Ha, I always like to reminisce about these games. They are honestly what brought me to the computer in the first place. I still think about my first online game in DF2 way back in the late 90's. I was a winter map, between two large hills. I was killed constantly buy better players but it was just amazing. I honestly had no idea I was playing other people from around the world when I clicked the "play on novaworld" button. I thought it was impossible, but I was simply hooked. From there I migrated quickly to DFLW. For some stupid reason this game is why I own a company now. I learned how to build a website for this game, and it spawned into a career of IT and building websites. That was so many years ago now. I don't "personally" know many of the old folks because I am an introvert at heart, but I know their names as I've followed this community since the late 90's.
As for your questions, I have no idea about the military contracts. Maybe it's like you say: myths. But for some reason there is a patch for F-22 in 2015. That's just odd. I'm also amazed about the game modding these days, apparently some of the old guys involved with the "reality mod" and NovaLogic in general are involved in a new project called "Squad" (
http://joinsquad.com/). I have no proof or any sources but it's been linked on a few other websites. Seems like an interesting game but who knows, I still want DF:AF.