Bill's Kit Photographed by Jeff Tirante

MODEL KIT ORIGIN: Designed by me along with assistance from John Andrews' team at the San Diego Offices of the Testor Corporation and with an AutoCad artist from Lockheed Martin. I initially approached the Testor Corporation after completing my assignment on the SHOWTIME/Viacom film "Roswell," back in 1993.

LOCATION: San Diego, California & Rockford, Illinois.

OUR PRODUCT'S DETAILS: The polystyrene plastic model kit was tooled by Testor Corporation Special Projects Director John Andrews at the Testor offices in San Diego.

John was in his early seventies at the time and had been close to the recently deceased Dr. Ben R. Rich at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works as both men had been mentored by the late Clarence L. ("Kelly") Johnson, the master aircraft designer who had created the CIA "Project OXCART" SR-71 Blackbird and its originating A-12 design variant.

Ben had advised me on the conceptual elements of this wave rider vehicle not built by human hands. You're looking at the strange hexagonal belly tile power cells which covered the vehicle's underside. She was a biomorphic design with a crew cabin which "Blended with its "morphable" wing camber.