
Now you see them: DARPA's Stealth Revolution (2008) [pdf] - godelmachine
https://www.darpa.mil/attachments/(2O24)%20Global%20Nav%20-%20About%20Us%20-%20History%20-%20Resources%20-%2050th%20-%20Stealth%20(Approved).pdf
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montrose
"Management at Lockheed’s Skunk Works soon learned of the DARPA competition.
Lockheed had not been invited to participate because they had not produced a
fighter in nearly 20 years and DARPA was unaware of their work on the
A-12/SR-71 aircraft."

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dtornabene
I'll bet. The idea that DARPA was ignorant of a fighter program by one of the
largest weapons contractors in the country/world is absurd.

~~~
ThenAsNow

      > The idea that DARPA was ignorant of a fighter program by one of the largest weapons contractors in the country/world is absurd.
    

It's a more nuanced story. What they didn't understand was that the A-12
series of aircraft (A-12, YF-12, SR-71 and even D-21) were specifically
designed with early low observables principles & materials in mind. There was
a lot of classification with these aircraft, particularly due to their initial
customer (CIA rather than DoD). They needed to obtain permission from the CIA
to discuss the low observables aspects with DARPA.

These kinds of issues (inability to discuss relevant classified developments
with other defense or intelligence entities that might benefit from knowing)
is a routine and valid criticism of classification practice.

~~~
dtornabene
Eh, color me a skeptic on this. I just find it very hard to believe. Agree to
disagree on it, as it were.

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melling
DARPA has dozens of projects.

[http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-
Article.asp?ArtNum=...](http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Technology-
Article.asp?ArtNum=59)

We have self-driving cars and the Internet because of DARPA. It sort of like a
government sponsored X-Prize.

~~~
godelmachine
Self driving cars because of DARPA? Hmmmm. Interesting. Gotta read up on that.

May I ask name of the Genesis project for self driving cars?

~~~
dogma1138
I was the Autonomous Land Vehicle (ALV) program and it lead to the pioneering
of neural networks by CMU.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilP4aPDTBPE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilP4aPDTBPE)

[http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2874&c...](http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2874&context=compsci)

~~~
melling
The idea of neural networks go back a lot further than CMU.

[http://www.andreykurenkov.com/writing/ai/a-brief-history-
of-...](http://www.andreykurenkov.com/writing/ai/a-brief-history-of-neural-
nets-and-deep-learning/)

~~~
dogma1138
I should’ve been more clear IIRC ALVINN was the first ANN based computer
vision decision making implementation in the world at the time. It was also
one of the first practical applications of an ANN in general.

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godelmachine
The most inspiring para for me ->

Under HAVE BLUE, Lockheed built two manned technology dem- onstrators to
validate Lockheed’s pole model results. Even though these test vehicles made
use of conventional o -the-shelf compo- nents and subsystems, they were truly
revolutionary. Their shap- ing and materials were so important that their
impact on aircraft survivability changed the way the U.S. Air Force ghts.
Technologies nurtured by DARPA included RCS reduction, RAM development,
infrared shielding, reduced visual signatures, low-probability-of- intercept
radar, inlet shielding, exhaust cooling and shaping, and other signature
reduction disciplines. First ight occurred in April 1977, and both aircraft
were tested extensively. Eventually both were lost during ight test mishaps,
but the results were clear. On Nov. 16, 1978, Lockheed received a contract for
full-scale engineering devel- opment of what would become the F-117.

