From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #231 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Tuesday, 4 April 1995 Volume 05 : Number 231 In this issue: TRW Capistrano Test Site Re: RAF stations info. RE: TRW Capistrano Test Site Anti-gravity known to military? (fwd) RE: TRW Capistrano Test Site Re: Anti-gravity known to military? (fwd) test message April Fool's anti-gravity Re: April Fool's anti-gravity RE: TRW Capistrano Test Site Re: Anti-gravity known to military? Re: Anti-gravity known to military? 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: TRADER@cup.portal.com Date: Mon, 3 Apr 95 00:39:39 PDT Subject: TRW Capistrano Test Site I was out exploring wilderness areas in Southern California today, when I stumbled across a Cold War outpost... I had seen Avenida Pico in San Clemente, California on a road map, and wondered what was up at the end of the road. The area looked promising -- coastal hills away from houses, so I stopped by the area today. I was enjoying the warm spring weather, the birds, the flowers in bloom, and the green hills of Talega Canyon. As I was driving up there, I was hoping that I would find some public land where I could hike and do some reading. After a nice drive through the hills east of San Clemente, the road eventually ended and I wasn't prepared for what I found -- signs reading "TRW Capistrano Test Site" and "No Trespassing - grounds are under security watch". I saw a decent sized installation with 3 large radomes, numerous radar antennas, buildings, chemical handling equipment, and a building with large pipes coming up from the ground and going back in to the ground (geothermal power?). The signs said that the property was under the control of TRW Defense Space Systems Group, which was quite interesting, considering the spy satellites and other classified programs that part of TRW is involved with. Another interesting sign read "Laptop computers, cellular phones, and short or long wave communications devices are prohibited on this site" along with the more familiar prohibitions of cameras and other recording devices. I studied the place with my binoculars from outside the barbed wire fence and further away on Avenida Pico. After about 20 minutes at the security gate "eyeballing" the complex and the 2 pickup trucks with TRW security men, I left, because there wasn't anything interesting happening. I have never heard of this facility before -- I checked my map collection and found that the land is adjacent to a naval reservation that is part of the Marine Corps' Camp Pendleton base, suggesting possible connections with NAVSPACECOM (Naval Space Command) or NAVINT (Office of Naval Intelligence). (The Marine Corps is part of the Department of the Navy.) So, anyone out there know anything about this place I stumbled across? Paul McGinnis / TRADER@cup.portal.com / PaulMcG@aol.com ------------------------------ From: Alistair M Henderson Date: Mon, 03 Apr 95 12:47:53 BST Subject: Re: RAF stations info. RAF Honington is going to be used by the F-15C/D/Es of the 48th FW later this year when Lakenheath's runway closes for repairs. Maybe they were just getting some practice in... The RAF Regiment actually use the base for training purposes, I believe, so maybe they'd have a reason for putting all the lights on since it's their job to defend airfields. Alistair Henderson. >According to the Yearbook RAF Honnington ceased to be a regular flying base >on 1 February 1994. On Saturday night, late evening, 1 April 1995 Honnington >was once again apparently active. Approach lights etc. etc. were all >blazing. No traffic was seen (or heard) however. I was just passing through >and could not wait around. Honnington is definitely not a secluded airfield >and perhaps this was in conjunction with some exercise similar to the use of >RAF Bentwaters last year. >Regards >Adrian Thurlow ------------------------------ From: George Allegrezza 03-Apr-1995 1003 Date: Mon, 3 Apr 95 10:09:55 EDT Subject: RE: TRW Capistrano Test Site TRW used a ground-based laser to intercept airborne targets in the late 1970s. The tests were written up in AW&ST at the time. I recall that the tests were carried out at what was described as TRW's Capistrano test site. I'll leave it to those more familair with California geography to confirm whether this is the same place. George George Allegrezza | Digital Equipment Corporation | "There is nothing more dangerous than Mobile Systems Business | a race fan with grading equipment." Littleton MA USA | allegrezza@ljsrv2.enet.dec.com | -- Humpy Wheeler ------------------------------ From: "Terry Colvin" Date: Mon, 03 Apr 95 07:56:14 EST Subject: Anti-gravity known to military? (fwd) - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 07:41:11 -0800 From: al@powergrid.electriciti.com To: prj@garnet.msen.com Subject: anti-gravety known to military? (partial post) The Following is an essay by Paul A. LaViolette, Ph.D. It is also an excerpt from the book "Electrogravitics Systems: Reports on a New Propulsion Methodology" by Thomas Valone, M.A., P.E. The U.S. Antigravity Squadron by Paul A. LaViolette, Ph.D. Abstract Electrogravitic (antigravity) technology, under development in U.S. Air Force black R&D programs since late 1954, may now have been put to practical