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Comment by supernova87a | Hacker News Reader

He seems to use the hour estimate of 1:30am being a time when very few satellites are likely overhead as a sort of confirming factor. (I guess because many satellites are sun-synchronous around noon, and the USAF would purposely time the photo to not expose the aircraft to observation).

But is that a very strong confirming factor? Is it likely that NG / USAF would be actively avoiding the potential for satellite imagery? Does it mean all the time it was being built, they avoided having it outside during the daytime?

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> Is it likely that NG / USAF would be actively avoiding the potential for satellite imagery? Does it mean all the time it was being built, they avoided having it outside during the daytime?

During the Cold War black projects like the F-117 did exactly that. IIRC they weren't necessarily limited to being out side only at night, but they were very careful about satellite orbits to make sure the secret aircraft wouldn't be caught on camera.

When the B-2 bomber was unveiled, the USAF didn't really want people to get good photos of the wing's shape due to some of the stealth technology incorporated into it. Aviation Week famously [0] got the drop on them by flying a Cessna right over the rollout. Considering how many very high quality cameras are in orbit today I imagine they put some thought into preventing Russia, China, etc. from getting good photos of the B-21.

0: https://aviationweek.com/defense-space/aircraft-propulsion/s...

Not just secret projects.

When I was in the 82nd Airborne we had days where we didn’t do any outside training because the Soviet spy satellites were overhead. Estimated troop strength, deployment schedules, blada, blada.

Kind of nice because they generally left us alone as long as we stayed out of sight.

I forget where, but there was a video I was watching that claimed the US was so far ahead in tech that instead of letting others know our capabilities we play with other countries by "accidentally" leaving things open to satellites which makes other countries trying to copy us go nuts trying to reverse engineer nonsense.

That comment was after mentioning how the "super sonic" plane built for the latest Top Gun was probably left out, on purpose, so it'd confuse adversaries on what the US is actually working on.

Does it mean all the time it was being built, they avoided having it outside during the daytime

Aren't airplanes built entirely in a hangar? Especially secret ones?

Depends on how you scope the word "build". If you mean literal assembly, of course. If you mean "the process of iterating engineering, testing and assembly" including prototyping etc (a common way to use the word build, especially in software circles) it makes more sense.

Historically, yes, they’ve scheduled outdoor activity to avoid satellite overflight, if we’re not misled by books.

Maybe it’s not a strong factor here, because it was a few days before public announcement anyway. But you’d expect them to follow the same protocol or at least pick a more convenient time than 1:30am if they were not.

> Is it likely that NG / USAF would be actively avoiding the potential for satellite imagery?

Yes, we still haven't seen the back of the B-21 (those at the unveiling could only view it from the front). There was also an incident when the B-2 was unveiled and a photographer flew over and got pictures of it.

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