It's entirely possible that I put this in a novel that didn't sell.
Worthy of note: the only new information in this is the Jan 14 concept images from Boeing but it's a nice write-up.
There was a time I recognized that patent number.
It's also entirely possible that I'm a fan of that particular concept artist.
Contract writer staring blankly at the screen... "Shit. What the hell am I going to write today?" (looks at bookshelf. Sees Foucault's Pendulum, Sled Driver, and old copies of the Desert Rat newsletter.) "Ok. I know! ... I'll take every single codeword project of the last 40 years and link them together with Area 51 and scramjets and SpaceX! It'll be AMAZING. I will get ALL THE CLICKS. I can totally see the bay window in this guy's apartment... it is COMPLETELY COVERED with post-it notes and string and printed out articles, all linking to each other, with five different color Sharpie notes connecting them all together. I mean... he's not WRONG, really. But... damn. That's a lot of writing and research effort to say something pretty much everyone has known for a while, right? (I did like the touch about the mountains around Groom Lake looking like the mountains in the concept painting... that's dedication.)
That's Tyler Rogaway.
Ooohh... right. Foxtrot Alpha. I remember that guy. I was confused after the original Jalopnik blog was taken over by the gawker/kinja thing. Never really understood all the different stuff and why it appeared in my feed. FA was one of those things. So yeah... he was the PERFECT guy to write this article.