From: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V2 #45 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Thursday, 7 January 1993 Volume 02 : Number 045 In this issue: Aurora at Tonapah? Interesting Sweeps Re: Interesting Sweeps Re: Interesting Sweeps NASA Blackbirds See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the skunk-works or skunk-works-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: kuryakin@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Rick Pavek) Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 09:55:44 PST Subject: Aurora at Tonapah? Jim Goodall, in a post-recon phone call, related that he and others had heard the Aurora at Groom Lake at a distance of 18 miles (WITH a mountain between them and the source) and he related that he's heard every loud engine noise from the SR-71, the J-93 engine, the shuttle, etc and he tells me that Aurora surpasses these sound levels by (my estimate of the tone of his voice) an order of magnitude. He also indicated that Tonapah is currently empty but being configured for new 'customers'. Much civilian traffic but little military at this time. Later this month the customer will supposedly move onsite. Sorry about not being slightly misleading in a previous post but his trip was actually the second week of December. Rick ------------------------------ From: larry@ichips.intel.com (Larry Smith) Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 16:08:23 -0800 Subject: Interesting Sweeps Interesting. Janes Defense Week Aurora sweep: 75.0 degrees (if correct) F-111 (wings swept - correct?): 72.0 degrees HAVE BLUE sweep: 72.5 degrees F-117A sweep: 67.5 degrees There is a question about takeoff performance for a vehicle with a 75 degree sweep. But F-117 has a 67.5 degree sweep, it takes off OK. F-111 puts its wings out. I wonder how long a takeoff roll a HAVE BLUE had. I'm sure weight would be an issue, also being able to rotate at the right point. Other issues? Hmmm . Groom does have a long runway. Look at the sweeps of those 'subsonic' stealth airplanes above. They are 'early' stealth as well. Just conjecture out loud. Larry ------------------------------ From: Wayne Fiori Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 17:05:54 PST Subject: Re: Interesting Sweeps You wrote: > > > > Interesting. > > Janes Defense Week Aurora sweep: 75.0 degrees (if correct) > > F-111 (wings swept - correct?): 72.0 degrees > > HAVE BLUE sweep: 72.5 degrees > > F-117A sweep: 67.5 degrees > > There is a question about takeoff performance for a vehicle with a 75 degree > sweep. > > But F-117 has a 67.5 degree sweep, it takes off OK. F-111 puts its wings out. > > I wonder how long a takeoff roll a HAVE BLUE had. > How do these sweeps compare to delta winged aircraft like the 102/106 or the delta wing F-16 prototype ATF, Mirages, Saab Viggen, etc.? > > Hmmm . > > Groom does have a long runway. > > Look at the sweeps of those 'subsonic' stealth airplanes above. They are > 'early' stealth as well. > > Just conjecture out loud. > > Larry > Real curious and without the reference material :) - -- = Wayne ------------------------------ From: mhuang@nike.calpoly.edu ( Michael S. Huang (Hunter) ) Date: Wed, 6 Jan 93 17:21:21 PST Subject: Re: Interesting Sweeps In a previous message, Larry Smith wrote: | | Interesting. | | Janes Defense Week Aurora sweep: 75.0 degrees (if correct) | | F-111 (wings swept - correct?): 72.0 degrees | | HAVE BLUE sweep: 72.5 degrees | | F-117A sweep: 67.5 degrees | | There is a question about takeoff performance for a vehicle with a 75 degree | sweep. | | But F-117 has a 67.5 degree sweep, it takes off OK. F-111 puts its wings out. | | I wonder how long a takeoff roll a HAVE BLUE had. | | I'm sure weight would be an issue, also being able to rotate at the right | point. Other issues? | | Hmmm . | | Groom does have a long runway. | | Look at the sweeps of those 'subsonic' stealth airplanes above. They are | 'early' stealth as well. | | Just conjecture out loud. Does anyone know the sweep of a Blckbird? What's the takeoff roll for the Blackbird?? From information published in AvLeak, the profile/planform of the Aurora is very similar to the Blackbird, except for blunt leading edges... mikey [ continuing the conjecture... ] - -- ============================== /--- /----+ ================================== Michael S. Huang / \__ | home: (805) 546-8646 System Administrator \ \ | hunter@rat.csc.CalPoly.EDU Computer Systems Laboratory == \_______/ |____ ==== Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo ------------------------------ From: clark@acs.bu.edu (Jeff Clark) Date: Thu, 7 Jan 93 01:14:41 -0500 Subject: NASA Blackbirds Hello, everyone. I'm about to make a 1/72 scale model of the SR-71. I'd like to have it look like the current ones given to NASA at the Ames center However, I only have a few pictures of them from a copy of AIR COMBAT magazine from December 1991 which don't give me enough to go on. In addition, a recent illustration in Popular Mechanics showed one with a tail having a white stripe with a red NASA on it, which is different than the Air Combat pics. My question is: can someone (hopefully someone at Ames) tell me what the tail of those SR-71s look like, including maybe some rough measurments (like say "a red NASA 3/4 of the way from the top"). Also, could you tell me if any other markings have changed from the Air Force-owned jets, or if any big changes to the structure have been made (I don't care if some antenna or pitot tube has moved 1/2"). If any of this is in a book somewhere, please tell me, as the only ones I have seen aren't new enough to have this info. Thanks, Jeff clark@acs.bu.edu ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V2 #45 ******************************** To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "listserv@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-skunk-works": subscribe skunk-works-digest local-skunk-works@your.domain.net A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "skunk-works-digest" in the commands above with "skunk-works". Back issues are available for anonymous FTP from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu, in /pub/skunk-works/digest/vNN.nMMM (where "NN" is the volume number, and "MMM" is the issue number).