use in the B-2 Advanced Technology Bomber to provide an exotic auxiliary mode of propulsion. This inference is based on the recent disclosure that the B-2 charges both its wing leading edge and jet exhaust stream to a high voltage. Positive ions emitted from its wing leading edge would produce a positively charged parabolic ion sheath ahead of the craft while negative ions injected into it's exhaust stream would set up a trailing negative space charge with a potential difference in excess of 15 million volts. According to electrogravitic research carried out by physicist T. Townsend Brown, such a differential space charge would set up an artificial gravity field that would induce a reactionless force on the aircraft in the direction of the positive pole. An electrogravitic drive of this sort could allow the B-2 to function with over-unity propulsion efficiency when cruising at supersonic velocities. For many years rumors circulated that the U.S. was secretly developing a highly advanced, radar-evading aircraft. Rumor turned to reality in November of 1988, when the Air Force unveiled the B-2 Advanced Technology Bomber. Although military spokesmen provided the news media with some information about the craft's outward design, and low radar and infrared profile, there was much they were silent about. However, several years later, some key secrets about the B-2 were leaked to the press. On March 9, 1992, "Aviation Week and Space Technology" magazine made a surprising disclosure that the B-2 electrostatically charges its exhaust stream and the leading edges of its wing-like body.(1) Those familiar with the electrogravitics research of American physicist T. Townsend Brown will quickly realize that this is tantamount to stating that the B-2 is able to function as an antigravity aircraft. "Aviation Week" obtained their information about the B-2 from a small group of renegade west coast scientists and engineers who were formerly associated with black research projects. In making these disclosures, these scientists broke a code of silence that rivals the Mafia's. They took the risk because they felt that it was important for economic reasons that efforts be made to declassify certain black technologies for commercial use. Two of these individuals said that their civil rights had been blatantly abused (in the name of security) either to keep them quiet or to prevent them from leaving the tightly controlled black R&D community. Several months after "Aviation Week" published the article, black world security personnel went into high gear. That sector of the black R&D community received VERY STRONG warnings and, as a result, the group of scientists subsequently broke off contact with the magazine. Clearly, the overseers of black R&D programs were substantially concerned about the information leaks that had come out in that article. To completely understand the significance of what was said about the B-2, one must first become familiar with Brown's work. Beginning in the mid 1920's, Townsend Brown discovered that it is possible to create an artificial gravity field by charging an electrical capacitor to a high-voltage.(2) He specially built a capacitor which utilized a heavy, high charge-accumulating (high K-factor) dielectric material between its plates and found that when charges with between 70,000 to 300,000 volts, it would move in the direction of its positive pole. When oriented with its positive side up, it would proceed to lose about 1 percent of it's weight. (3, 4) He attributed this motion to an electrostatically-induced gravity field acting between the capacitor's oppositely charged plates. By 1958, he had succeeded in developing a 15 inch diameter model saucer that could lift over 110% of its weight!(5) Brown's experiments had launched a new field of investigation which came to be known as electrogravitics, the technology of controlling gravity through the use of high-voltage electric charge. As early as 1952, an Air Force major general witnessed a demonstration in which Brown flew a pair of 18 inch disc airfoils suspended from opposite ends of a rotatable arm. When electrified with 50,000 volts, they circuited at a speed of 12 miles per hour.(6) About a year later, he flew a set of 3 foot diameter saucers for some Air Force officials and representatives from a number of major aircraft companies. When energized with 150,000 volts, the discs sped around the 50 foot diameter course so fast that the subject was immediately classified. "Interavia" magazine later reported that the discs would attain speeds of several hundred miles per hour when charged with several hundred thousand volts.