Fictional 'Black Jet' Toys, Models, and Video Games from the 1980s to Today | Hacker News Reader

Fictional 'Black Jet' Toys, Models, and Video Games from the 1980s to Today

thedrive.com

26 pointssamizdis11 comments

Seeing that Testors F-19 brings back some weird memories of it being one of my first memories where a lack of knowledge/ability caused me to ruin something I really cared about.

I was assembling the model using cyanoacrylate glue because, at eight years old, I was excited and didn't like waiting for the traditional solvent adhesives to cure (dry).

When placing the canopy it predictably fogged up, as cyanoacrylate fuming develops fingerprints [1]. I didn't know about this before, and all I knew what I'd ruined one of the most visible parts of the model and I was really, really upset.

My dad cut one for me out of plastic from a soda bottle, doing a great job of shaping it so it'd fit perfectly, but to me it just wasn't the original and wasn't just... right... So I never finished the model.

[1]: https://www.soinc.org/sites/default/files/uploaded_files/for...

As a kid who made the Testors F-19 the later reality of the F-117 was so much wilder than fiction.

The F-117 looked more like Testor's MIG Stealth model.

Definitely, should’ve been included in the article and bears checking out:

http://fantastic-plastic.com/TESTORS%20MIG%2037-B%20FERRETT%...

I’d always liked the Testors F-19 over the others, almost forgot about the stealth MiG even though I built that one as well.

Microprose's F-19 Stealth Fighter. Version 2.0 was even called F-117.

I agree. I had the Monogram F-19 model based on the Loral mockup, along with an SR-71 model. I didn't know a whole lot about airplanes at the time so I didn't realize one of them was fake. It was very plausible, when it's sitting next to an SR-71. I never thought twice about it being a real thing.

Have Blue and the subsequent F-117 were of course the result of computational design limitations, rather than representing a particular school of LO design.

Back in the late 80s I remember the rumour being that the USAF had tacitly leaked information about optimal LO shapes to obscure the fact that they couldn't yet manufacture them.

Hah, when I was a kid my favorite PC game was F29 Retaliator, which included both the familiar epynomous X29 inverted V jet fighter and a fictional "F-22" that looked like the "black jet" described in here, but with a pair of vertical tails instead of the inward-tilted twin.

I also had that micromaster transformer - although a green autobot recolor called "Groundshaker". He came with a big ol' LAV to drive.

Anyone else have the website refuse to scroll at all in Safari?

Nope

Depending on where I clicked in mobile safari it wouldn’t scroll.

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