From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #323 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Tuesday, 4 July 1995 Volume 05 : Number 323 In this issue: YB35/49 Re: [ADMIN] dup messages Re: YB35/49 Operation ARGUS Re: [ADMIN] dup messages 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: Charles_E._Smith.wbst200@xerox.com Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 04:03:21 PDT Subject: YB35/49 This group is weird. Seems like everything I`ve worked on is up for discussion! Well, I hope I don`t offend any alien-abducted conspiracy theorists.... but here`s a little stuff that I know about the YB35 an YB 49. I did a very quicky analysis on a new yaw stability concept for a span-loader. My theory was this. Winglets change the effective aspect ratio. A "perfectly" designed winglet would give the same lift distribution across the span/2 whether it was upright or coplanar with the wing. BUT... the yawing moment would change! Voila....Zero(?) drag yaw control with very little change in EM signature. Since a feedback rate control would make quick, small, changes. Problems include things like this would only work for a certain aspect ratio range, etc. Armed with my idea I went about collecting data. I was able to get all the war-report data from Northrop, including all the stability coefficients for both aircraft. (I still have the data, if anyone is interested in modeling the system) The Northrop data suggests that the YB35 was much more stable than the 49. due to the effects of the propellers. (not to mention the gyroscopic effect of those monsters!). The often quoted reason that the YB-49 was too unstable a bombing platform is crazy. The yawing was periodic and predictable. Honeywell had developed a yaw damper that was never tested, but in reality, should have worked fine. The reason the YB`s went away was the jet age. If props had hung around it would have worked. If turbofan engines were available it would have had civil applications. The Airforce wanted FAST bombers, and lumbering along at M0.6 the YB-49 was not in the running. Chuck Smith "Aerospace Engineer to the Stars" ------------------------------ From: leach@oce.orst.edu (Tom Leach) Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 08:15:57 -0700 Subject: Re: [ADMIN] dup messages :) ------------------------------ From: BaDge Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 12:31:39 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: YB35/49 On Mon, 3 Jul 1995 Charles_E._Smith.wbst200@xerox.com wrote: > This group is weird. Seems like everything I`ve worked on is up for > discussion! > Well, I hope I don`t offend any alien-abducted conspiracy theorists.... > but here`s a > little stuff that I know about the YB35 an YB 49. What an interesting seque to my post on the YB/XB-35B! Thanks Chuck. Those were really the glory days, eh? It's quite an honor to have you guys on the List! > Chuck Smith > "Aerospace Engineer to the Stars" regards, BaDge ------------------------------ From: Kathryn & Andreas Gehrs-Pahl Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 17:00:00 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Operation ARGUS Byron Weber posted two responses to my 'Operation ARGUS' article, which include a few misconceptions and errors. The first misconception is, that a 'Byeman Code Name' like 'ARGUS' will not be reassigned to other programs, after the original program is finished. This is not true. Usually, the same code name is not used for another program at the same time, but is frequently reassigned later to other or sometimes similar programs (probably to make it more confusing for the other side). The 'original' use for 'ARGUS' was 'Operation ARGUS' (July 1958 to September 1958), which included three nuclear tests, code named 'ARGUS I', 'ARGUS II', and 'ARGUS III', originally planned as 'HARDTACK-ARGUS', as part of 'Operation HARDTACK'. The operation, which included several other projects, some with its own code names (like 'FLORAL', 'JASON', and 'MIDAS'), was intended to test the effects of exo-atmospheric nuclear explosions, especially in respect to electromagnetic radiation. In particular, their interest focused on the "Christofilos" effect, describing the creation of an artificial radiation belt which could have interfered with radar and radio communication in the 50- to 200-MHz band, endangered orbiting astronauts and spacecraft, and may have been capable of damaging or destroying the arming and fusing mechanisms of ICBMs passing through it. This was a basic physics experiment ARPA program, not an anti-satellite weapon program. Later, the code name 'ARGUS' was used for a payload carried by an aircraft. This aircraft, originally built as a Boeing C-135A-BN 'Stratofreighter', USAF FY-serial '60-0371', Model 717-157, b/n 18146, was converted in 1964 to an NC-135A and used by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) to monitor nuclear explosions. It may have been used briefly in the interim by NASA for tests, before it was used by the Air Force Systems Command (AFSC) [now Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC)] for several tests, since 1969. This included its role as a 'photo documentation platform' with the "ARGUS" payload, featuring lots of antennas on top of the fuselage and several non-standard windows for cameras and infrared sensors on the side. It was also one of the few aircraft which always flew with the original J57-P-59W turbojets, and was never re-equipped with TF33 turbofans. The aircraft is now out of active service, and is used as a training prop for fire/rescue at Kirtland AFB, NM, now designated GC-135A. Other AEC aircraft are still flying from Kirtland AFB, NM, including the two DC9-15F, msn 45826, registered 'N29AF', and msn 47011, registered 'N79SL', owned by the Department of Energy (DoE). The latest use of the code name 'ARGUS' is an electro-optical payload, carried by a Teledyne-Ryan (TRA) AQM-34-based RPV, Model 147, which made its first powered flight from a DC-130A on 08/05/1992, out of Hill AFB, UT. The only source mentioning the use of 'ARGUS' as a code name for a SIGINT or PHOTINT satellite, related to the 'Advanced Rhyolite' - 'ARgus' satellites, seems to be the author William E. Burrows in his book 'Deep Black'. Even though I have a lot of respect for Burrows, I must say that there is quite a bit of guesswork in this book (which is of course understandable), so the use of 'ARGUS' in this case seems to me not quite sure. In the Greek myth, Argus (or Argos) was the son of Phyrixus, builder of the Argo and one of the Argonauts. The leader of the Argonauts was Jason, and Midas was the king of Phrygia, who turned everything he touched to gold. The use of code names based on Greek or Roman myth is relatively frequent in the area of US military space, reconnaissance and intelligence systems, and Lockheed projects / aircraft are usually named after 'celestial objects', whose names are often also based on the same background. Argus (or Argos) was also the name of the hundred-eyed guardian of Io in the Greek myth. This might be one reason for the use of this code name for the two (different ?) electro-optical payloads. - -- 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 Tel: (810) 238-8469 WWW URL: http://www.umcc.umich.edu/~schnars/ - --- --- ------------------------------ From: Kean Stump Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 15:39:05 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Re: [ADMIN] dup messages Found the problem with the dups, an address at unisys that ran on some really *wierd* mail system was routing them back out. Thanks to Dave Cox for a very timely hint. I sent mail to the subscriber and pulled them from the list until they could resolve the problem. And, the smiley face was from my good buddy Tom pressing r when he really meant R... Hi Tom! kean Kean Stump Information Services kean@ucs.orst.edu Oregon State University OSU doesn't pay me to have official opinions. 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