From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #65 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Saturday, 16 April 1994 Volume 05 : Number 065 In this issue: RE: Aereon (I) Tactical black aircraft in May '94 Popular Science Re: (I) Tactical black aircraft in May '94 Popular Science Re: Aereon Hudson Valley Sightings A slight reprieve for the procrastinators here Aurora 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: Steve Miller @ CXO -- dtn 522.3384 15-Apr-1994 0959 <"cxdocs::miller"@cxdocs.enet.dec.com> Date: Fri, 15 Apr 94 08:59:53 PDT Subject: RE: Aereon Just for a bit of history, check out the book: "The Deltoid Pumpkin Seed" by John McPhee. It gives a history of the private development of aerostatic/dynamic craft in New Jersey in the early '70s. - -s ------------------------------ From: George Allegrezza 15-Apr-1994 1426 Date: Fri, 15 Apr 94 14:32:15 EDT Subject: (I) Tactical black aircraft in May '94 Popular Science The TR-3A/Steve Douglass story, mentioned earlier by Larry Smith, appears in the May 1994 issue of Popular Science. Nothing new that readers of this list won't be familiar with, but it does go into into some detail on how the aircraft was spotted and the kind of air operations it was involved in when sighted. The story has little technical detail on the TR-3A (and it doesn't even name is as such). It's a single page and is worth a read. The inevitable "artist's conception" shows an aircraft much like a mini B-2. Has anyone ever seen the Northrop stidy for an F-111 class aircraft that looks like a Navy A-12 with a YF-23 rear fuselage grafted onto the aft end? I realize that's a pretty lame description, but since the Northrop study I'm referring to would look like the B-2 from the front, perhaps the Steve Douglass aircraft is not a pure B-2 clone. George George Allegrezza | Digital Equipment Corporation | "If you're under control, you're not Littleton MA USA | going fast enough." allegrezza@tnpubs.enet.dec.com | -- Parnelli Jones ------------------------------ From: larry@ichips.intel.com Date: Fri, 15 Apr 1994 14:03:05 -0700 Subject: Re: (I) Tactical black aircraft in May '94 Popular Science George writes: >The TR-3A/Steve Douglass story, mentioned earlier by Larry Smith, appears >in the May 1994 issue of Popular Science. >... >The inevitable "artist's conception" shows an aircraft much like a >mini B-2. ... >Has anyone ever seen the Northrop stidy for an F-111 class aircraft ... >... the Northrop study I'm referring to >would look like the B-2 from the front, perhaps the Steve Douglass aircraft >is not a pure B-2 clone. Here's an interesting, possibly related tidbit, pulled off of AOL: From: Richard M. "Dick" Cole Major, USAF (Ret.) >... I retired from the >Air Force in 1992. For my last 10 years of service, I was a public affairs >officer in the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs in the >Pentagon. I was the official Air Force spokesman to the national and >international news media for the SAC type aircraft, the "stealth" aircraft >(B-2, F-117, SR-71, U-2R/TR-1), and also handled questions on the UFO front. >... > I also believe that we will soon discover that Northrop has >managed to build a number of tactical reconnaissance aircraft by hiding >funding in the B-2 budget. (Some of what the aviation press is calling the >TR-3.) >I am unable to give you specific code names for things because I don't know >of them. I am unable to give you other specifics about the aircraft because >I've not them. But you can be sure that, if I ever do, I'll be one of the >first in line to get the information to the public just as I have on the >F-117 and B-2. ------------------------------ From: larry@ichips.intel.com Date: Fri, 15 Apr 1994 14:14:51 -0700 Subject: Re: Aereon J. Pharabod writes: >I need info about the Aereon airships. Aereon Corporation is located in >Princeton (NJ) and builds triangular or nearly triangular airships. >The Aereon 26 is photographied in the 1976-1977 Jane's. The Aereon ZC >looks very much like the so-called UFOs seen in Belgium. In 1984 there >was a project Aereon 340, 100 meters length, 80 meters large. These >Aereon airships would explain: > >1) the Hudson Valley UFOs sightings (1983-1984) >2) the Belgian UFOs sightings (1989-1991) >3) the "Big Wing" seen near Edwards AFB (Popular Mechanics, Dec. 1991) You still need to tie together the observations in the above cases with the attributes of the known airships. This is not said to discourage you at all. There are also others who are aware of Aereon as well. In fact, Aereon may be discussed in a new book about the USAF and UFO's that is due out shortly. The author of that book was asking questions about Aereon over several years ago. But go for it! Larry ------------------------------ From: I am the NRA Date: Fri, 15 Apr 94 15:50:19 PDT Subject: Hudson Valley Sightings >1) the Hudson Valley UFOs sightings (1983-1984) some of these (perhaps all) were fairly specifically accounted for by localprivate pilots playing an elaborate practical joke, by flying in close formation, at low altitude, with nonstandard lighting. This has been documented, tho i do not have detailed reference information. regards dwp ------------------------------ From: Mary Shafer Date: Fri, 15 Apr 1994 19:11:59 -0400 (EDT) Subject: A slight reprieve for the procrastinators here The next SR-71 flight will be on 10 May and the one after that 17 May. As a result, you have just a little longer to get things to me, as I will be back on 10 May myself. I'll fly what I have in hand on Wednesday on the next flight and everything received after that will go on the second flight. 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: Rick Pavek Date: Fri, 15 Apr 1994 17:01:28 -0700 Subject: Aurora Larry quoted: > I also believe that we will soon discover that Northrop has >managed to build a number of tactical reconnaissance aircraft by hiding >funding in the B-2 budget. (Some of what the aviation press is calling the >TR-3.) Geez. Of course. They were saying that the Aurora was just the money they'd allocated for B2 development. BUT... you realize now what they meant. No? What did they build for conceptual testing of the B-35? They built the N1M and the N9M. Both were small scale versions of the B-35/B-49. Think about it. They did the same for the B2. The TR-3 started out as a concept validation. AND it flew so well they built a _whole bunch_ of them. And hid it in the B-2 program. HA!!! Gotcha. Rick Rick Pavek | kuryakin@hebron.connected.com| HA! Lazar's Android Works | Ruby, Galactic Gumshoe Summa Nulla | ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #65 ******************************** 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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