(7) Brown's discs were charged with a high positive voltage, on a wire, running along their leading edge and a high negative voltage, on a wire, running along their trailing edge. As the wires ionized the air around them, a dense cloud of positive ions would form ahead of the craft and corresponding cloud of negative ions would form behind the craft. Brown's research indicated that, like the charged plates of his capacitors, these ion clouds induced a gravitational force directed in the minus to plus direction. As the disc moved forward in the response to its self generated gravity field, it would carry with it its positive and negative ion clouds and their associated electrogravity gradient. Consequently, the discs would ride their advancing gravity wave much like surfers ride an ocean wave. Dr. Mason Rose, one of Townsend's colleagues, described the discs, principle of operation as follows:(8) The saucers made by Brown have no propellers, no jets, no moving parts at all. They create a modification of the gravitational field around themselves, which is analogous to putting them on the incline of a hill. They act like a surfboard on a wave...The electrogravitational saucer creates its own "hill", which is a local distortion of the gravitational field, then it takes this "hill" with it in any chosen direction and at any rate. The occupants of one of [Brown's] saucers would feel no stress at all no matter how sharp the turn or how great the acceleration. This is because the ship and its occupants and the load are all responding equally to the wave like distortion of the local gravitation field. Although skeptics at first thought that the discs were propelled by more mundane effects such as the pressure of negative ions striking the positive electrode, Brown later carried out vacuum chamber tests which proved that a force was present even in the absence of such ion thrust. He did not offer a theory to explain this nonconventional electrogravitic phenomenon; except to say that it was predicted neither by general relativity nor by modern theories of electromagnetism. However, recent advances in theoretical physics provide a rather straightforward explanation of the principle. According to the novel physics of subquantum kinetics, gravity potential can adopt two polarities, instead of one. (9-13) Not only can a gravity field exist in the form of a matter attracting gravity potential well, as standard physics teaches, but it can also exist in the form of a matter repelling gravity potential hill. Moreover, it predicts that these gravity polarities should be directly matched with electrical polarity; positively charged particles such as protons generating gravity wells and negatively charged particles such as electrons generating gravity hills. (Thus contrary to conventional theory, the electron produces a MATTER-REPELLING gravity field. Electrical neutral matter remains gravitationally attractive because of the proton's G-well marginally dominates the electron's G-hill.) Consequently, subquantum kinetics predicts that the negative ion cloud behind Brown's disc should form a matter repelling gravity hill while the positive ion cloud ahead of the disc should form a matter attracting gravity well. As increasing voltage is applied to the disc, the gravity potential hill and well become increasing prominent and the gravity potential gradient between them increasing steep. In Rose's terminology, the craft would find itself on the incline of a gravitational "hill". Since gravity force is known to increase in accordance with the steepness of such a gravity potential slope, increased voltage would induce an increasingly strong gravity force on the disc and would act in the direction of the positive ion cloud. The disc would behave as if it was being tugged by a very strong gravitational field emanating from an invisible planet sized mass positioned beyond its positive pole. Early in 1952 Brown had put together a proposal, code named "Project Winterhaven", which suggested that the military developed an antigravity combat saucer with Mach-3 capability. The 1956 intelligence study entitled "Electrogravitics Systems: An Explanation of Electrostatic Motion, Dynamic Counterbary and Barycentric Control", prepared by the private aviation intelligence firm, Aviation Studies International Ltd., indicates that as early as November 1954 the Air Force had begun plans to fund research that would accomplish Project Winterhaven's objectives. (14-16) The study, originally classified "Confidential", mentions the name of more than ten major aircraft companies which were actively involved in the electrogravitics research in an attempt to duplicate or extend Brown's seminal work. Additional information is to be found in another aviation intelligence report entitled "The Gravitics Situation". (17) Since that time much of the work in electro-antigravity has proceeded in Air Force black projects on a relatively large scale. One indication that Brown's electrogravitics ideas were being researched by the aerospace industry surfaced in January 1968. At an aerospace sciences meeting held in New York, Northrup officials reported that they were beginning wind tunnel studies to research the aerodynamic effects of applying high voltage charges to the leading edges of aircraft bodies.