Images Show Mysterious Aircraft Being Tested at Lockheed Martin Test Area in Helendale, USA
Posted by Complex-Bandicoot921@reddit | WeirdWings | View on Reddit | 29 comments
Vecna_Is_My_Co-Pilot@reddit
Is it clickbait if the radar cross section test stand really does make it look like a flying saucer with a levitation beam?
ElSquibbonator@reddit
That's literally what I thought when I saw the thumbnail.
AT4Free@reddit
It sure is. It looks like an unmanned stealth aircraft … mounted on a big, levitation beam looking mount
ManaMagestic@reddit
Sounds like what a Groom Lake official trying to hide levitation beam technology would say...
jared_number_two@reddit
It’s not at Groom Lake.
ManaMagestic@reddit
Exactly, now that they've moved it, because we're onto them!!
whywouldthisnotbea@reddit
It's a radar cross section test stand out at groom lake. The airframe gets mounted to the stand underground and then massive doors open and the entire rig is extended up out of the ground into the test range. They do this when they know no satellites are overhead. Then they smack the object with radar beams and lower it back down to cover it up.
jared_number_two@reddit
It’s located at Helendale, CA. Not Groom Lake, Nevada.
whywouldthisnotbea@reddit
Up sorry, you are correct!
Lower_Ad_1317@reddit
Newsflash:
‘Era of unregulated ai deep fake imagery has in no way diminished blurry images of belieefs me’!!👀
acelaya35@reddit
They had an F-35 RCS test stand at the Cars well JRB during the development of the F-35. We used to drive by it. They kept taking the vertical stabilizers off of it, I'm guessing because they were refining them somehow. It looked like the photos posted here.
Conscious-Anybody553@reddit
“it could be a new manned fighter or a new drone.” Well that narrows it down 🤪
airportwhiskey@reddit
Why are they testing the radar cross section of what’s looks (at night) like a shrimp on a skewer?
GrassGriller@reddit
No it doesn't.
NoDoze-@reddit
OMG This is so old, yet the article is dated today!?! LOL So they just update the dates by cronjob every few months?
ImpossibleFox1777@reddit
Its an F35 body, stripped of wings and upside down
Sanfam@reddit
It feels weird that others aren’t noticing this, but it really does feel like an F-35. RCS tests are mounted upside down which throws off our natural mental image of the aircraft, and they may be coated in other materials or otherwise colored atypically which just adds more noise to the mix. It could even be a case of testing a the impact on RCS from a redesign of an external component. Doesn’t need to be anything novel
MikeC80@reddit
Yes, I'd imagine they are testing maybe a new improved coating, or a new upgrade like targeting sensors, or a new design for the payload doors, to see what difference it makes to the radar returns. You wouldn't want to add a new part without thoroughly checking it didn't sabotage it's stealth qualities.
noneckjoe123@reddit
Testing radar reflectivity on something just like they used to do with the F117
not1or2@reddit
Aren’t they often tested upside for some reason?
Hdfgncd@reddit
Easier to see the rcs of the top by flipping it over than trying to point a radar down at it and filter ground clutter I’d assume
noneckjoe123@reddit
Don’t know. They did with the SR71, though…
ryosuccc@reddit
Oh no skunk works got bored again… what did I tell you about letting mentally insane engineers with highly questionable morals have a huge percentage of the black budget and infinite free time!! Do you want ludicrously expensive yet completely overpowered aircraft?! Cause this is how!!
Aellithion@reddit
Wraith Dart
ImmediateFlight235@reddit
Vectis drone, maybe?
Lockheed Martin Vectis™: Best in CCA Class Survivability - Sep 21, 2025
luvsads@reddit
I can see how it looks like it. There's a dip on top and towards the center in that picture, too, similar to the intake in the Vectis image.
ImmediateFlight235@reddit
The only thing that makes me hesitate are what look like vertical stabilizers in the 2nd picture (I seem to recall reading somewhere that they mount the test article upside down on the pylon.)
Vectis has no verticals, at least the renderings that LM has released.
dragonlax@reddit
I mean it just looks like any of the slew of stealth unmanned wingman drones that are coming out these days.
the_spinetingler@reddit
Secret Test Site Does Secret Testing: Film at 11