Osama bin Laden's last Facebook Post

ABC News report on Stealth helicopter used in Bin Laden raid...

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By BRIAN ROSS (@brianross) , RHONDA SCHWARTZ, LEE FERRAN and AVNI PATEL
May 4, 2011
Before an elite team of U.S. Navy SEALs executed a daring raid that took down Osama bin Laden, the commandos were able to silently sneak up on their elusive target thanks to what aviation analysts said were top secret, never-before-seen stealth-modified helicopters.

In the course of the operation that cost the al Qaeda leader his life, one of the two Blackhawk helicopters that carried the SEALs into bin Laden's Pakistani compound grazed one of the compound's wall and was forced to make a hard landing. With the chopper inoperable, at the end of the mission the SEALs destroyed it with explosives.

But photos of what survived the explosion -- the tail section of the craft with curious modifications -- has sent military analysts buzzing about a stealth helicopter program that was only rumored to exist. From a modified tail boom to a noise reducing covering on the rear rotors and a special high-tech material similar to that used in stealth fighters, former Department of Defense official and vice president of the Lexington Institute Dan Goure said the bird is like nothing he's ever seen before.

"This is a first," he said. "You wouldn't know that it was coming right at you. And that's what's important, because these are coming in fast and low, and if they aren't sounding like they're coming right at you, you might not even react until it's too late... That was clearly part of the success."

In addition to the noise-reducing modifications, a former special operations aviator told The Army Times the general shape of what was left of the craft -- the harsh angles and flat surfaces more common to stealth jets -- was further evidence it was a modified variant of the Blackhawk.

A senior Pentagon official told ABC News the Defense Department would "absolutely not" comment on anything relating to the destroyed bird.

B-1B in the pattern today.

A rare sight - a B-1B Lancer from Dyess AFB shot a few transitions at KAMA today.
-Steve Douglass

Did AEDC have a hand in developing stealth H-60 helicopter used in Bin Laden raid?

MORE STEALTH HELICOPTER INFO HERE.


5/29/2009 - Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. -- A team at Arnold Engineering Development Center's (AEDC) National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) at Moffett Field, Calif., recently concluded high-power, top priority testing on a full-scale four-bladed UH-60 Blackhawk rotor system in the facility's 40-by-80-foot wind tunnel.

The primary purpose of the testing was to evaluate an individual blade control (IBC) system for its ability to reduce noise, vibration and improve the performance of the rotor system.

"This was the culmination of a collaborative wind tunnel test program between NASA, the U.S. Army, Sikorsky Aircraft and ZF Luftfahrttechnik GmbH (ZFL) to demonstrate the benefits of IBC for a UH-60 rotor," said Tom Norman, a project engineer with NASA Ames. "All major test objectives were met, allowing for the evaluation of IBC effects on power, noise, vibration, loads and flight characteristics. In addition, the ability of the IBC technology to provide in-flight tuning and reconfiguration was demonstrated...

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REPORT: RQ-170 spied over Osama bin Laden's bed last night - The DEW Line

REPORT: RQ-170 spied over Osama bin Laden's bed last night - The DEW Line

The killing of Osama bin Laden reportedly included a starring role for the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel -- the stealth unmanned aircraft system (UAS) acknowledged to exist by the US Air Force on 16 months ago.

The National Journal's Marc Ambinder got the scoop about 1am this morning, when he tweeted: "US Joint Special Operations Command SMU -- from DEVGRU (Navy SEALs), did the shooting. RQ-170 drone overhead. JSOC spotters on ground."

In confirmed, this would be the first operation directly linked to the secretive RQ-170. Although the USAF has acknowledged its existence, it has never released an official photo. The UAS has been glimpsed only through a series of photos released by spotters around the US airfield at Kandahar, Afghanistan.

READ MORE HERE AT THE DEW LINE

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