(18) They said that they expected that the resulting electrical potential would ionize air molecules upwind of the aircraft and that the resulting repulsive electrical forces would condition the airstream so as to lower drag, reduce heating, and soften the supersonic boom. (Although the author of that article speculated that Northrup might be negatively charging the aircraft's leading edge, the sonic barrier effects can also be accomplished with a positive charge, as Brown originally suggested.) Although this sonic cushion effect is purely electrostatic, Northrup apparently got the idea for investigating this effect directly from Brown, for his electrokinetic flying disc patent explains that the positively charged leading edge electrode would produce just this effect. Brown states: (6) By using such a nose form, which at present appears to be best suited for flying speeds approaching or exceeding the speed of sound, I am able to produce an ionization of the atmosphere in the immediate region of this foremost position of the mobile vehicle. I believe that this ionization facilitates piercing sonic barrier and minimizes the abruptness with which the transition takes place in passing from subsonic velocities to supersonic velocities. Also in his 1952 paper on Brown's Saucers, Dr. Rose stated: (8) The Townsend Brown experiments indicate that the positive field which is traveling in front of the saucer acts as a buffer wing which starts moving the air out of the way. This field acts as a entering wedge which softens the sonic barrier. Interestingly, in 1981, the Pentagon contracted the Northrup Corporation to work on the highly classified B-2 Advanced Technology Bomber. Northrup's past experience in airframe electrostatics must have been a key factor contributing to its winning of this contract, for "Aviation Week" reported that the B-2 uses "electrostatic field-generating techniques" in its wing leading edges to help it minimize aerodynamic turbulence and thereby reduce its radar cross section. (1) The same article mentions that the B-2 also charges its jet engine exhaust stream which has the effect of rapidly cooling its exhaust and thereby remarkably reducing its thermal signature. Although these disclosures were framed in the context of enhancing the B-2's radar invisibility, in fact, they are part of the B-2's antigravitic drive capability. With a positively charged wing leading edge and a negatively charged exhaust stream, the B-2 would function essentially as an electrogravitic aircraft. Just as in Townsend Brown's flying discs, the positive and negative ion clouds would produce a locally altered gravity field that would cause the B-2 to feel a forward-directed gravitic force. The design is also very similar to the saucer craft that Brown described in his electrokinetic generator patent. (19) The craft Brown proposed was to be powered by a flame-jet generator, a high-voltage power supply that had the advantage of being both efficient and relatively lightweight. His generator design utilizes a jet engine with an electrified needle mounter in the exhaust nozzle to produce negative ions in the jet's exhaust stream. The negatively ionized exhaust is then discharged through a number of nozzles at the rear of the craft. As the minus charges leave the craft in this manner, an increasingly greater potential difference develops between the jet engine body and the negatively charged exhaust cloud behind the craft. By electrically insulating the engines and conveying their positive charges forward to a wire running along the vehicle's leading edge, the required positively charged ion cloud is built up at the front of the vehicle. A metallic surface of wire grid positioned near the exhaust stream exit collects some of the high-voltage electrons and this recycled power is used to run the exhaust ionizers. Brown estimated that such a generator could produce potentials as high as 15 million volts across his craft. Rumors circulating among people close to the project allege that the B-2 does utilize antigravity technology. So, our conjecture, that the B-2 incorporates an electrogravitic drive, appears to be substantially correct. Although the black world scientists mentioned nothing about electrogravitics in their "Aviation Week" disclosure about the B-2, they did admit to the existence of very "dramatic, classified technologies" applicable to "aircraft control and propulsion". They were especially hesitant to discuss these projects, noting that they are "very black". One of them commented, "besides, it would take about 20 hours to explain the principles, and very few people would understand them anyway". Apparently what he meant is that this aircraft control and propulsion technology is based on physics principles that go beyond what is currently known and understood by most academic physicists. Indeed, by all normal standards, electrogravitics is a very exotic propulsion science. ------------------------------ From: TRADER@cup.portal.com Date: Mon, 3 Apr 95 10:12:09 PDT Subject: RE: TRW Capistrano Test Site In an earlier Skunk Works message, George Allegrezza wrote: >TRW used a ground-based laser to intercept airborne targets in the late 1970s. The laser probably explains the chemical equipment I saw. >I recall that the tests were carried out at what was described as TRW's >Capistrano test site. Yes, this is name of the place although it is probably 10 miles from San Juan Capistrano. I guess it's like calling them the "Los Angeles" Rams, when they play football 30 miles away in Anaheim... I saw workers going in on Sunday, and a number of cars in the parking lots, indicating an active facility. I've sent a FOIA request to the Navy today to determine if NAVSPACECOM or NAVINT is involved with the facility. Paul McGinnis / TRADER@cup.portal.com / PaulMcG@aol.com ------------------------------ From: kuryakin@halcyon.com (Illya