From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #246 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Thursday, 20 April 1995 Volume 05 : Number 246 In this issue: Re: Neat Pilot Report in this weeks AW&ST Re: Neat Pilot Report in this weeks AW&ST JFK's B-58 Re: Neat Pilot Report in this weeks AW&ST Declassified Black Photos Latest Executive Order 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: Jeremy Nygren Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 00:33:41 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: Neat Pilot Report in this weeks AW&ST On Tue, 18 Apr 1995, Mary Shafer wrote: > Two of the last three SR-71 flights that I've gone down to the center > taxiway to watch, we've had to wait while the B-2 took off first. And the > last time that I was over in the east bombing range, the B-2 was making a > live drop in the west range. (Usually it's just the C-17 throwing dummys > out or something.) [snip] I can understand why you would not appreciate the B-2 as much as the SR-71. Put side by side, the SR-71 is more impressive any day--especially on take-off. For those of us that lack a non-reserve installation in the state, any military aircraft we can get here are welcome. Jeremy Nygren ------------------------------ From: Rick.Lafford@cldx.com, Johnson & Johnson Clinical Diagnostics Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 07:47:34 -0400 Subject: Re: Neat Pilot Report in this weeks AW&ST larry@ichips.intel.com said: > >When is it expected to be put into passenger service, Larry? > > This was planned, as you mentioned. After all, Jack Northrop was > planning to use a YB-49 derived aircraft for that purpose (many > of us have seen the video that Northrop developed showing this > concept) but as it currently sits, the ATC union has complained > that the airplane is impossible to track on ATC radars. They've > threatened to strike if plans to put the aircraft into commercial > service are carried forward. > > Larry > Hopefully, Larry is joking. Most all civil aircraft using ATC services are required to carry an active radar beacon (transponder) capable of giving altitude information on request. All F117's flying within the continental ATC space are required to carry bolt-on "warts" to enhance the radar signature if the transponder fails. I've found my glider to be nearly invisible to ATC radar, both enroute and terminal types. It seems that the combination of construction materials (mostly glass/epoxy) and flight profile (we circle below the speed gate threshold) keeps us off the scopes. Back to lurking. Rick ======================================= Rick Lafford, Discus B, N154RS (HS) Johnson & Johnson Clinical Diagnostics lafford@cldx.com ======================================= ------------------------------ From: George Allegrezza 19-Apr-1995 0822 Date: Wed, 19 Apr 95 08:26:13 EDT Subject: JFK's B-58 Larry writes, re: plans for passenger B-58s: >This is not the most unusual ride for a civilian however. >The plans to get Jack Kennedy to ride is a suitably appointed >B-58A Hustler weapons pod, to a summit with the Soviets, has >to rank right up there. This was during the SST gap years. >Pres. Kennedy nixed this plan real quick! Yeah, especially if there was no way to sneak Angie Dickinson aboard. 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: larry@ichips.intel.com Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 11:44:35 -0700 Subject: Re: Neat Pilot Report in this weeks AW&ST >Re: B-2 not commercially viable due to ATC tracking problem >Hopefully, Larry is joking. Most all civil aircraft using ATC services are >required to carry an active radar beacon (transponder) capable of giving >altitude information on request. You guys are starting to scare me here. Yes, Larry is joking. But I wasn't joking about the Northrop video. Larry ------------------------------ From: MiGEater1@aol.com Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 17:51:43 -0400 Subject: Declassified Black Photos I don't know if these sites have been published here before, but here goes. There is an FTP site that contains formerly classified spy plane and satellite images of the Soviet Union during the turbulent 60's. There is about a page of files to choose from. Bomber bases, Airfields and a volcano. They can be found at ftp site: edcftp.cr.usgs.gov logon: anonymous pub/Data/DCLASS file transfer mode: binary or on the Web: http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov If I remember correctly, some area as small as 30k and some are over 1 meg. I downloaded the bomber base and the photo is a very clear full screen image on a 640x480 display. Cheers to all. John ------------------------------ From: David Lednicer Date: Wed, 19 Apr 1995 17:15:37 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Latest Executive Order You may not have noticed, but President Clinton signed an interesting Executive Order two days ago. To quote the Seattle Times: "The primary element of the order is the automatic declassification without review of most documents that are 25 years old or older. Previously, documents remained classified indefinitely. Now, unless the document fits into a group of narrow exceptions, it will automatically be open to public view." "The order also puts a 10-year-limit on how long documents remain classified, requiring that after that period they become public unless a review determines they should not be. A number of other steps - less substantive and called mostly rehtorical by outside experts - also puts the Clinton White House on the side of quicker, easier declassification." As noted later in the article, "millions, perhaps billions, of pages of documents might emerge in numerous areas". - ------------------------------------------------------------------- David Lednicer | "Applied Computational Fluid Dynamics" Analytical Methods, Inc. | email: dave@amiwest.com 2133 152nd Ave NE | tel: (206) 643-9090 Redmond, WA 98052 USA | fax: (206) 746-1299 ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #246 ********************************* 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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