Warbird Information Exchange

A senior U.S. official has confirmed to Fox News that images aired by Iranian state television do in fact show the secret U.S. drone that went down last week in eastern Iran.

"Yep, that's it," the official told Fox News. "And it's intact."

U.S. officials had been expecting the video to appear. The footage, which shows the aircraft intact, confirms the Iranians have custody of the drone but appears to refute Iranian claims that it shot down the RQ-170 drone.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/12 ... z1fyAYRqd2

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Zane Adams
There I was at 20,000 ft, upside down and out of ammunition.
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just f-n peachy!

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S.

Just what they needed!

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

so shortly, North Korea, Iran and the Russians will all have this capability.

Why wouldn't it have a 'self destruct' feature like all of these super hi-tech stuff does in the movies?


Too bad!

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S.

If Iran's military aircraft industry was stalled,the U.S. sure made them advanced 30 years in a heartbeat...
The chinese won't be surprised or anxious to look at this drone,they're almost there at the same level with the U.S.

No self destruct mechanism because it will never fall into any one elses hands.

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

It's actually no worse than the guy who drove into an Air Force base in Germany back in the mid 60's and drove out the gate with an AIM 9 wrapped in a carpet and sticking out the open back window of his Mercedes station wagon and he casually waved 'bye-bye' to the gate guards.
Or the early AIM-9 that struck, but didn't explode when a NATCHI F-86 fired at a CHICOM Mig and gave the Russians and Chinese the basis to reverse engineer and create the Atoll air to air missle, ain't nothin' "secret" for very long.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

wow!! i was going to make a new post of this topic, & clearly was beat to it!! i guess i'm not the only 1 pissed!! good to see!! how the cia / nsa / pentagon & the aerospace industries could be so re-miss in not having a self destruct mechanism in it's fuselage is beyond belief!! & quite alarming with the lack of fore-thought. we are not invincible in the air these days. i compare it to an oil refinery not putting in a fire suppresent system at their facility. sheer negligence!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Am I the only one who wonders whether the drone shown in the video is real? It seems strange that none of the lower portion is visible and it has what appears to be taped over joints where the wing panels join the center section. To me, it looks more like a mockup or a model..........

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Rod Schneider
Ball Ground, Ga

i can already see the tech boon the iranians are going to get..... funneling vital technology to their rogue allies for big $$$, only to try to use against us. the u.s. needs to plug some serious security holes with this snafu!!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

I have big doubts about the inlet shape which appears to be distinctly different from published pictures of the real deal, and the 'egg crate' grill that looks like it came off a 10 year old Hyundai or a '71 CAMARO Z-28 and looks to be a perfect breeding place for inlet icing. All pictures I can find on line show no humps in the wing to body area and why does it appear to be painted with automotive yellowish filler primer instead of a middling gray. They may have the drone, but I have serious doubts that's the real item. And what would they be 'downloading' from what's pretty much supposed to be an up link to a satellite?
And, being externally controlled shouldn't it be somewhat more damaged than whats shown? Uncontrolled, unpowered aircraft never seem to make perfect, feather pillow landings like this appears to have done. I have little doubt they have it, I just donot think that's it.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

she is designed to do a 'controlled' landing if she loses communication.., but you are right.., the more i look at the photo(s) of what they have.., vs.. the real deal.., WTF?

Why hide the undercarriage.., are their school children under there holding her up?

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S.

Let's just say (for sake of argument) the thing they showed is a mockup.

Either:

A) They build fairly accurate mock-ups very quickly. I'm not sure what the point of that would be.

or

B) They had a very accurate mock-up ready to go should they happen to bring down an RQ-170.

Which is more likely, and what is their motivation for presenting a mock-up in either case?

Given the dimensions (available on line, we tell everyone just about everything), a pickup truck load of styrofoam sheets and buckets of contact cement and four guys with belt sanders and surform files, how long do you suppose it would take of whip up something that would pass not so sharply focused photos?

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

As a bargaining tool vs. sanctions being implemented against the current regime.
But also the reason she is so disheveled in the photo may be the fact that they already dissected her to bits and then had to tape her back together for the glamour shots!

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S.