JSF customers also like to hint that the fighter has other secret capabilities that guarantee victory in air combat. Many believe that this is a high-power microwave mode in the radar that is intended to barbecue the processors in an incoming air-to-air missile. That is not a technical impossibility, but such a weapon is not magic: It has limitations (range and rate of fire to name but two) that could make it less decisive than an advocate's simulation shows, and that should be part of a discussion. But they are not, because it's secret.

Not much thrives in the dark, except mushrooms.

—Bill Sweetman

The Lockheed Blackbirds flew faster and higher than any known aircraft—and were retired 20 years ago. To learn more about the Blackbirds, other projects you have heard of and some that you probably have not, click here to check out Bill Sweetman's Secret Projects interactive slide show.