From: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V2 #81 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Wednesday, 17 February 1993 Volume 02 : Number 081 In this issue: Bill Sweetman article on Aurora in March 93 Popular Science Scanned images!!! 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: Don't bet on pipe dreams until the plumbing is in place. 16-Feb-1993 0911 Date: Tue, 16 Feb 93 09:09:32 EST Subject: Bill Sweetman article on Aurora in March 93 Popular Science The cover story in the March 1993 issue of Popular Science is an article by Bill Sweetman about Aurora, based heavily on his recent article in Jane's Defense Weekly. In this piece, Sweetman puts Aurora's top speed at Mach 6 (vs. his contention of Mach 8 in the Jane's article). If you've been reading the postings to this list, there isn't a whole lot that's new in the article, but it does collect a lot of the Aurora folklore in one pace, and it's by a reputable author. The FAS gets a lot of play in this article. An FAS report by Aftergood is described as acknowledging the possibility of hypersonic black aircraft. This contradicts the John Pike (also of the FAS) quote in the recent NY Times article, which poo-pooed the idea of high-performance secret systems. Sweetman also mentions the reference to the Mach 6 demonstrator in the first edition of Francillion's history of Lockheed. There are five interesting color pieces: Cover: JDW Aurora version, side view, climbing; pilot's cockpit is empty! Inside: JDW Aurora version, near head on; this time, the crew comes along. TR-3A, a more angular rendition than seen in PM or AW&ST; interestingly, Sweetman credits this plane to Lockheed. "XB-70" like TSTO launcher; highly stylized rendition, many details aren't fully worked out. Pumpkin Seed Mach 8 external burning RPV, as first seen in AW&ST a couple of years ago; bottom view. Also, there's a ground plot, I guess based on the Jim Mori/USGS info, of the shock wave generated by Aurora inbound to ??. The flight path is shown running NNW of Ed's AFB, at M=3.1. There's also a photo, purported to be of Groom Lake, credited to Goodall and (!!) John Lear!! I think this is from Goodall's most recent book on Stealth planes. Goodall is quoted extensively in the article; he claims that his main interest in black programs, now that the cold war is over, is to see that our tax dollars are being spent wisely. For your consideration. George George Allegrezza "What a maroon." Digital Equipment Corporation -- B. Bunny Littleton MA USA allegrezza@tnpubs.enet.dec.com ------------------------------ From: brndlfly@Athena.MIT.EDU Date: Tue, 16 Feb 93 10:36:01 EST Subject: Scanned images!!! Sorry about the little hiatus there, but I'm back in business. Scanned this batch of images last night and scaled them down today. As mentioned, I'm keeping the images to about 200K each, and this group stayed well under the limit. Drum roll please: The following three images were scanned from Jet Warplanes: the 21st Century, by Michael J. H. Taylor. AD-1.jpg: In-flight view of the NASA AD-1 oblique wing test aircraft. Nice overhead shot. Any of the Dryden types know who's in the flight suit? Interesting note: take a look at the terrain. The same kind of rolling wrinkles show up in yf12.jpg and another photo of an F-117 I have seen. Surprise surprise... B-1A.jpg: One of the four B-1A's built blocks out the sun and leaves a nice vortex sheet behind. Can't tell which B-1A it is, definitely not Number Four. yf12.jpg: tanker's view of a YF-12 coming up for a drink. Can't make out the tail #, tho:( sr71_6.jpg: the long-awaited sixth SR-71 JPEG. Here are ELEVEN SR-71s outside the hangars at Beale. Group includes the hangar queen SR-71C. Impressive shot. Taken from SR-71: Inside Lockheed's Blackbird. This used to be a two-page photo. Can you tell where the page break was? Let's hear it for Adobe Photoshop! kaBLAM.jpg: This was taken from History of the U.S. Air Force by David Anderton. It shows every eighth shot coming out of an AC-130 at a ground target near Saigon. Wow. I'd hate to be those V.C. right now. Sorry about the quality on this one, it was kind of a bad photograph. Instructions for the uninitiated: These images are (will be very soon) available by anonymous ftp from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu in the directory /pub/skunk-works/pic. I think the README file in there has all the descriptions, in case you're downloading at 1200 baud and don't want to have to pay for an image you don't like. In case you're wondering, I'm sizing these pictures to fill up one or other dimension of the monitor on the Personal DEC 5000 I'm working on. Much more to come, including a book devoted to T-33s, stuff from This is Stealth, and the press release from the YF-23 roll-out. -T T Velazquez MIT Aero/Astro brndlfly@athena.mit.edu "Crayolas are one of the few things the human race has in common." -Robert Fulghum ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V2 #81 ******************************** 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". 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