From:      skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu
To:        skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu
Subject:   Skunk Works Digest V5 #132
Reply-To:  skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu
Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu
Precedence: bulk

Skunk Works Digest        Wednesday, 13 July 1994      Volume 05 : Number 132

In this issue:

	Re:   VINDICATOR
	Re: VINDICATOR

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: George Allegrezza  12-Jul-1994 1647 <allegrezza@tnpubs.enet.dec.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 94 16:57:28 EDT
Subject: Re:   VINDICATOR

The Vindicator was the mainstay of SAC in "Fail-Safe".  It was a three-seat four
engine intercontinental bomber that could reach 1500 mph at low level for short
periods. The RS-70 (formerly the B-70) is mentioned as the replacement for the 
Vindicator, but I always had the impression that the Vindicator was supposed to
be some kind of super B-58.  Maybe Burdick and Wheeler, the authors, saw some of
the B-58 follow-on proposals?

The F-104 style fighters that tried to shoot down the Vindicators were called
Skyscraper or Skyscrapper, depending on which character in the book is
describing it.  Has anyone seen a Skyscraper patch?  Might be a good name for a
TAV that descends into the upper atmosphere to scoop up and liquefy oxygen to
extend its orbital lifetime.

The Lockheed "use" of the name is interesting.  If we assume it's legit (big
assumption), were they trying to con people into drawing some kind of parallel
with the fictional airplane?  Or maybe they just thought Vindicator sounded 
cool.  

Or maybe Henry Fonda really ran the Skunk Works :-)?

George

George Allegrezza              |        
Digital Equipment Corporation  |  Digital is like one big turkey farm on the
Littleton  MA  USA             |  week before Thanksgiving.
allegrezza@tnpubs.enet.dec.com |                                           


------------------------------

From: freeman@MasPar.COM (Jay R. Freeman)
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 94 16:04:01 -0700
Subject: Re: VINDICATOR

I think there was a type called "Vindicator" in US service in the second world
war.  If memories left over from my airplane fanatic days serve -- and they
may not -- it was a dive bomber made by Vultee, produced in small numbers only,
and thoroughly unsuccessful.  *Very* bad karma for the Skunk Works.

                                                      --  Jay Freeman

------------------------------

End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #132
*********************************

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.

Administrative requests, problems, and other non-list mail can be sent
to either "skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu" or, if you
don't like to type a lot, "prm@mail.orst.edu

A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to
subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "skunk-works-digest"
in the commands above with "skunk-works".

Back issues are available for anonymous FTP from mail.orst.edu, in
/pub/skunk-works/digest/vNN.nMMM (where "NN" is the volume number, and "MMM"
is the issue number).