In 1986, as speculation about Lockheed’s new top-secret military aircraft consumed the aviation community, the model manufacturer Testors jumped the gun and released a model of what it called the “F-19”—a logical designation, following the F-14, -15, -16, and -18 (The F-17 designation was passed over when Northrop built what it called the YF-17 technology demonstrator to compete with General Dynamics’ YF-16 in the lightweight fighter program. When the F-16 won, the U.S. Navy hired Northrop to base the Navy’s next fighter on the -17, with the result designated F-18.)
Testors assumed that in order to deflect radar waves, the F-19 would be sleek and streamlined and would somewhat resemble Lockheed’s other-worldly SR-71. Testors stuck a pair of standard-issue vertical stabilizers on its 1/48-scale model and packaged it up. Some 700,000 sold almost immediately, making it the best-selling model ever, surpassing even AMT’s Star Trek USS Enterprise.
Would that art imitated life. When the Air Force unveiled the F-117 Nighthawk in 1990, it was not a pretty sight. Lockheed’s stealth fighter was as angular as the house of seven gables.
Aviation sleuths conclude that the F-117 designation came from the numbers—YF-110, YF-113, YF-114—the Air Force gave to captured Soviet aircraft it test-flew in the high-desert base in Nevada nicknamed Groom Lake, which was also the site of the F-117 test flights.
And the Testors F-19 model kit? Last seen on eBay for $8.
the other reason that the f-19 became popular was also when the F-117(at the time it was considered "Top Secret") made Headline of a crash in the National Forest at a night excersice. A civilian nearby claimed to have photographed something. The film was taken by the government and the area sealed until the area was cleared of debries. News media used the model as a possible make of the Government cover-up as real or fake. The maker of the F-19 model was questioned by the Federal Government on how he came up with the design. His reply was he took the Sr-71 drone and made some modification to the design and came up with the F-19. The F-19 came pretty close to the "Project Have-Blue" which is the early design of the F-117.
Posted by Keera on March 21,2008 | 10:14PM
The article prompts me to ask: why is it that in all the years that I've read A&SM -- and my collection starts with issue #1 -- the magazine has never seen fit to do a serious article on scale plastic aircraft modeling? It's a multi-million dollar industry, the US branch of the International Plastic Modeler Society has thousands of members and chapters in every state, and the national convention typically sees 1,500+ museum-quality pieces on display. The next national IPMS-USA national convention is in Virginia Beach, VA in early August. Why not send a reporter/photog to get a visually interesting story about some of aviation's most fervent enthusiasts?
Posted by Warty on March 24,2008 | 09:47AM
Remember - it wasn't just Testor's who got it wrong - Tom Clancy included a very similar "stealth fighter" concept in the chapter entitled "The Frisbees of Dreamland" in his novel "Red Storm Rising". Apparently he had some sort of sources he more-or-less trusted feeding him the same kind of bad info Testor's got.
Posted by mike weber on April 24,2008 | 09:23PM
There is another model maker who got it wrong. In 1952, Aurora Model Company made a model, which they called, a MIG-19. Looked nothing like a MIG-19. Looked like a cross between a German WW2 TA-183 (which was not built) with a nose of a North American F-86D. They may be collector item now.
Posted by Clem Miller on May 1,2008 | 06:54AM
the same faux paux happened with the stealth bomber... some model company (monogram?) designed this flying triangle that looked sort of like the b-2 and and marketed it as the "top secret stealth bomber" - this was around mid-1988 - anyone remember that?
Posted by sbarbu on May 7,2008 | 03:18AM
I just happened to purchase and build this model in 1987 when I was 12 years old.To this day the model is in secracy!It flew away sometime in 1988 and I haven't seen it since!I am into R/C Flying these day's(21 years now)and would love to build and fly a scale mock-up of a turbine powered SR-71,for now I will keep looking up in search of my long lost F-19!
Posted by Jason Nicodemus on May 8,2008 | 06:19AM