From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #256 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Monday, 1 May 1995 Volume 05 : Number 256 In this issue: B2 Question Re: B2 Question Re: B2 Question Re: B2 Question John Andrews Update 4/29 Re: B2 Question Aurora movie! 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: acobley@mic.dundee.ac.uk Date: Sun, 30 Apr 95 12:14:24 PDT Subject: B2 Question The following appeared in a recent UK magazine, would anybody care to comment ? - ---------------cut---------------------------------- It's (the B2) maximum weight was stated to be 367000 pounds but the aircraft had only 10 tyres on its three landing gears. Each tyre had to stand a weight of 36,700 pounds and that was nigh- impossible, and wwould be dangerous when landing the aircraft.. (Snip!) ****** painstakingly addressed the aircratf's dimensions and deemed it impossible to store 28,000 gallons of fuel in the space available. This in itself would take up 227,000 pounds of weight, leaving little room for the small matter of the aircratf structure, flight crew, and bomb payload - ------------------------------------- Andy Cobley : acobley@mic.dundee.ac.uk WWW:http://www.mic.dundee.ac.uk http://www.mic.dundee.ac.uk/ft/ft.html (Fortean Times On Line) Join us on alt.misc.forteana This message was sent by Chameleon via an account on demon. The address's above are correct even if the reply address isn't ! - ------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: dadams@netcom.com (Dean Adams) Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 06:39:24 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: B2 Question > The following appeared in a recent UK magazine, would anybody > care to comment ? > ---------------cut---------------------------------- > It's (the B2) maximum weight was stated to be 367000 pounds > but the aircraft had only 10 tyres on its three landing gears. > Each tyre had to stand a weight of 36,700 pounds and that was > nigh-impossible, and wwould be dangerous when landing the > aircraft.. (Snip!) The B-2 landing gear was adapted from the system designed for the Boeing 767, which is in the same takeoff weight class as the B-2 and has been landing perfectly safely for quite a few years now. FYI: the maximum landing weight for the heaviest class of 767 is 320,000 lbs., and that is with the same number of tires as the B-2. > ****** painstakingly addressed the aircratf's dimensions and > deemed it impossible to store 28,000 gallons of fuel in the space > available. This in itself would take up 227,000 pounds of weight, > leaving little room for the small matter of the aircratf structure, > flight crew, and bomb payload I'd say his "painstaking addressing" in that area is just as invalid as the comments on the landing gear. The B-2's empty weight is about 100,000 lbs, the maximum bomb load is 50,000 lbs, and the max fuel load is around 200,000 lbs. Given the maximum takeoff weight is 400,000 lbs, I don't see much of a problem. ------------------------------ From: freeman@netcom.com (Jay Reynolds Freeman) Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 10:05:35 -0700 Subject: Re: B2 Question As far as the tire question goes, I believe that some versions of the Boeing 747 have maximum weights in excess of 500,000 pounds, and they have a total of eighteen tires. Thus the B2 seems to have a number of tires for its weight which is entirely consistent with the mainstream of aircraft design. -- Jay Freeman ------------------------------ From: dadams@netcom.com (Dean Adams) Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 11:18:52 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: B2 Question > As far as the tire question goes, I believe that some versions of the > Boeing 747 have maximum weights in excess of 500,000 pounds, and they have > a total of eighteen tires. Thus the B2 seems to have a number of tires > for its weight which is entirely consistent with the mainstream of > aircraft design. And let us not forget that the first model of the B-36 bomber used a SINGLE wheel main landing gear, which resulted in an aircraft with similar weight to the B-2 having a total of only four tires. Of course they abandoned it for a four-wheel main gear, but I believe the reason was that the single wheel put too much stress on the runway, not that the aircraft itself was unsafe. ------------------------------ From: kuryakin@halcyon.com (Illya Kuryakin) Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 13:38:33 -0500 Subject: John Andrews Update 4/29 Jim Goodall relayed the following this morning. John Andrews was up and walking Saturday, the cancer is not apparently grave. He's progressing very well, though he's not talking yet. The stroke was not related directly to the cancer. It appears to have affected his speech processing areas of the brain as he's not able to say more than a few individual words. The Bladder cancer is of a type similar to Cervical cancer. Sometime in the near future, when John has recovered sufficiently, they will go in and scrape the layer of skin that is affected. (Pardon the explanation, I am not medically trained, this is of course layman's terminology). Rick Pavek kuryakin@arn.net Illya Kuryakin "HA!!" U.N.C.L.E. Network Services Ruby kuryakin@halcyon.com Galactic Gumshoe They told me to put a disclaimer here. And _I_ run the place. :} ------------------------------ From: Dave Cox Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 13:23:43 Subject: Re: B2 Question > And let us not forget that the first model of the B-36 bomber used > a SINGLE wheel main landing gear, which resulted in an aircraft with > similar weight to the B-2 having a total of only four tires. > > Of course they abandoned it for a four-wheel main gear, but I believe > the reason was that the single wheel put too much stress on the runway, > not that the aircraft itself was unsafe. Correct. There were only 2 runways in the US which could handle it. ------------------------------ From: lumber@hopf.dnai.com (Jack-Lee Gibbons) Date: Sun, 30 Apr 1995 22:04:26 -0700 Subject: Aurora movie! I just saw an ad for a movie about the "Aurora" aircraft. It will premier on HBO on May 12th but I don't know what time. I didn't catch the whole name of the movie but it started with Aurora. The few clips that I saw didn't really tell me what the story line was going to be and they only showed the plane flying at extremely high altitudes. Does anyone have any better information? **************************************************************************** ******************************************************************** "Hey ho! Let's go!" "I've done it over and over. You see, I kill Breeders." "God is dead." - Nietzche "Nietzche is dead." - God Lumber ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #256 ********************************* 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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