From: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V4 #116 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, 13 January 1994 Volume 04 : Number 116 In this issue: Sender: skunk-works-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu I gotta buy a VCR... 8)>> Tracking the Stealth planes Re: Tracking the Stealth planes SR-71 markings? Re: SR-71 markings? SR71 red markings Re: SR-71 markings 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: S.Dray@ste0402.wins.icl.co.uk Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 08:20:46 +0000 Subject: Sender: skunk-works-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu subscribe ------------------------------ From: I am the NRA Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 05:26:55 PST Subject: I gotta buy a VCR... 8)>> First: "Rick Pavek" writes, in part: >Do you think, perhaps, that they may be doing an environmental impact study? >Before they go to the public with information about the site? Or before they take additional land around the nonsite? ASSuming the study was round Groom Lake... ========================== SO, there i was channel surfing last nite, on my way over to TLC for the show on SETI & Its successors. I hit Ch 62 (local...), just in case, hmmmm. Looks like an airplane. HMMMMMM. Its a Blackbird. HMMMMMM!!!!!. The show is American Trucking Report (Bet nobody here watches it. I don't normally...). They had a 20 minute (including Peterbilt commercials....) segment on the trucking of the Blackbird from "Mojave" to Seattle. I missed most of the dissassembly, the rest was 12 _days_ of highway trekking with 5 flatbeds full of Blackbird. Main fuselage, outer wing sections & ???. As an oversize load, they could only move at specified times & specified routes. I haven't got it on video, but if someone else catches the show and an address, maybe a nice letter to the producers... regards dwp ------------------------------ From: "JOE P." Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 09:22:29 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Tracking the Stealth planes Yesterday, on the television news reports on the vist of Pres. Clinton to the Cezck Republic, there was a report about the arms export industry there. They had the usual guns and a mention of Semtek explosive (the stuff used in bombing Pan Am 103 over Scotland. BUT MOST INTERESTING WAS A SYSTEM THAT SUPPOSEDLY COULD TRACK THE F-117. It was supposed to be non-radar based. A quick view looked like a large trashcan mounted on a boom carried on the back of a large truck. The reports mentioned a name that I didn't catch and also mentioned that Iran among others wanted to purchase this system. What is this system and how does it work (if it does indeed work)? From the hallowed halls of Edinboro University- (814) 732-2484 and direct from the terminal of, - 142 Miller Bldg. - Edinboro Univ. Joe Pyrdek pyrdek@vax.edinboro.edu - Edinboro PA 16444 ------------------------------ From: dadams@netcom.com (Dean Adams) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 07:31:59 -0800 Subject: Re: Tracking the Stealth planes PYRDEK@vax.edinboro.edu says... >BUT MOST INTERESTING WAS A SYSTEM THAT SUPPOSEDLY COULD TRACK THE F-117. >It was supposed to be non-radar based. A quick view looked like a >large trashcan mounted on a boom carried on the back of a large truck. Yea, I saw that too... Interesting. >The reports mentioned a name that I didn't catch and also mentioned that >Iran among others wanted to purchase this system. Fortunately they said the sale was never approved for Iran. :) >What is this system and how does it work (if it does indeed work)? It looked like an acoustical tracking system to me. I'm not sure how well it would work with an F-117A at cruising altitude though. ------------------------------ From: Norman_Heyen Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 10:03:09 CST Subject: SR-71 markings? I have a 1993 American Airpower calender, published by Cleo of Memphis, TN. The Dec 93 photo is of an SR-71A, taken from above, flying over desert looking mountains somewhere. (Cool photo). The plane is basically black with a couple of markings. There is a bright orange rectangle aft of the cockpit that I take to be the refueling target. But there are some red line markings that start just behind the wing leading edges and run approx. parallel to the body, then follow the the wing trailing edge to the engine and back up towards the front of the engine. Can anyone enlighten me as to what (or why) these markings are? The tail numbers aren't visible due to the photo angle. Thanks! - -- Internet: neheyen@cadnet.micro.honeywell.com | He who dies with the most toys, Fidonet : 1:2270/233.7 | still dies ... AOL : Norman1927 ------------------------------ From: dadams@netcom.com (Dean Adams) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 08:56:51 -0800 Subject: Re: SR-71 markings? Norman_Heyen says... >The Dec 93 photo is of an SR-71A, taken from above, flying over desert looking >mountains somewhere. (Cool photo). The plane is basically black with a couple >of markings. There is a bright orange rectangle aft of the cockpit that I take >to be the refueling target. Right. > But there are some red line markings that start just behind the wing leading edges and run approx. parallel to the body, then >follow the the wing trailing edge to the engine and back up towards the front >of the engine. >Can anyone enlighten me as to what (or why) these markings are? Those sound like the "NO STEP" lines... (just warnings for the ground crew). ------------------------------ From: Don Curren Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 12:06:29 -0500 (EST) Subject: SR71 red markings Norman Heyen writes: >The Dec 93 photo is of an SR-71A, taken from above, flying over desert looking >mountains somewhere. (Cool photo). The plane is basically black with a couple >of markings. There is a bright orange rectangle aft of the cockpit that I take >to be the refueling target. But there are some red line markings that start >just behind the wing leading edges and run approx. parallel to the body, then >follow the the wing trailing edge to the engine and back up towards the front >of the engine. >Can anyone enlighten me as to what (or why) these markings are? - -- >Internet: neheyen@cadnet.micro.honeywell.com | He who dies with the most toys, >Fidonet : 1:2270/233.7 | still dies ... >AOL : Norman1927 The pictures of the SR71 that I have that show that area in enough detail shows that the words "NO STEP" are painted just inside the red line all along the red line. I think that explains it enough. - -- < Donald L. Curren Jr. Encore Computer Corporation, Ft. Lauderdale, FL > < dcurren@encore.com phone (305)797-2332 fax (305)797-2435 > ------------------------------ From: ron@habu.stortek.com (Ron Schweikert) Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 12:01:55 MST Subject: Re: SR-71 markings >I have a 1993 American Airpower calender, published by Cleo of Memphis, TN. > >The Dec 93 photo is of an SR-71A, taken from above, flying over desert looking >mountains somewhere. (Cool photo). The plane is basically black with a couple >of markings. There is a bright orange rectangle aft of the cockpit that I take >to be the refueling target. The refueling receptacle is behind the RSO's cockpit. It is a hydraullically operated door controlled by the pilot -- I believe from a toggle switch. Once the door is open a light around the receptacle illuminates. There are locking toggles that grab hold of the boom during refueling. I believe these are controlled by a switch on the stick (Mary?). >But there are some red line markings that start >just behind the wing leading edges and run approx. parallel to the body, then >follow the the wing trailing edge to the engine and back up towards the front >of the engine. > >Can anyone enlighten me as to what (or why) these markings are? These are the areas you can walk on. The fuselage of the SR is basically round. Removable chines are used to provide the smooth contour. The lines just behind the wing remind the maint. personnel of the leading edge pieces that are (alternating) titanium and plastic. Mostly I think the lines are for looks. The maint. people climb all over the aircraft, incl. the chines. Actually the lines on the back (by the elevons) are more functional. The maint. people *don't* step on those. If hydro. power is off and you step on the elevon it will move down and you could break your neck. If hydro power is on, you stay away because someone goofing off in the cockpit could throw you off easily. > >The tail numbers aren't visible due to the photo angle. > >Thanks! > >-- >Internet: neheyen@cadnet.micro.honeywell.com | He who dies with the most toys, >Fidonet : 1:2270/233.7 | still dies ... >AOL : Norman1927 Ron ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V4 #116 ********************************* 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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