Message posted by Mark Lincoln on July 14, 2011 at 16:09:26 PST:
The trend for decades has been towards UAV/UCAV development over that of manned aircraft for many roles. It appears that this is especially true of programs at Groom Lake. The large new hanger built a few years back appears to be ideal for the growth version of the Lockheed P-791 known as LEMV. For some reason(s) unmanned aircraft are less sexy than manned ones. The Ryan ad 40 years ago showed a Firebee, bomb under it's wing, and a grimacing mouth painted on it's air-intake with the slogan 'RPVs are Fearless" for a headline. This led to the 'Fighter Pilots Do It Better" retort and a zillion rip-offs including a bad country song. There was a considerable building binge at Groom Lake and chances are it had more to do with UAV/UCAV operations than manned aircraft. What is the gouge from serious watchers?
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