Skunk Works

We’ve had our share of crashes during long weeks and months of test-flying new airplanes, but they didn’t really upset us too much as long as no one got hurt, because we always learned important lessons from mistakes. But we never had a mishap on a first test flight—a catastrophe that would send us back to the drawing board with our tails between our legs.

Adding to the tensions of this day, the White House Situation Room is monitoring this flight. So is the Tactical Air Command at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. But my anxieties are closer to home: I’ve got ten million bucks of Lockheed’s money riding on this flight and the success of this program. I’m the one who talked our board into going along with me. So I didn’t need any black coffee this morning. I am wired.

Bill Park fires the twin engines. The airplane has a muffled sound because its engines are hidden behind special radar-absorbing grids. Bill has been practicing using these flight controls under all conditions in a simulator for five weeks and I know he’s ready for any emergency. He and I have been through tight spots on other test programs. Once he ejected from an SR-71 that began to flip over on takeoff. I was sure Park was about to become a grease spot on the tarmac, but his chute opened just as his feet hit the ground, yanking him upward as he was impacting. He left three-inch-deep heel imprints in the sand, but was unhurt. Bill is damned thorough and damned lucky, a great combination for someone in his line of work.

Kelly Johnson is watching intently as the prototype taxis past us heading for the end of the runway, where it will turn and take off into the stiff wind. Suddenly, in a blast of loud noise, the medevac chopper, with two paramedics on board, takes off and heads down range to be in position if Park augers in. It is followed by a T-38 jet trainer carrying one of Bill’s test pilot colleagues, who will fly chase, visually monitoring his airplane and supplying any help or advice in an emergency.

Bill pushes on the throttle, and Have Blue slowly begins to accelerate. To stay stealthy Have Blue has no afterburner, and it will need almost as much runway to get airborne as a 727 loaded with fuel, baggage, and passengers bound for Chicago.