From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #36 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Wednesday, 16 March 1994 Volume 05 : Number 036 In this issue: Manta, Klass, Groom and the fall of AW&ST Re: Phil Klass drives TR-3A 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: psychospy@aol.com Date: Tue, 15 Mar 94 12:00:43 EST Subject: Manta, Klass, Groom and the fall of AW&ST shooter@sage.cc.purdue.ed wonders where AW&ST is in the Manta story and accused GLENN CAMPBELL of taking the 9-second Manta video. Wrong on the latter. Steve Douglass is the videographer. Campbell is merely a MILITARY IRRITANT with little knowledge of, and only mild interest in, secret aircraft themselves. As to the fate of AW&ST, it has fallen under the spiritual domination of the EVIL PHIL KLASS, best known for debunking UFO tales but who also has no respect for any other aircraft not officially acknowledged. High Desert journalist Bill Scott, responsible for many of the most interesting Aviation Leak stories of the past is now FLYING A DESK in Washington, D.C. To be fair, AW&ST is facing severe financial cut-backs as its fortunes have fallen with the defense industry. They can no longer afford to put a spy in every capital. At the same time, the management feels tarnished by its "Space Mythology" reputation and is suffering a conservative backlash. In short, don't expect Aviation Week to be at the forefront of any secret aircraft stories. You're more likely to see it first in SOUTHERN BAPTIST REVIEW. GROOM LAND GRAB STATUS: The popular viewpoints into Groom Lake are still open, and still others, untouched by the AF, have recently been discovered. The public hearings have taken place (reported on CNN), and the fate of Freedom Ridge will soon be in the hands of the BLM. The soonest the near-in viewpoints can be closed, if things go unrealistically well for the AF, is about May 1. For the latest updates, ask me for a free subscription to my on-line newsletter, the Groom Lake Desert Rat. Psycho (G.C.) ------------------------------ From: larry@ichips.intel.com Date: Tue, 15 Mar 1994 16:15:37 -0800 Subject: Re: Phil Klass drives TR-3A Mark writes: > A question: Why haven't pictures from the now-famous "nine seconds" video > of the alleged TR-3A been splattered all over the cover of Aviation Week > yet? Or have they and I missed it? No they haven't been published in AW&ST. The film was offered to AW&ST last fall. They looked at it and decided that there wasn't enough there to go with, so they decided not to pay to have it enhanced. Some at AW&ST wanted to attempt to bring an image out of it but in the end the answer was no. The film then went to other publications, including to Sweetman and Janes. They didn't do anything with it either. CBS did buy a copy of it for their archives. Steve Douglass, who shot the video, is a stringer for CBS, but CBS elected not to show it either. Then Stu Brown of Popular Science came along, and through him and other associations, an ex-JPL engineer, named Warren James, who worked on JPL space probe imaging systems, had a go at enhancing the image. His enhanced image work will appear in April's Popular Science (from what I'm told). So look for it there. The original image was very poor however, as you all saw on Unsolved Mysteries. To me, personally, it looks very B-2ish, and therefore interesting. But I certainly can't classsify the image as a B-2 or not. Sweetman evidently, suddenly became convinced of the reality of the aircraft, and went with the recent disclosure published in Janes. Glenn writes: >As to the fate of AW&ST, it has fallen under the spiritual >domination of the EVIL PHIL KLASS, best known for debunking UFO >tales but who also has no respect for any other aircraft not >officially acknowledged. Phil is retired, but he does consult still and do a AW&ST story now and then. Phil doesn't run the show there. The chief editor (both Phil and Bill Scott's boss) seems to be fair. There are others besides Phil who have been a problem as well. There are also allies. One of the EVILs is the Washington DC 'attitude'. That 'attitude' is stated something like this: "I have contacts deep in government, and if my contacts don't know anything about what is flying over the western desert at 3AM, then it can't exist." Of course we all know that they don't use normal channels for Black projects. The public and most lawmakers don't believe there are such things. > High Desert journalist Bill Scott, >responsible for many of the most interesting Aviation Leak >stories of the past is now FLYING A DESK in Washington, D.C. Actually, HE'S BACK! ...... to writing - just recently. > To >be fair, AW&ST is facing severe financial cut-backs as its >fortunes have fallen with the defense industry. That's true. They don't make money by selling subscriptions, they make money by selling advertising space to people like Northrop, Lockheed, ... . There has been a progressive drop in advertising since the cold war has been over. But there has also been some requests for additional stories on Black Aircraft from the readership, coupled with winks and smiles and important pats on the back to keep on digging. No it's NOT dead! > In short, >don't expect Aviation Week to be at the forefront of any secret >aircraft stories. Well, ... I wouldn't give up on them just yet! ;) > You're more likely to see it first in SOUTHERN >BAPTIST REVIEW. OR the Society Column in the Atlanta GA newspaper!! That's where the drawing of the XB-70 like aircraft was published first ... really! Larry ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #36 ******************************** 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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