Kuryakin) Date: Mon, 3 Apr 1995 12:33:11 +0600 Subject: Re: Anti-gravity known to military? (fwd) Terry Colvin wrote:}---------- Forwarded message ---------- }Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 07:41:11 -0800 }From: al@powergrid.electriciti.com }To: prj@garnet.msen.com }Subject: anti-gravety known to military? } }(partial post) If this is an April Fools joke... this guy is _good_. I give up. Illya ------------------------------ From: "S.K. Whiteman" Date: Mon, 03 Apr 95 13:12:55 EST Subject: test message This group still active; haven't heard anything for while....... | / MI What do I know, I'm a geology major. \ /___________________ Sam \_____/ | IBM Systems Programmer Chicago/ | * | O Indiana University - I | Ft. Wayne | H Purdue University at Fort Wayne L | 1794-1994 | Fort Wayne, Indiana USA ------------------------------ From: George Allegrezza 03-Apr-1995 1427 Date: Mon, 3 Apr 95 14:33:15 EDT Subject: April Fool's anti-gravity Illya K. (kuryakin@halcyon.com) wrote: >Terry Colvin wrote:}---------- Forwarded message ---------- >}Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 07:41:11 -0800 >}From: al@powergrid.electriciti.com >}To: prj@garnet.msen.com >}Subject: anti-gravety known to military? >} >}(partial post) >If this is an April Fools joke... this guy is _good_. >I give up. >Illya Can't speak for any of the rest of it, but the reference to the 1968 Northrop work on drag reduction using electromagnetism is legit. Larry Smith has posted articles about this on a couple of occasions. George George Allegrezza | Digital Equipment Corporation | "There is nothing more dangerous than Mobile Systems Business | a race fan with grading equipment." Littleton MA USA | allegrezza@ljsrv2.enet.dec.com | -- Humpy Wheeler ------------------------------ From: mike@blitzen.gvg.tek.com (Mike Henderson) Date: Mon, 3 Apr 95 12:34:49 PDT Subject: Re: April Fool's anti-gravity I have a tinkerer's magazine article showing photos demonstrating the electrostatic cooling phenomenon. Anyone have a theoretical basis for that one? Mike Henderson Illya K. (kuryakin@halcyon.com) wrote: >Terry Colvin wrote:}---------- Forwarded message ---------- >}Date: Thu, 30 Mar 1995 07:41:11 -0800 >}From: al@powergrid.electriciti.com >}To: prj@garnet.msen.com >}Subject: anti-gravety known to military? >} >}(partial post) >If this is an April Fools joke... this guy is _good_. >I give up. >Illya Can't speak for any of the rest of it, but the reference to the 1968 Northrop work on drag reduction using electromagnetism is legit. Larry Smith has posted articles about this on a couple of occasions. George George Allegrezza | Digital Equipment Corporation | "There is nothing more dangerous than Mobile Systems Business | a race fan with grading equipment." Littleton MA USA | allegrezza@ljsrv2.enet.dec.com | -- Humpy Wheeler ------------------------------ From: George Allegrezza 03-Apr-1995 1555 Date: Mon, 3 Apr 95 16:03:05 EDT Subject: RE: TRW Capistrano Test Site The Navy work on a carrier-based laser for terminal air defense was a pretty well-known program at the time. It begat the Alpha chemical laser and the Sea Lite beam director. You might want to look at Sea Systems Command sources as well. A 1983 book by Jeff Hecht, "Beam Weapons", had a pretty detailed look at DoD plans for tactical anti-air lasers (pre-SDI). Sorry, I no longer have the book and don't remember the publisher or ISBN. I always thought carrier air defense was a practical and attainable near-term application for a directed energy weapon. The size of the beam generator and power requirements were not as critical as in air- or spaceborne applications. Fuel handling and gas discharge are big problems on ships, however. George George Allegrezza | Digital Equipment Corporation | "There is nothing more dangerous than Mobile Systems Business | a race fan with grading equipment." Littleton MA USA | allegrezza@ljsrv2.enet.dec.com | -- Humpy Wheeler ------------------------------ From: Kathryn & Andreas Gehrs-Pahl Date: Mon, 3 Apr 1995 19:27:49 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: Anti-gravity known to military? I think this is genuine -- I have no doubt that the supersonic NorthrUp B-2 is capable of utilizing ions for anti-gravitation propulsion. But I doubt that AW&ST ever wrote about any designs from NorthrUp. :) - -- Andreas - --- --- Andreas & Kathryn Gehrs-Pahl E-Mail: schnars@ais.org 313 West Court St. #305 or gpahl@raptor.csc.flint.umich.edu Flint, MI 48502-1239 or gehrs-pahl@buick.flint.umich.edu Tel: (810) 238-8469 or gpahl@cyberspace.org - --- --- ------------------------------ From: smith@dsd.northrop.com (Dick Smith) Date: Mon, 3 Apr 1995 20:45:10 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Anti-gravity known to military? Andreas Gehrs-Pahl wrote: > I think this is genuine -- I have no doubt that the supersonic NorthrUp B-2 > is capable of utilizing ions for anti-gravitation propulsion. Thank you. NorthrUp sells seeds, not aircraft. ^ - -- Dick Smith smith@dsd.northrop.com Software Unit Manager home: dick@smith.chi.il.us Northrop Grumman ESID ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #231 ********************************* 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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