From: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V3 #14 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, 18 August 1993 Volume 03 : Number 014 In this issue: Misc Re: Misc Re: What is Bicycle Lake used for? Sea Stealth Re: Sea Stealth Re: misc Re: AW&ST 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: rschnapp@metaflow.com (Russ Schnapp) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 93 09:29:41 PDT Subject: Misc I've got a couple of items: 1. The DC-X has successfully completed its second attempt at a "burp" test. The engines ran, with the vehicle bolted down, for the planned duration of just under 5 seconds. Apparently, the first unofficial flight is scheduled for tomorrow, August 18, assuming that weather and equipment cooperate. This will be a "bunny hop," lifting the vehicle a couple of hundred feet, translating it a few hundred feet, and then setting it back down. Keep your fingers and toes crossed! 2. Does anyone know when the next airshow is planned for Edwards Air Force Base? 3. It's odd I hadn't read about the Gripen crash in Aviation Week. If it happened in early July, in the midst of an airshow, I would expect AvWeek to have covered it by now. They usually cover significant incidents occurring to prototype fighter aircraft like the Gripen. Perhaps I overlooked the article... ...Russ Schnapp Email: netcom!metaflow!rschnapp or rschnapp@Metaflow.com or rschnapp@ACM.org Metaflow Technologies Voice: 619/452-6608x230; FAX: 619/452-0401 La Jolla, California Unless otw specified, I`m speaking only for myself! ------------------------------ From: larry@ichips.intel.com Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1993 10:57:11 -0700 Subject: Re: Misc >Re: DC-X > the first unofficial >flight is scheduled for tomorrow, August 18, assuming that weather and >equipment cooperate. Sounds good! >Does anyone know when the next airshow is planned for Edwards Air >Force Base? Good Question. I've had that question asked several times from enthusiasts up North here. >It's odd I hadn't read about the Gripen crash in Aviation Week. It's in this week's issue (8/16/93, along with a photo. By the way, I received this week's issue yesterday. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it looks like a fairly good issue. Several things that jumped out are: An article on the new Lockheed Skunk Works proposal for a cheap access to space vehicle, the Aero-Ballistic Rocket. A drawing is present as well. It looks like a blended lifting body design. A quite interesting article on the USAF optical sat. track facility in Hawaii with photos. There is an AWESOME photo of the space shuttle in orbit, with cargo bay, and remote manip. arm extended, taken from this facility! The photo looks like it may have been made somewhat 'conservative', but it is quite impressive nonetheless. Larry ------------------------------ From: Geoff.Miller@Corp.Sun.COM (Geoff Miller) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 93 10:56:45 PDT Subject: Re: What is Bicycle Lake used for? Back in the Seventies and early Eighties, my dad worked on Lockheed's Aquila RPV program. Part of the early phase of the program consisted on test-flying a prototype Aquila (and I believe another RPV called the Aequare) at Bicycle Lake. The air vehicles were launched from a pickup truck driving across the lakebed. This is the only context in which I've even heard of of the place. - --Geoff ------------------------------ From: rossix!philmc@openlink.openlink.com (Phil Mcintosh) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 93 13:16:12 -0700 Subject: Sea Stealth It was reported on local radio here in the San Francisco Bay Area that the Navy is running the Sea Stealth in the Bay at lunch today between Treasure Island and NAS Alameda. I'll be glued to the T.V. tonight! Phil philmc@rossins.com ------------------------------ From: Scott.Griffith@Eng.Sun.COM (Scott Griffith, Sun Microsystems Lumpyware) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 1993 13:30:58 -0700 Subject: Re: Sea Stealth On Aug 17, Phil Mcintosh wrote: > It was reported on local radio here in the San Francisco Bay Area > that the Navy is running the Sea Stealth in the Bay at lunch today > between Treasure Island and NAS Alameda. I'll be glued to the T.V. > tonight! I noticed that the barge wasn't at home when I drove by on 101 south this morning. I was wondering what they were doing with it... - -skod - -- Scott Griffith, Sun Microsystems Lumpyware expatriate SCCA New England Region Flagging/Communications worker (and sometimes driver, of anything that turns both right and left, and can pass tech...) Return Path : skod@sun.COM ------------------------------ From: dnadams@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dean Adams) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 93 19:12:04 MDT Subject: Re: misc >>Does anyone know when the next airshow is planned for Edwards Air >Force Base? Yea... its set for October 23. TBirds are supposed to be there. ------------------------------ From: dnadams@nyx.cs.du.edu (Dean Adams) Date: Tue, 17 Aug 93 21:31:17 MDT Subject: Re: AW&ST larry says... >Several things that jumped out are: >An article on the new Lockheed Skunk Works proposal for a >cheap access to space vehicle, the Aero-Ballistic Rocket. >A drawing is present as well. It looks like a blended lifting >body design. Right, that "jumped" out at me as well! :-) The mention of the "Skunk Works" and any vehicles of that sort does tend to catch ones eye... Its also interesting how the design is still quite similar to the Gibson sighting. >A quite interesting article on the USAF optical sat. track >facility in Hawaii with photos. There is an AWESOME photo >of the space shuttle in orbit, with cargo bay, and remote >manip. arm extended, taken from this facility! Yes! VERY nice. >The photo looks like it may have been made somewhat 'conservative', >but it is quite impressive nonetheless. The caption says it was taken with a 1.2 meter telescope, in 1982. Somehow I tend to think they have bigger and better gear by now. :) There was also talk in the past about the Maui site being used to inspect for damaged TILES during at least one Shuttle mission, so i'm sure they have a lot higher resolution available... - -dean ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V3 #14 ******************************** 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. 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