From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #28 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Tuesday, 8 March 1994 Volume 05 : Number 028 In this issue: Blackbird Losses The flight of the tie tacks Re: The flight of the tie tacks Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #26 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: Alistair M Henderson Date: Mon, 07 Mar 94 09:43:17 GMT Subject: Blackbird Losses Further to Paul Adams' posting about SR-71 losses, I have the following info on the loss of SR-71A 64-17978: This aircraft was lost on 20 Jul 1972 in a landing accident at Kadena AB, Japan. AListair Henderson. Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland. Email: ceeamh@cee.hw.ac.uk ------------------------------ From: Mary Shafer Date: Mon, 7 Mar 1994 11:15:55 -0500 (EST) Subject: The flight of the tie tacks We flew the tie tacks, patches, and keyrings on Friday. The flight went to Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico at a maximum altitude of 80,800 ft and a maximum speed of 3.23 Mach (it was very cold). They had an unstart on the right engine, too. Everything flew in Marta's pocket in the aft cockpit; the package was small enough that we didn't have to put it in one of the bays. We flew 7 keyrings, 17 tie tacks, and 6 patches (plus my pair of SR-71 earrings). I've mailed out everything that was sent to me and I'll mail the other items when I get the payments. The next flight will be in April at the soonest and they'll allow me to put another package on it, so there's plenty of time for everyone to send me small items. Regards, Mary Mary Shafer DoD #0362 KotFR shafer@ursa-major.spdcc.com Some days it don't come easy/And some days it don't come hard Some days it don't come at all/And these are the days that never end.... ------------------------------ From: freeman@maspar.com (Jay R. Freeman) Date: Mon, 7 Mar 94 09:10:54 -0800 Subject: Re: The flight of the tie tacks It's nice to know that other people are as crazy as I am. Back when I was in graduate school, working on my PhD in experimental astrophysics, my research group got NASA support for about one sounding rocket flight per year out of White Sands Missile Range. They delivered a payload compartment (about 40 cm inner diameter, a couple of meters long, with several doors opening out the side) -- we built instruments to fill it -- then after assorted tests and integration it flew, typically on something like a Black Brant V, typically to an altitude of 150-200 Km. Payloads were recovered by parachute, usually, and were returned to us in good shape, usually. One of the things all of us grad students did, in designing and building our instruments, was to ensure that some small piece of the hardware was neatly detachable for a souvenir -- to become something like a paperweight. Or perhaps, just by coincidence, there would turn out to be a little extra space inside a housing somewhere, into which a personal something-or-other could be fitted, for later recovery. Like I said, crazy as loons, one and all... -- Jay Freeman PS: Some interesting things also flew by accident, such as duct tape... ------------------------------ From: rschnapp@metaflow.com (Russ Schnapp) Date: Mon, 7 Mar 94 09:10:12 PST Subject: Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #26 > >I didn't see *anything* on the segment that looked particularly > >convincing. > > Not even the contrail photo? Sorry, I overlooked the doughnuts-on-a-rope photo. I've seen it before in AvWeek. It is certainly suspicious. Now that I think of it, I recall being impressed that UM actually got the suspected engine type right (PDWE). > >Re: the computer-enhanced/enlarged photo of the possible TR-3A, > >did anyone else notice the faint landing gear entending down from > >the bottom of the craft? > > No I didn't. I've looked at this thing many many times. I'll look again. Oh, I definitely saw three landing gear on the computer enhanced image. ...Russ ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #28 ******************************** To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@mail.orst.edu". 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