From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #169 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Monday, 12 December 1994 Volume 05 : Number 169 In this issue: Interesting happenings RE: Interesting happenings Re: Interesting happenings Re: Interesting happenings. Mundane happenings Re: Interesting happenings Area 51 and Groom Lake in _Le Monde_ meteor in S Cal. Merry Christmas! Popular Mechanics Jan 95 an old relative Commanche Helicopter Visitor to Sweden Mil-STD 1553A Skunkworks: the book--online [none] follow-up ? 1553 (I) A-17s and UFOs at your supermarket now 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: shinman@thomas.com (Sterling Hinman) Date: Tue, 6 Dec 94 15:47:04 PST Subject: Interesting happenings Hello all Some interesting things were happening this last Friday night. The local news stations (Southern California) were all reporting a very bright greenish light at altitude that came from the north at a high rate of speed, and supposedly impacted somewhere in the mountains east of San Diego. They were saying that it was visible from the Pacific Northwest all the way down to San Diego. Fire and rescue units were sent out to the alleged "crash site", and they were going to keep tabs on what was found when they got there. Now the interesting thing about this is that soon after all of these news reports were aired, all mention of the incident was dropped. Not another word for the rest of the evening. The morning papers also had zero mention of any such event, usually they would have something, but not this time. I do know that such an event is usually mentioned again, especially if the object hit the ground, so I thought it was a tad suspicious. Could this have been a government hush up effort? I know it wouldn't be anything like the "Aurora" auguring in, but what about a KH-12 re-entering the atmosphere and the wreckage snatched up quickly by the govt, then telling everyone to be quiet about it? Would this be the kind of orbit (polar) that a KH-12 would be in? Am I WAY out on a limb here? Any of you folks hear anything about this? Should I be worrying about green monsters knocking on my door? (just a joke!). Just some thoughts about an unusual event, figured you folks might like to chew on that a little bit. Flame proof underwear has been donned... - -SH ------------------------------ From: "MTVIEW::KELLEHER"@mickey.consilium.com Date: Tue, 6 Dec 1994 16:54:41 -0800 (PST) Subject: RE: Interesting happenings SH - You've brought up a good point: news stories that stimulate the imagination but don't really resolve anything. It happens all the time when the news desk investigates the initial report and finds nothing newsworthy. This is the fodder that makes wonderful news programs like Inside Edition, etc., possible, because the world of speculation is a wonderful place to play. Before you get too far into the "government coverup" syndrome, why don't you give a phone call to the news desk at the stations on which you saw the original story? They might have a fairly simple explanation - like nothing was found, or a couple of chunks of rock showed up. I rather doubt that the X-files crew will be monitoring phone calls and dispatch a team to your home! Let us know what they say. It's always interesting to learn the real story behind the phenomenal-sounding teasers the news shows like to fill us with. John Kelleher ------------------------------ From: cash@squirl.oau.org (Gene Cash) Date: Tue, 6 Dec 94 20:59 EST Subject: Re: Interesting happenings >>>>> Sterling Hinman writes: > Hello all > Some interesting things were happening this last Friday night. The local > news stations (Southern California) were all reporting a very bright greenish > light at altitude that came from the north at a high rate of speed, and > supposedly impacted somewhere in the mountains east of San Diego. They were > saying that it was visible from the Pacific Northwest all the way down to > San Diego. Fire and rescue units were sent out to the alleged "crash site", > and they were going to keep tabs on what was found when they got there. Goodness, after several years of lurking, I get to contribute. According to articles in sci.astro, it seems to be a simple meteor, which of course is not very newsworthy. No conspiracy, just a skewed sense of priorities on the part of the media. For what it's worth, here are some relevant articles from the sci.astro newsgroup: From: jbytof@astro.umd.edu (Jeff Bytof) Subject: Bright Bolide over San Diego Organization: U. of Maryland @ College Park, Astronomy AT 8pm Pacific standard time tonight (Dec. 2) observed a bright (-10 or brighter) fireball falling slightly south of due west from San Marcos, N of San Diego. Fireball became greenish and then exploded into whitish sparks and dissipated. End of event about 10-20 degrees above the