What type of aircraft does this belong to ? Image Credit: Twitter / TikTok / Ruben Hofs
The clip shows the body of some futuristic aircraft at Lockheed's Helendale Radar Cross Section Facility.
The footage, which first appeared on Twitter around two weeks ago, was posted up by user Ruben Hofs who claimed to have found it on TikTok.
It shows a black aircraft body of some kind being towed outside a prominent Lockheed facility.
"Coincidentally, this morning I stumbled upon a very interesting TikTok video of an unknown shape on a flatbed trailer," Hofs wrote. "The scaffolding in the background got my interest and this appears to be the Helendale Radar Cross Section Facility."
"Also, this does not seem to resemble the so-called polecap used for calibration purposes. So if it isn't that, then what is it...?"
Some users questioned how the footage came to be, given that it must surely be difficult to get within such close range of a secretive aircraft being towed around in broad daylight.
The original creator of the clip remains unclear.
Jeff Babione, general manager of Lockheed's Skunk Works arm, was even asked about the video during a recent Defense One interview but refused to comment on it.
So could this really be evidence of some secretive aircraft being developed at Lockheed or is it perhaps simply a common component of some existing vehicle that it has in production ?
You can view the clip for yourself in the video below.
It could be or a drone. Using the truck wheels for scale it is not big enough to fit a pilot, if full sized. Also no visible flight control surfaces ? So not a flight test vehicle? There does appear to be a mounting point for attaching to a pole for radar reflection checks. This is done with the fuselage upside down. So this is also, probably, upside down on the trailer.
#4 Posted by 4 years ago
Mock ups are generally used at the radar cross section facility. The size of the item is not indicative of what could end up being a production model craft/weapon(?) I will say there are many exotic items that get tested and never meet project requirements and are ultimately scrapped.
IF it's real, we have more security issues than I would have believed. NO WAY anyone should be able to get close enough to film a prototype. It could be some kind of hypersonic weapon.
#6 Posted by 4 years ago
If it's a discontinued program then it would likely be declassified depending on test results.
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