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There was a 2-hour documentary on Discovery a few years back called 'Billion Dollar Secret.'
It was an investigative report by Nick Cook, a British aviation journalist and correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly looking into US black budget programmes.
Nick Cook, being a respected aviation journalist had great contacts.
The documentary featured interviews with Jack Gordon, CEO of the Lockheed 'Skunk-Works' and Boyd Bushman, who works with 'advanced concepts' for LockMart.
Bushman made an intriguing reference about research into applying charges to objects, causing them to lose weight. And he hinted, with a smile, that the next generation of aircraft being developed were shifting the normal perceptions of 'mother nature' or something. I thought it was fasinating.

Nick Cook author of 'The hunt for zero point'

· Nick Cook is an award-winning defence and aerospace journalist. For the past 15 years he has been Aviation Editor and Aerospace Consultant of the world-renowned Jane's Defence Weekly - the bible of the international defence industry. His ground-breaking, exclusive stories for Jane's have included reports on Russian secret weapons and a classified operation to rescue US hostages in Iran. Both made headlines all over the world.

· His stories have prompted questions in the House of Commons and have formed the basis of briefing documents for the Prime Minister's Office.

· He is a regular contributor to The Financial Times and articles by him have appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times, Daily Mail, The Sunday Telegraph and The Scotsman. He is quoted on aerospace and defence matters in news media around the world.

· Cook frequently comments on defence and security issues for BBC News, ITN, Sky News, CNN and the BBC World Service. He has appeared on The Today Programme, The World At One and Newsnight. His analysis was sought by UK, US and other world news media during the 1991 Gulf War and 1999 Kosovo conflict.

· He is a three-time winner of the prestigious Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year Awards in the Defence, Business and Technology categories. In his 18 year career, Cook has visited the world's leading defence establishments and has gained access to numerous top secret military facilities and bases in the US and former Soviet Union.

· Cook's previous books have been published by Macmillan, Penguin and Little Brown in the UK and St Martin's Press in the USA. He has written 2 Sunday Times Top Ten Bestsellers. 'The Hunt for Zero Point', his sixth book, follows a ten-year investigation into an undocumented phenomenon.

· Cook's two hour documentary for the Discovery Channel, 'Billion Dollar Secret', written and presented by him, detailed for the first time the secret inner workings of America's classified weapons establishment.

· Cook, 41, lives in London with his wife and two children. He was educated at Eton and has a degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies from Exeter University.

You might enjoy the following: It is known as the Switch Blade and is one of the experimental aircraft being developed by Northrop Grumman corporation. Basically it is a bomber, a highly maneuvrable fighter, and a mach-3 plane all wrapped up in one frame! It is officially known as the 'Bird of Prey,' and from its looks it seems to be quite potent. ).

Anyway here is the Switch Blade (by the way Vabthang ....happy i included at least one US experimental aircraft? I did not even include ONE Russian experimental plane ....everything here is pure US of A! Shocked? All for you. :D)

With its wings swept perpendicular to its body, the Switchblade can fly at lower speeds to drop bombs precisely on their targets.

With its wings swept farther forward, the aircraft becomes extremely maneuverable for aerial combat.

When the wings are swept fully forward, the trailing edge of the wing becomes the leading edge, and the Switchblade can dash away at speeds up to Mach 3.

Now the only question is whether it will ever come into being! Why? If people knew the number of amazing projects that have been killed due to political or financial reasons people would wretch up in disgust. For example the F-14(X) Advanced fighter (with renewed engines, advanced avionics and applied, what they call intelligent, STEALTH) was cut down because the SuperHornet (F-18 E/F) had to be produced, as well as the JSF. By the way 'intelligent stealth' is applying stealth to an aircraft without making it deficient in flying ability and maneuvrability. A good example is making a plane more like the F-22 (maneuvrable yet stealthy) instead of the F-117 (stealthy but definitely not a candidate for good handling).

If a Super Tomcat could be produced there would be no great need for a naval JSF, and definitely none for the F/A-18 E/F, thus the supertomcat had to go (as well as the normal TomCat since all the tools meant to produce it were destroyed). Same thing with the YF-23 BlackWidow (which 'lost' to the F-22 Raptor). Actually here is a portion of why it 'lost': The YF-23 from Northrop vs. the YF-22 from Lockheed Martin. The YF-23 should have won, and it is a better plane, in stealth and in speed. The only thing it was worse at was low-speed handling. That wasn't why it lost, though. It lost because, while Northrop's B-2 bomber was late and suffering cost overruns, Lockheed had developed the F-117 Stealth Fighter on time and under budget, which made the jugdes favor Lockheed.. I am personally not consered about the YF-23 since the F-22 is still a major kick-@$$ jet, thus i am not worried with that. What incenses me is the fact the F-14(X) Advanced was cancelled for the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet that according to many in Naval Aviation was 'a bastard step child of the airforce (YF-17) given to the navy due to political considerations.' (not my words