horizon. Start of event at least 60 degrees above the horizon. Was observed from a moving car, no sound heard. Local news reports that it was widely observed, perhaps it will be possible to determine if it burned out over land or ocean. and: From: jbytof@astro.umd.edu (Jeff Bytof) Subject: Southern California Bolide Report Organization: U. of Maryland @ College Park, Astronomy F I R E B A L L R E P O R T F O R M ========================================= Date:1994y 12m 3d Time: 4h 0m 0s in UT Location: San Marcos, California Republic, USA Longitude: 117deg 12' 0" W Latitude: 33deg 8' 0" --------------------- Apparent path: begin: azimuth = 250deg elevation= >60deg end : azimuth = 250deg elevation= 10deg --------------------- Description: apparent magnitude: -10 mag at fragmentation duration: 4s color: white w/ greenish tinge trail: long, narrow, faded quickly fragmentation: exploded into white/yellow sparks persistent train: not observed angular velocity: 12 deg/s sounds description: not observed sounds time lapse: NA Observer: Jeff Bytof Remarks: Was observed from car moving west along San Marcos Blvd. News reports state that the US Forest Service was forming units to search for meteor fragments in the Kitchen Creek area of San Diego county, approx 50 miles southeast of my location, in a completely different direction to the event described in this report. Also, Los Angeles radio reports that a fireball event was observed as far north as Morro Bay. - ------------------------------------------------------------ mail additional reports to: starex@tron.GUN.de and finally: From: BUNNER@MACC.WISC.EDU (SHOWSOL) Subject: Bolide or F-16? Organization: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN -- MADISON I was driving home last night and noticed a greenish streak in the night skies out of my car window. It was moving about 10-15 degrees south of west, covered about 30 degrees of sky in roughly 1 second, was quite bright (at least -4 or -5 magnitude, maybe a little brighter), and I could see the glow from it reflecting off some low, light clouds. Location was 10 miles south of Madison, WI. Time was around 6:50PM, CST. As my house is infrequently in the flight path of a local National Guard unit that flies F-16's at low altitude, I know there is a decent chance that I saw an F-16. Anyone know if they use bright green, slightly bluish lights? I didn't hear anything (windows were rolled up) and upon entering my house just seconds later, I asked my family if they had heard a low flying jet and no one had noticed (we usually do when F-16s pass overhead). I believe it was moving far too fast to have been a helicopter or private plane. Dana - -- Gene Cash (cash@squirl.oau.org) (407) 380-3936 '81 Suzuki GS1100GL "A single bomb of this type, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port, together with some of the surrounding territory." -- A. Einstein to F. D. Roosevelt, inspiring the Manhattan Project ------------------------------ From: Illya Kuryakin Date: Tue, 6 Dec 1994 20:04:36 -0800 Subject: Re: Interesting happenings. I'd seen a post or two on a usenet group about it. Sure sounds like a hushup. Anybody have any news-type friends on the inside? In the area? I'll check my own sources. Illya Illya Kuryakin | "HA!!" kuryakin@halcyon.com | | Ruby | Galactic Gumshoe ------------------------------ From: shinman@thomas.com (Sterling Hinman) Date: Tue, 6 Dec 94 20:09:14 PST Subject: Mundane happenings Hello again Well, I figured it would be a meteor or something equally mundane, after all, this is the real world we are living in (bummer!). Also thought it would be fun to see what you all knew about it, since it has been so quiet around here lately...at least such mundane events bring out us lurkers into the painful spotlight every now and then! Sometimes it is fun to use the imagination for those "what if..." scenarios, as has been proven by all of the rampant speculation about all of the classified programs going on out there at the ranch! Once again our fearless media shows its sensationalist colors. Thanks for the response guys, now back to lurker land. - -sh ------------------------------ From: kallista@netcom.com (Chris Barrus) Date: Tue, 6 Dec 1994 22:32:28 -0800 Subject: Re: Interesting happenings >Some interesting things were happening this last Friday night. The local >news stations (Southern California) were all reporting a very bright greenish >light at altitude that came from the north at a high rate of speed, and >supposedly impacted somewhere in the mountains east of San Diego. They were >saying that it was visible from the Pacific Northwest all the way down to >San Diego. Fire and rescue units were sent out to the alleged "crash site", >and they were going to keep tabs on what was found when they got there. From what I saw of the fireball ("bolide" to be