From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #23 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Saturday, 26 February 1994 Volume 05 : Number 023 In this issue: Timber Wind Aurora: secret until 2025 ? Re: Aurora: secret until 2025 ? Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #22 Two skunky news items from Investor's Business Daily F-117A upgrade? Re: Project Pluto Las Vegas BLM hearing 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: andy cobley Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 10:43:07 GMT Subject: Timber Wind Recently Larry wrote : Bruce wrote: >>>date of this incident? Any chance this is connected with TimberWind? Paul responds: >Not likely. Sorry, I'm not a UFO fan. Then let's take it out of the UFO realm! Actually it in the UFO realm, It's Unidentified, Its Flying and Its and Object, Most definitly a UFO andy c ------------------------------ From: PHARABOD@frcpn11.in2p3.fr Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 15:32:30 MET Subject: Aurora: secret until 2025 ? The following has been posted recently on the SKEPTIC list. Since the Aurora story began around 1985, maybe nothing will be released before 2025 ? Some of us will never know... - -------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. PANEL CALLS FOR AUTOMATIC DECLASSIFICATION--AFTER 40 YEARS! In July, President Clinton directed the Information Security Oversight Office to lead an interagency task force in drafting a revised classification system (WN 23 Jul 93). Alas, the director of ISOO, Steven Garfinkel, has been in charge of secrecy for 12 years, a period in which the number of classified documents grew faster than the national debt. Garfinkel's task force submitted a draft report calling for documents to be automatically declass- ified after 40 years! Presumably, that is long enough to ensure that middle-aged bureaucrats will go on to their reward before their mistakes are let out of the vault. Under this rule, many of the records on human radiation experiments, released under Hazel O'Leary's openness initiative, could still be kept secret. [end of quote] - -------------------------------------------------------------------- BTW, maybe the Cash-Landrum case was just another human radiation experiment ? J. Pharabod ------------------------------ From: Paul Michael Keller Date: Fri, 25 Feb 1994 10:29:15 +0000 Subject: Re: Aurora: secret until 2025 ? J. Pharabod quoted: >3. PANEL CALLS FOR AUTOMATIC DECLASSIFICATION--AFTER 40 YEARS! [stuff deleted] A warning to other skunkers: while I can confirm this report on proposed automatic declassification as being accurate from other, more reliable (IMO) sources, this quote comes from the American Physical Society's (APS) electronic newsletter, which I have been receiving for the past two years or so. It's hardly an unbiased source of information, and, for the most part, consists of APS's partisan political bashing of DOD and NASA. Take it with a grain of salt. Paul Keller pkeller@engin.umich.edu ------------------------------ From: adams@ns1.jdola.lanl.gov (Gavin Adams) Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 08:40:42 -0700 Subject: Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #22 Nuclear rocket development also took place at the Nevada Test Site. I forget the formal name of the test facility, and the last time I visited it to scrounge for some sensors, only jack rabbits and endangered tourtises were present :>. There are some neat underground buildings there, and with the 60s equipment it has a kinda retro-tech look to it. - --- Gavin ------------------------------ From: Rich Thomson Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 10:30:21 MST Subject: Two skunky news items from Investor's Business Daily I thought the following might be of interest to other skunkers (of course I'm sure someone will flame me for being 'off topic', but I can handle it). -- Rich February 23rd, 1994 Lockheed 'Skunk Works' Chief, Sherman Mullin, Plans to Retire PALMDALE, Calif. (AP) -- Sherman Mullin is retiring after five years as head of Lockheed Corp.'s secret "Skunk Works", having presided over its shrinking from 8,500 employees in 1989 to its current 4,300. "The Skunk Works is the smallest it has been since the mid-1970s", said Mullin, who became its president when it was building F-117 stealth fighters (the kind used in the Persian Gulf War) and the TR-1 spy planes. More recently, the division has upgraded and done support work for the F-117, the TR-1, and its SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. The SR-71 has been retired by the Air Force but its flown by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Mullin, 58, will be replaced this week by Jack Gordon, 53, previously the Skunk Works' executive vice president. Mulllin will become a part-time consultant to the unit, which is known formally as Lockheed Advanced Development Co. The Skunk Works, known as a builder of top-secret spy and military planes, will increasingly perform more public work, Gordon said. Fewer projects are likely to reach full production because of reduced Pentagon budgets and less tolerance for mistakes in experimental projects, he added. February 24th, 1994, from the News Digest section: The U.S. Air Force apparently has developed a new stealth aircraft capable of spying or bombing, an authoritative British defense journal reported. Jane's International Defense Review published a drawing of the diamond-shaped plane, which strongly resembles a smaller version of the B-2 stealth bomber. An Air Force spokesman declined comment. - -- Between stimulus and response is the will to choose. ------------------------------------------------------------------ IRC: _Rich_ Rich Thomson Internet: rthomson@dsd.es.com Fractal Freak ------------------------------ From: rakoczynskij@agcs.com (Jurek Rakoczynski) Date: Fri, 25 Feb 1994 13:27:22 -0700 (MST) Subject: F-117A upgrade? The AW&ST article several months ago about Skunk-works proposal for a "navelized" F-117A mentioned that many of the stealth improvements could be applied to the existing F-117A to reduce it's signature. Has there been any further mention of these upgrades to existing planes or do you think the "non-existing diamond shape plane" will kill any future upgrades? - -- 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 GTEMail: J.RAKOCZYNSKI ------------------------------ From: Rick Lafford Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 08:37:46 EST Subject: Re: Project Pluto Paul, Re: Project Pluto Actually after the missile launched all it's bombs, the autopilot was to be programmed to fly around the country over key population areas spewing out highly radioactive exhaust gases. Project Pluto was a real winner. The reactor was tested and is still out there (White Sands?) somewhere. The power output was appearently quite impressive. If someone else doesn't find it, I can look-up the Air & Space issue. Rick ------------------------------ From: TRADER@cup.portal.com Date: Fri, 25 Feb 94 23:15:47 PST Subject: Las Vegas BLM hearing As you've probably seen here, the BLM will be holding a hearing on the proposed Air Force land seizure in Las Vegas, next Wednesday night. I know it's unrelated to this group, but since there might be a few people up there, is anybody up for a visit to Boulder Dam on Wednesday? Also, I can take one person who is needs a ride from Costa Mesa, CA on Tuesday night to Las Vegas. Unfortunately, I have to work, so I won't be leaving until 5-6 PM. I have a tiny cramped Honda Civic, but I can take a passenger. I will be coming back Wednesday night. If you go, I ask that you help out with expenses such as gas. Paul McGinnis / TRADER@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #23 ******************************** To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@mail.orst.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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