The Real Cloaking Device
This is a Klingon Cloaking Device:
No really. If you look closely, you can see the name is printed right there on the side. It's basically a box full of pinball parts, and during the 1980s it was strapped onto A-7 Corsair II aircraft of the 4450th Tactical Group as a way to keep the F-117 Nighthawk a secret.
In brief, the pilots who flew the stealth fighter still needed to deploy, go through operations, etc., but they couldn't do it in the F-117, as that aircraft was still the Most Secretest Secret Ever at the time. So they deployed in A-7s, practicing the tactics they would use in various large scale exercises. To simulate the conditions under which they would operate in a war deployment, the A-7s were rigged with the "cloaking device" and all personnel at the airfields were told that it contained super-secret equipment. Anyone approaching the aircraft or "cloaking device" was subject to be stopped with deadly force.
It was an effective way of simulating the operational requirements of the F-117 while still keeping the plane itself secret. In that sense it really was a "cloaking device," in that it made the F-117 disappear in plain sight. Quite ingenious, actually.
Full story here.
No really. If you look closely, you can see the name is printed right there on the side. It's basically a box full of pinball parts, and during the 1980s it was strapped onto A-7 Corsair II aircraft of the 4450th Tactical Group as a way to keep the F-117 Nighthawk a secret.
In brief, the pilots who flew the stealth fighter still needed to deploy, go through operations, etc., but they couldn't do it in the F-117, as that aircraft was still the Most Secretest Secret Ever at the time. So they deployed in A-7s, practicing the tactics they would use in various large scale exercises. To simulate the conditions under which they would operate in a war deployment, the A-7s were rigged with the "cloaking device" and all personnel at the airfields were told that it contained super-secret equipment. Anyone approaching the aircraft or "cloaking device" was subject to be stopped with deadly force.
It was an effective way of simulating the operational requirements of the F-117 while still keeping the plane itself secret. In that sense it really was a "cloaking device," in that it made the F-117 disappear in plain sight. Quite ingenious, actually.
Full story here.
posted by Jar(egg)head at 14:53
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