precise) here in L.A., it looked pretty much like the few other fireball meteors I've chanced to see. It was much brighter than other meteors, but seemed to pretty much exhibit meteor properties. It didn't swerve or change course. No death ray shot out of the ground. And I didn't get an implant in my head (knock on keyboard). :-) I think that what might have thrown some people was the color - green is uncommon, but not completely out of the ordinary. According to some of the folks over at sci.astro, some astronomers triangulated an impact point in the ocean off of San Diego. If it was a KH, I'd would think that the Feds would have done a better job of aiming its impact point at something a little less noticable. >Now the interesting thing about this is that soon after all of these news >reports were aired, all mention of the incident was dropped. Not another >word for the rest of the evening. The morning papers also had zero mention >of any such event, usually they would have something, but not this time. >I do know that such an event is usually mentioned again, especially if the >object hit the ground, so I thought it was a tad suspicious. I saw full coverage of the "meteor" in the L.A. Times the following morning and follow-up reports that night on some of the local news shows. Both interviewing the Griffith Park Observatory folks and the fire crew near Cuyamaca Peak which was mobilized. Sensors detect no "cover-up" here. Meteorfully, Chris ========================================================= Chris Barrus - kallista@netcom.com WWW => ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ka/kallista/www/gfrc.html '72 Riviera - Peace through superior automotive power! ------------------------------ From: "J. Pharabod" Date: Wed, 07 Dec 94 16:22:59 MET Subject: Area 51 and Groom Lake in _Le Monde_ The existence of Area 51 and Groom Lake has appeared yesterday in the most serious French newspaper,_Le Monde_, December 7, 1994. In an article "Apres la mort de six techniciens - Un journal britannique revele l'existence d'une base secrete dans le Nevada", _Le Monde_ quotes _The Observer_ which reports the existence of a secret military base named "Area 51" in the Nevada. It is said that six people, one of them named Robert Frost, died after manipulating dangerous materials. They speak briefly also of the U2, Blackbird and Aurora. _The Observer_ (December 4) publishes also a photo made by an ex-Soviet satellite (it seems that _Le Monde_ ignores the article published in _Popular Science_ a few months ago). J. Pharabod ------------------------------ From: "Frank Schiffel, Jr." Date: Wed, 07 Dec 94 11:08:49 CST Subject: meteor in S Cal. I think its pretty interesting how people rush out and look for a gov't cover up. What should have given it away was the color and the fact it was seen over a large area. As for a sat break, most of the times when a satellite breaks up, its hard to predict the impact point until the last orbit or so. Also, the KH-11 is not designed as a re-entry vehicle, so most of it burns up. I doubt there would be a real X-files coverup to locate debris. More than likely the short attention span of the journalist kicks in. Its probably no different than any other story that doesn't have a follow up in the media. Probably was a slow news day for the editor. What is pretty interesting is that manmade and natural stuff come in the atmosphere all the time and this sort of thing happens over and over again. You'd think people never heard of rocket launches (one great way to get 911 calls all along the Western coast at night) or space debris coming in. Anybody know of any good work on improving the calculation of debris re-entry? Last I worked on it, we had problems getting atmospheric data due to solar flux in a timely manner. Had a 3-4 day lag time as I recall, so we worked on other things. ------------------------------ From: dougt@u011.oh.vp.com (Doug Tiffany) Date: Thu, 8 Dec 94 4:28:34 EST Subject: Merry Christmas! As long as it's quiet, I thought i'd take this opportunity to wish everyone on the list a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I thoroughly enjoy reading all the postings and I look forward to hearing from all of you in the future. Keep up the good work everyone!! - -- Douglas J. Tiffany (dougt@u011.oh.vp.com) Varco-Pruden Buildings Northern Division Van Wert OH. (419) 238-9533 ------------------------------ From: BaDge Date: Thu, 8 Dec 1994 06:57:08 -0500 (EST) Subject: Popular Mechanics Jan 95 On Thu, 8 Dec 1994, Doug Tiffany wrote: > As long as it's quiet, I thought i'd take this opportunity to wish Well, skunk works fans, take a look at the cover of the PM, not on the news-stands yet but subscribers have theirs. There is a nice classic UFO on the cover with the caption "UFOs are real". Then inside there is a nice little semi-fluff