lockheed

6048-433: Was denied by Comptroller General Elmer B. Staats , and efforts were made by Senator William Proxmire to get Treasury Secretary John Connally to testify due to the suspicion that the loan guarantee was in jeopardy. The editorial board of The New York Times blasted the situation, citing it as another argument against the propriety of the loan guarantee and the precedent it set for other failing companies. The debate around

6132-400: Was easily foreseen as the post-war modernization of civilian air travel. The Constellation's performance set new standards which transformed the civilian transportation market. Its signature tri-tail was the result of many initial customers not having hangars tall enough for a conventional tail. Lockheed produced a larger transport, the double-decked R6V Constitution , which was intended to make

6216-412: Was founded in 1926 and merged in 1995 with Martin Marietta to form Lockheed Martin . Its founder, Allan Lockheed , had earlier founded the similarly named but otherwise-unrelated Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company , which was operational from 1912 to 1920. Allan Loughead and his brother Malcolm Loughead had operated an earlier aircraft company, Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company , which

6300-518: Was hotly debated in the US Senate. The chief antagonist was Senator William Proxmire (D-Wis), the nemesis of Lockheed and its chairman, Daniel J. Haughton. Some of the debate in Congress developed over what conditions should be attached to the bailout. Senator Alan Cranston demanded that the management be forced to step down, lest it set a precedent rewarding wasteful spending. Others argued that

6384-429: Was introduced to Denys Overholser, who recommended an aircraft with flat surfaces. Overholser later recounted his discussion with Sherrer: "When Dick Scherrer asked me ... I said 'Well, it's simple, you just make it out of flat surfaces, and tilt those flat surfaces over, sweeping the edges away from the radar view angle, and that way you basically cause the energy to reflect away from the radar.'" Scherrer subsequently drew

6468-538: Was located next to Burbank's Union Airport which it had purchased in 1940. During the war, the entire area was camouflaged in case of enemy reconnaissance. The factory was hidden beneath a huge burlap tarpaulin painted to depict a peaceful semi-rural neighborhood, replete with rubber automobiles. Hundreds of fake trees, shrubs, buildings, and even fire hydrants were positioned to give a three-dimensional appearance. The trees and shrubs were created from chicken wire treated with an adhesive and covered with feathers to provide

6552-589: Was operational from 1912 to 1920. The company built and operated aircraft for paying passengers on sightseeing tours in California and had developed a prototype for the civil market, but folded in 1920 due to the flood of surplus aircraft deflating the market after World War I . Allan went into the real estate market while Malcolm had meanwhile formed a successful company marketing brake systems for automobiles. On December 13, 1926, Allan Loughead, John Northrop , Kenneth Kay and Fred Keeler secured funding to form

6636-439: Was ready for test flights. HB1001 made its first flight on 1 December 1977 at the hands of Lockheed test pilot, Bill Park. He would fly the next four sorties, all chased by a T-38 piloted by Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Ken Dyson. Dyson, an F-15 Eagle pilot, was previously approached by United States Air Force personnel about the project in 1976. He made his first flight on HB1001 on 17 January 1978, chased by Park. In fact,

6720-582: Was so successful that Northrop spent much of the 1970s and 1980s attempting to duplicate its success with similar lightweight designs. Their first attempt to improve the F-5 was the N-300 , which featured much more powerful engines and moved the wing to a higher position to allow for increased ordnance that the higher power allowed. The N-300 was further developed into the P-530 with even larger engines, this time featuring

6804-627: Was the Avion Corporation in 1928, which was absorbed in 1929 by the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation as a subsidiary named "Northrop Aircraft Corporation" (and later became part of Boeing ). The parent company moved its operations to Kansas in 1931, and so Jack, along with Donald Douglas , established a "Northrop Corporation" located in El Segundo, California , which produced several successful designs, including

6888-582: Was too small a sum for a serious bid. In 1934, Robert E. Gross was named chairman of the new company, the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, which was headquartered at what is now the airport in Burbank, California . His brother Courtlandt S. Gross was a co-founder and executive, succeeding Robert as chairman following his death in 1961. The company was named the Lockheed Corporation in 1977. The first successful construction that

6972-432: Was used to deceive any casual onlooker from recognizing the design's characteristic faceting . The aircraft was disassembled, loaded onto a C-5, and on 16 November, the aircraft was flown from Burbank Airport (since renamed Bob Hope Airport ) to Area 51 at Groom Lake , Nevada . Upon touchdown, the aircraft was reassembled before undergoing another round of testing prior to the first flight. After four taxi tests, HB1001

7056-420: Was whether these companies had the capability to design and manufacture such an aircraft. Fairchild and Grumman declined to participate, while General Dynamics insisted on the use of electronic countermeasures . As a result, General Dynamics left the discussion. The remaining two companies, McDonnell Douglas and Northrop , were each awarded $ 100,000 for further research. Lockheed, having been absent from

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