Quote:
Originally Posted by pavulon
...cardboard silhouettes...
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They would put the mockup out there and leave it long enough for the shadow beneath it to cause the tarmac to be much cooler than the surrounding area, then roll it back into a hangar just before the Soviet satellite came over. This left an obvious shape for the infrared imaging to view.
In a book or on a TV program, I saw a very funny example of one of shapes they used... it was like a primitive overhead silhouette of a jet drawn by an 8 year old boy with too-small wings and too-large rear horizontal stabilizers. The Skunk Works guys were obviously having some fun taunting the Soviets.
More here... probably saw the funny mockup on this NatGeo program:
Revealed: How Area 51 Hid Secret Craft
