From: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V3 #9 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, 12 August 1993 Volume 03 : Number 009 In this issue: "Aurora" out Increased R&D Urged on Hypersonic Plane Re: Sweetman's AURORA Book Does anybody know... 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: dnadams@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dean Adams) Date: Wed, 11 Aug 93 03:01:54 MDT Subject: "Aurora" out Bill Sweetman's new book is now out: "AURORA: The Pentagon's Secret Hypersonic Spyplane" I just picked up my copy at a local bookstore, and apparently Zenith has also shipped them as well... I have not had a chance to read it yet, but with a quick glance I did notice quite a few interesting things. Sweetman certainly seems to have gathered quite a collection of photos and artists conceptions of a long list of proposed hypersonic vehicles! There are several Blackbird and M-12/D-21 photos as well. Also, it seems there is yet another new Blackbird book on the horizon: "The Untouchables: Mission Accomplished", by Brian Shul. Fly along with a SR-71 crew on the daring raid over Libya. Pilot Shul and back-seater Lt. Watson reveal exciting details from their unique perspectives as the mission unfolds, using flashbacks to the early days of the SR-71 as told by key program specialists. An awe-inspiring look at operational details and the fascinating behind the scenes workings of those who developed, built, and maintained this magnificent aircraft. [180p, $39.95, avail. 10/15] - -dean ------------------------------ From: rakoczynskij%postoffice.agcs.com@agcs.com (Jurek Rakoczynski) Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1993 08:45:03 -0700 (MST) Subject: Increased R&D Urged on Hypersonic Plane I don't think the first mailing made it out of here, so here is another copy of an article. Sorry if it's a duplicate. From: Design News, Aug 2, 1993, page 18, Washington Beat *Copied without permission. Typo's are mine* ---cut here--- Increased R&D Urged on Hypersonic Plane Not enough information is available to allow immediate design of a hypersonic aircraft. That is the conclusion of the task force on the National Aerospace Plane (NASP). The American Society of Mechanical Engineers formed the group at the request of the House science committee. The task force reviewed the present NASP program and a competing proposal for a National Orbital Research Airplane (NORA). Air-breathing single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) "remains an exciting and potentially very valuable capability," the group's report states. But it adds that it is "very unlikely" that NORA will achieve SSTO capability. The group recommends, instead that the NASP goal of demonstrating an air-breathing vehicle be retained as a long-range objective. Prior to making the plane, the task force urges researchers to develop and fly one or more high-speed aircraft, which could provide vital data on suborbital, hypersonic flight. ---cut here--- Is NORA, Lockheed's proposal? - -- Jurek Rakoczynski, AG Communication Systems, POB 52179, Phoenix, AZ. 85072-2179 Inet: rakoczynskij@agcs.com Voice: +1 602 581 4867 Inet: JUREK.RAKOCZYNSKI@gte.sprint.com Fax: +1 602 581 4022 ------------------------------ From: larry@ichips.intel.com Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1993 15:29:30 -0700 Subject: Re: Sweetman's AURORA Book Dean Adams writes: >Bill Sweetman's new book is now out: > > "AURORA: The Pentagon's Secret Hypersonic Spyplane" > >I just picked up my copy at a local bookstore, and >apparently Zenith has also shipped them as well... Yes, I got mine from Zenith on Monday. I've now gotten about 2/3rd's of the way through it. >I have not had a chance to read it yet, but with a quick glance I did >notice quite a few interesting things. Sweetman certainly seems to >have gathered quite a collection of photos and artists conceptions of >a long list of proposed hypersonic vehicles! Well, many of those were already published. But there were some I hadn't seen before. I was impressed by the photo of the FULL SCALE mockup of the FDL-5!! I also liked the axisymmetric shape on pg. 62. > There are several >Blackbird and M-12/D-21 photos as well. Yes. My favorite (I've already seen the D-21/M-12 shots at SMOF, and some of them are also in the new Crickmore book) was the one construction shot on pg. 10 of the 4 - A-12's (that's right A-12s) being built. I also enjoyed the Chris Gibson drawing of what he saw over the North Sea back in Aug. 1989 on pg. 12. Powerful experience! My favorite quote so far: Re: AURORA inlet on the bottom of the vehicle, pg. 77. "Physically, the engines would be installed in multiple modules. ... The use of the wide underbody as an inlet ramp makes it desireable for the inlet area to be relatively wide and shallow, ... . One eyewitness to Aurora described it as having "an evil smiley face" underneath." Neat imagery! Larry ------------------------------ From: Rick Pavek Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1993 17:12:16 -0700 Subject: Does anybody know... What the C-16 is? I'm told it's a big delta-winged stealthy special-mission cargo craft. Obviously, something like this hasn't shown up in Janes... Think about it, though. You've got the C-12, (no C-13, of course), the YC-14, YC-15, and C-17. Seems someone forgot a number. Heck, we might be assuming there isn't a C-13 when there actually is, though. And yes, I did mention this before. Why mention it again? Rumors, just rumors. Rick kuryakin@halcyon.com ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V3 #9 ******************************* 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 To unsubscribe, send mail to the same address, with the command: unsubscribe skunk-works-digest in the body. Administrative requests, problems, and other non-list mail can be sent to either "skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu" or, if you don't like to type a lot, "prm@ecn.purdue.edu". 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