advanced engineering degree.) Years later, he recalled his first impression of the Have Blue: 'Aerodynamically, it didn't look like it could fly at all… It really looked like something that flew in from outer space.'[362] Lieutenant Colonel Norman Kenneth 'Ken' Dyson would serve as the air force project pilot. As events turned out, he would do the RCS testing.
As with other Dark Eagles, the Have Blue personnel had their own patch.
It showed the cartoon character Wile E. Coyote holding a blue lightning bolt, signifying control of the electromagnetic spectrum, and the colorful code name. (The Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote's uncatchable nemesis, had been used in the 1960s as the symbol of the A-12 Oxcart.) The completion of Have Blue 1001 was complicated by a strike at Lockheed. When the strike began in late August 1977, the Have Blue was in final assembly, with no fuel or hydraulic systems, no electronics, no ejection seat or landing gear. A thirty-five-man shop crew was put together from managers and engineers to complete it and check out its systems. They put in twelve-hour days, seven days a week, for two months. The initial engine test runs were done on November 4. To hide the plane, 1001 was parked between two semitrailers and a camouflage net was draped over them. The tests were done at night, after Burbank airport had closed. The only attention the tests attracted was a noise complaint.
Following the tests, the wings were removed and the plane was loaded aboard a C-5A transport for the flight to Groom Lake. The delivery was made on the morning of November 16, 1977. This was the first time a C-5 had flown from Burbank, and quite a crowd gathered. After arrival, the plane was taken to one of the old Lockheed A-12 hangars at the south end of the Groom Lake complex. Have Blue 1001 was reassembled in short order and engine thrust checks were made. Three days before the first flight, these tests uncovered a serious overheating problem. The engines were removed and a heat shield was added. This was made from an old steel tool cabinet.
The Have Blue then underwent four low- and medium-speed taxi tests. During the third run, the brakes overheated. This was to be a nuisance throughout the program. The functioning of the computer-stability system was also checked out, and minor adjustments were made in the yaw gains. The drag chute was also tested, and the plane was judged ready for its first flight.[363]
Shortly before 7:00 A. M. on December 1, 1977, Have Blue 1001 was taken from its hangar and taxied to the end of the runway. The extreme security measures continued even at Groom Lake. The Have Blue 1001's entire surface was painted in patterns of light gray, black, and tan. This was not camouflage in the traditional sense, but was meant to hide the shape of the aircraft. Anyone observing the plane, either from the ground or from the air, would have difficulty seeing the faceting.[364]
As a further step to limit the number of people who knew of the project, everyone at Groom Lake not connected with Have Blue had been herded into the cafeteria before the plane left the hangar. The test was so secret that Lockheed Chairman Roy Anderson could not attend. The flight was also timed so that no Soviet reconnaissance satellites were in position to photograph Groom Lake during the flight. Both the White House situation room and Tactical Air Command Headquarters were monitoring the activities.
With security in place and the plane ready, Park made a final check and ran up the engines. The engines were quiet compared to a normal jet, due to the radar-absorbing grids. Park went to full power and released the brakes.
The plane began to slowly accelerate down the long runway. Without an afterburner, it took nearly the whole length to reach flying speed. The little angular airplane finally lifted off and slowly climbed into the winter sky. As it did, Kelly Johnson slapped Rich on the back and said, 'Well, Ben, you got your first airplane.'
On this first flight, the landing gear was left extended while Park checked the Have Blue's airworthiness. AT- 38 chase plane watched over the Have Blue throughout the flight. When the flight was completed, Park made a fast landing on the runway. Due to the plane's semidelta wings and lack of flaps, the landing speed was a very high 240 knots.[365]
Park was elated with the Have Blue's performance. He recalled years later, 'It flew great. It flew like a fighter should fly. It had nice response to the controls.'[366] The fly-by-wire control system had transformed the unstable airplane.
Over the next five months, the first Have Blue made a total of thirty-six test flights. Park and Dyson covered most of the aircraft's speed and altitude envelope. Only a few RCS flights were made; the aircraft had not really been intended for such tests. Have Blue 1001 provided data on flight loads, flutter, performance, handling qualities, and stability and control. The plane was unstable in pitch at speeds below Mach 0.3, and static directional stability was less than predicted. The plane was directionally unstable at speeds above Mach 0.65. Side forces were half that predicted by wind-tunnel data. These problems were corrected simply by changing the gain in the flight control system.
The platypus nozzles also affected stability — changing the power setting caused uneven heating, which warped their surfaces. This, in turn, generated forces that were picked up by the stability control system. The computer interpreted this as a change in flight direction and moved the fins to counter it. This resulted in the plane flying 'crabbed' slightly to one side.
The pilot had to adjust the trim each time the flight conditions changed. [367]
The only major flaw in the design was the high sink rate on landing, which would be corrected in the production aircraft. It was to be the undo-ing of Have Blue 1001.[368]
On May 4, 1978, Park was about to complete the thirty-sixth test flight when the plane hit the runway hard. Rather than risk skidding off the runway, Park took off and went around again. As he did, he retracted the landing gear. Park did not know that the right landing gear had been bent by the impact. When he lowered the gear, the T- 38 chase pilot, Col. Larry McCain (the base commander), radioed that the right gear was jammed. Park added power and climbed. Over the next several minutes, he made several attempts to get the gear to extend. This included making another hard landing to jar it loose.
The fuel supply was running low and there was no time for additional attempts. As Park climbed to 10,000 feet, one of the engines flamed out from fuel starvation. When the other engine quit, he would have only two seconds before the Have Blue went out of control. Park radioed, 'I'm gonna bail out of here unless anyone has any better ideas.'[369] He then pulled the ejector seat handle, the canopy blew off, and the seat rocketed him out of the plane. As it did, Park's head struck the seat's headrest and he was knocked unconscious. His parachute opened automatically, but he was still unconscious when his limp body hit the desert floor. Park's leg was broken, he suffered a concussion, and his mouth was filled with dirt as the parachute was dragged across the desert by a strong wind. By the time paramedics reached him, Park's heart had stopped. The paramedics were able to save him, but Park never flew again. He was named Lockheed's director of flight operations.[370] The wreckage was examined, then buried at Groom Lake.
The accident was the first indication of the program's existence since it went Black. News reports were headlined 'Plane Crash Shrouded In Mystery.' It was speculated that Park may have been injured in the crash of a TR-1, a modified version of the U-2R which was then about to enter production. Spokesmen refused to comment, citing 'national security reasons.'
At the end of the articles, 'some sources' were quoted as saying it was part of a 'stealth program,' which was 'aimed at developing reconnaissance planes that would be significantly less vulnerable.'[371] The true importance of stealth was missed.
The second Have Blue, 1002, was delivered in July 1978, two months after the loss of 1001. It made its first flight on July 20. The pilot for this and all its later flights was Lt. Col. Ken Dyson.
Have Blue 1002 was intended for the RCS tests. As such, it lacked the air-speed boom of the first plane. To provide air-speed data, which was critical to the stability system, six measuring points were located in the upper and lower surfaces, the nose, and windshield center frame. Building an air-speed system that was both accurate and stealthy proved difficult; the design of the airframe restricted where such probes could be located. Have Blue 1002 was painted light gray overall rather than the camouflage finish of the first plane. It also lacked a drag chute and was equipped with a steerable nose wheel, which improved ground handling. Most important, it was covered with the RAM coatings and other materials needed to reduce its RCS.
Following several air-speed calibration flights, the baseline in-flight RCS measurements began. Following completion of the tests, modifications were made based on the initial results. A second series of penetration tests