article on the AF attempts to field a saucer shaped craft (AVROCar), and lots of archival pix on various attempts. I didn 't get to read the article, but it looks like fun. BaDge ------------------------------ From: "Stefan 'Stetson' Skoglund" Date: Thu, 8 Dec 94 14:51:59 +0100 Subject: an old relative Here in Sweden some persons working in Foersvarsmakten had a nice nickname for the weekly Habu. Guess that ? The nickname was Spaarvagnen (= the cable car). I wonder from where in Europe did they fly ? Frankfurt am Main in Germany or Mildenhall ? The route was like this : south of bornholm and then northward. east of gotland U-turn right between Aaland and Estonia. and back to home the same way. Constantly listening to Warszaw-pact transmissions or that else. ------------------------------ From: S001WDL@DESIRE.WRIGHT.EDU Date: Thu, 08 Dec 1994 12:12:38 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Commanche Helicopter I know this isn't really "Skunky" but....does anyone know anything about the ComCommanche (sp?) helicopter? Did it ever make it out of the experimental stage? Thanks! Bill ------------------------------ From: Adrian Thurlow Date: Thu, 8 Dec 94 18:36:19 +0000 Subject: Visitor to Sweden Hi, all Skunk Works subscribers, If I do not post before hand, a Very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year to you all. Stefan writes: >Here in Sweden some persons working in Foersvarsmakten >had a nice nickname for the weekly Habu. >Guess that ? >The nickname was Spaarvagnen (= the cable car). >I wonder from where in Europe did they fly ? >Frankfurt am Main in Germany or Mildenhall ? No doubt the SR-71 was flying from Mildenhall, Suffolk, U.K. I spent many happy hours looking in to the base from the perimeter fence. At one time you could get an oblique view into the two barns used by the sleds but then the fence was pulled back. The annual 'AirFete' was always good with a SR being put through its subsonic paces, quite tight turns were pulled. Unfortunately the last 'AirFete' to be held prior to the withdrawl of Det.4 coincided with the loss of a SR in the South China Sea, flying out of Kadena, and the birds were grounded for engine inspections so all there was was a static exhibit. As well as an aviation fan I am also involved in motorcycle Speedway racing (popular in Sweden). These machines are 500cc, methanol powered with little, or no silencing (mufflers). There is a Speedway race track about one or two miles from the end of Mildenhall's runway and when a SR-71 launched it totally drowned out the sound of the motorcycles. What a beautiful noise! Regards Adrian Thurlow / Det.4 9th SRW \ Technology Integration / \ BT Labs / _ \ Martlesham Heath ____(( ))_________/_/_\_\_________(( ))____ Ipswich \ \_/ / Suffolk U.K. Now only distant thunder Tel. +44 1473 644880 Fax. +44 1473 646534 e-mail. Adrian.Thurlow@bt-sys.bt.co.uk The views expressed above are not necessarily those of BT. ------------------------------ From: "james r. damewood" Date: Thu, 8 Dec 1994 18:58:27 -0500 (EST) Subject: Mil-STD 1553A Sorry that this does not involved skunky-stuff but does anyone know where I can get a programming library for 1553 on B-1 and B-52. Looking for examples of converting type 9 numbers to floating. This MUST be public domain resouce. I can not afford contract rates from my paycheck (E-3 pay grade). Working on FOT&E projects and need some help in pointing in the right direction. Thanks ------------------------------ From: joeh@towel.wpd.sgi.com (Joe Heinrich) Date: Thu, 8 Dec 1994 20:16:16 -0800 Subject: Skunkworks: the book--online Check it out: http://www.timeinc.com/twep/Features/Skunk_Works/Skunk_Works.html - -- Joe "Joe" Heinrich Tales of Silicon Valley {Internal access only, unless you can bust the firewall} Heinrich! Don't you have something *better* to do? Flatland: joeh@sgi.com Rotary dial: 415.390.4347 DTMF:SameAsAbove BLM Locator:Building8Lower SnailMail:MS/535, 2011 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mt. View, CA 94043 :) Kill all smileys :> ------------------------------ From: J=ROGERS%MAO%144FW@ANG144FS.ang.af.mil Date: Fri, 9 Dec 94 02:09:49 PST Subject: [none] Hello all, I was just wondering how many blackcat's there are on this list. I was a crewchief and R&R technician on the U-2 & SR-71 from Dec 83-Jan 90. Send me some e-mail if you'd like to chat. ------------------------------ From: JOHN Date: Fri, 9 Dec 94 08:34:23 EST Subject: follow-up ? >"shinman@thomas.com" "Sterling Hinman" 6-DEC-1994 20:34:18.46 > >Hello all > >Some interesting things were happening this last Friday night. The local >news stations (Southern California) were all reporting a very bright greenish >light at altitude that came from the north at a high rate of speed, and >supposedly impacted somewhere in the mountains east of San Diego. They were >saying