From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #125 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Friday, 8 July 1994 Volume 05 : Number 125 In this issue: Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #124 Finally! Re: B-2 name? losses in flight test Re: B-2 name,etc. 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: jlovece@DGS.dgsys.com Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 09:54:39 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #124 Does anyone have any info on the ARPA Tier Three Minus Drone? Here is what I know. The info came in an interview with PM John Entzminger. A contract was awarded to Lockheed, with Boeing as sub. It was a continuation of an earlier program. The drone is a medium-to-high altitude system with long endurance. The key is stealth. Entzminger would not describe the airframe, but he did say the engine would be a Willims Cessna Citation commercial engine. He also said the airframe would be made of a graphite-carbon composite cured at ``room temperature.'' He also said two drones would be built and that the system would be revealed at a roll-out within 21 months. Anybody know any more? Joe Lovece jlovece@dgs.dgsys.com ------------------------------ From: Mary Shafer Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 12:25:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Finally! Everything flew on the SR-71 this morning--we'll have the crew brief in 5 minutes and I'll get the info for the slips (Mach 3.0 and 77,000 ft, roughly. I will not get everything mailed today, but it should all go out by Monday, I think. 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: Mary Shafer Date: Thu, 7 Jul 1994 13:19:29 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: B-2 name? We didn't lose any F-15s in the acceptance testing and I don't think they lost any A-10s. Just because something is common doesn't mean it's universal. 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: "Frank Schiffel, Jr." Date: Thu, 07 Jul 94 14:25:01 CDT Subject: losses in flight test I'd be pretty surprised at losses in acceptance in flight test. There will be inflight emergencies (and usually a lot of flights with the test cards marked 'high hazard'). But, if there is any concern over whether or not something is safe, safety is paramount. Especially if its a manned aircraft and there's a flight crew involved. The sign off for some of the really hazardous stuff can go up to a general officer level. That's not to say there aren't losses. I believe there was a loss of an A-10A due to gun gases being ingested at Edwards (or at least the aircraft was lost at that point in the program). Military flight test is not inherently a safe field, what a lot of bean counters who read flight test reports (i.e. those people studied by others guys in political science who don't work on strategic stuff) don't realize is that flight test is to find out whats wrong with an aircraft and fix it before (hopefully) it gets out to the fleet. Computers and wind tunnels can't simulate everything. Anyway, whats a B-2 doing down in the dirt ???? (which was the original comment). probably tells you something that the B-1 is called Lancer. I wish the name for the F-111 would be Aardvark (Artie the Aardvark, FTE (ret) who probably flew on all the DFRC flights asked for that).. regards, frank ------------------------------ From: Xelex@aol.com Date: Fri, 08 Jul 94 00:47:40 EDT Subject: Re: B-2 name,etc. While the official type name for the B-2 is "Spirit", each individual airframe has a "personalized" name. The first two operational aircraft are "Spirit of Missouri" and "Spirit of California" (88-0330). The flight test air vehicles also have names: AV-1 (82-1066) "Fatal Beauty", AV-2 (82-1067) "Murphy's Law" because anything that can go wrong does, AV-3 (82-1068) "Afternoon Delight" doesn't like to fly before lunch, AV-4 "Christine" because it seems possessed, AV-5 "Toad", and AV-6 "Arnold the Pig" because it is a real hangar pig. Peter Merlin Aerospace Archeology Field Research Team Xelex@aol.com ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #125 ********************************* 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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