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Silent Stealth - The YO-3A
By Kurt Olney
Saturday Sept 15, 1PM
On a still night, the Lockheed Y0-3A Quiet Star, flying at 1000 feet, was inaudible from the ground. This quiet night-flying spy plane collected intelligence in Viet Nam until late 1971 and then was used by the FBI in crime surveillance.
Its stealth was achieved by a very slow-turning propeller and highly quieted exhaust, together with other sound deadening techniques. An advanced electro-optical sensor permitted the Quiet Star to detect a person one mile away in faint moonlight. The sensor operator sat in front, the pilot in the rear seat. Lockheed secretly built eleven of these aircraft in a Menlo Park, California, industrial park, using many components of a Schweizer glider to expedite development.
Kurt Olney, crew chief on the YO-3A during the Vietnam War, will be giving a short presentation on how this stealth airplane was made silent and how the crew flying the airplane was able to locate and track the enemy. The presentation will be this Saturday, September 15 at 1:00 PM Kurt will be available for questions after the presentation.
YO-3A "NIGHT RIDER" ON A SILENT STEALTH MISSION OVER VIETNAM 1971
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