that it was visible from the Pacific Northwest all the way down to >San Diego. Fire and rescue units were sent out to the alleged "crash site", >Could this have been a government hush up effort? I know it wouldn't be >anything like the "Aurora" auguring in, but what about a KH-12 re-entering >the atmosphere and the wreckage snatched up quickly by the govt, then telling ================================== Perhaps this will shed some light, on the subject John Szalay Louisville Ky jpszalay@tacl.dnet.ge.com ::DISCLAIMER:: GE & I rarely see eye to eye on anything. So Why should I attempt to speak for them? ================================= Date: 8 Dec 1994 14:45:17 -0800 From: Andre Knoefel Subject: FIDAC e-mail report 15/94 INTERNATIONAL METEOR ORGANIZATION *** FIREBALL DATA CENTER FIDAC e-mail report no. 15/94 =============================== +++++ Much Deleted +++++ 1994 Dec 03 04 00 00 UT Solar longitude J2000: 250.839deg Magnitude: -10 Zenithal magnitude: -11 Location: San Marcos, CA (USA) ( 117deg 12' W, 33deg 08' N) First sighting: alpha=344deg, delta=+19deg End sighting: alpha=304deg, delta=-11deg Duration: 4 seconds Color: wh - gr Trail: long, faded quickly Persistent train: none Fragmentation: exploded into sparks Velocity: 12deg/sec Sound: none Observer: J. Bytof ---------------------------------------------------------------------- International Meteor Organization * Fireball Data Center c/o Andre Knoefel, Saarbruecker Str. 8, D - 40476 Duesseldorf, Germany phone (+49) 211:450-719 (auto-answer) e-mail: starex@tron.gun.de (Internet) 100114,3235 (CompuServe) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- FIREBALL REPORTS ARE WELCOME ! - ------------------------------ ------------------------------ From: "james r. damewood" Date: Fri, 9 Dec 1994 17:44:27 -0500 (EST) Subject: 1553 Some more info bits on what I am doing. My squadron 49Test, Barksdale AFB does FOT&E on B-1 and B-52. My flight is Airborne Insturmentation where we tap off of 1553 data buses to digitally recorded on a bus monitor. We bascally use a scsi tape drive on a 8mm tape for data collection. Later the tape is played on a PC. But the problem is all the information is in type 4,9 or 10 in hex. My superviser and I would like to have the information in engineering units. This is used confirm our system is working correctly. We do have a Sun work station that suppose to do this but so far no dice from it. I would like to develope our own system to prepare ourselves in case flight analysis group would like more data to study and to save the goverment some money (Plus it looks cool on my EPR). James ------------------------------ From: George Allegrezza 12-Dec-1994 1526 Date: Mon, 12 Dec 94 15:25:05 EST Subject: (I) A-17s and UFOs at your supermarket now Our friends at Popular Science and Popular Mechanics have provided us with some skunky tidbits for the Christmas holidays. The January issue of PS has an article by Stuart Brown and Steve Douglass on the A-17, a purported USAF stealthy swing-wing successor to the F-111. It resembles a swing-wing YF-23 with a North Sea Aurora-like nose. This vehicle is supposedly in flight test now, and is expected to be deployed at Cannon AFB in "remote Clovis, NM", as Aardvarks are retired in 1995. Douglass, editor of "Intercepts," caught a transmission from one of the A-17s near Amarillo, Texas, as it dumped fuel and prepared for an emergency landing after a hydraulic failure. A visual inspection revealed the swing-wing craft in formation with two F-111s. Note that the A-17 planform has the infamous 75 degree sweep, and the authors speculate on the possibility that some Auroristas have spotted A-17s in action rather than a hypersonic spy plane. Contractors are Northrop and Grumman, now conveniently merged, with propulsion by two GE YF120s. The January '95 PM has a cover story, "UFOs are Real," which speculates on the existence of a USAF program to develop and fly lenticular flying machines. The Avro flying disc of the 1950s and the Russian Thermoplane are mentioned, as well as some more advanced kinds of experimental flying discs. I haven't read the story, so I can't say anything about its tone or plausibility. But remember, were talking PM here, not the _Journal of Aircraft_. The same issue has renderings of the Lockheed and Boeing X-32 proposals and the Boeing Tier III-Minus candidate. And oh BTW, Testors has a Area S4/Bob Lazar flying saucer kit on the shelves at Toys Backwards R Us. There's even a picture of BL on the box. George George Allegrezza | Digital Equipment Corporation | Hurtling down the Information Cowpath. Littleton MA USA | allegrezza@tnpubs.enet.dec.com | ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #169 ********************************* 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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