Message posted by Richard on March 22, 2002 at 5:59:25 PST:
Anon, which was just my point regarding aircraft flying from Groom Lake over populated areas in daylight. According to a friend, Helendale was suppose to be shutting down due to costs, and only being used occasionally when they 'really' need to, and if not, transferring the testing to other locations more economic and probably more 'out of sight' than Helendale. As for Stealth and 'wet' weather... RAF Fairford is the European deployment base for B-2 Spirits, along with the normal B-1 and B-52 deployments, and because of the harsh weather we have here in the UK, the USAF have errected brand new hangers able to withstand 120mph winds (our normal winter storms) and they are also 'Atmospheric Hangers' to control the temperature and humidity when the B-2 Spirits are located there. Also, apparently this was also due to the Spirit using electronic stealth technology in the leading edges of the wing... BUT they have also apparently fixed that problem now and it can fly in all weathers. Rich
There was a time a few years ago when the USAF did not want to fly the Spirits in rain, because of the problems they had with the stealth and RAM/Paint.
In Reply to: Helendale posted by Anon on March 20, 2002 at 5:51:27 PST:
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