From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #366 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Wednesday, 26 July 1995 Volume 05 : Number 366 In this issue: Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #365 Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #365 Lockheed Vandenberg Launch Aviation and Space - Oshkosh 95 Aurora B-2 Munitions *&!% AW&ST WWW Lockheed launch delayed. U-2 History [[Suspected Duplicate]] 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: Mike.Mueller@jpl.nasa.gov (Mike Mueller) Date: Tue, 25 Jul 1995 07:34:36 -0700 Subject: Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #365 >I will agree that the economies of scale deminish only slightly with the >production of large and complex aircraft (specificly the B-2). The one >question that I have that I have never heard a figure for is, how much >of the B-2 progams cost to date is (or was) the initial research and >development. I bet that is a big part of the fixed cost of the project. > >Just another software type question. > >Bob Russell >Systems Programmer >State of Georgia, DOAS Since Northrup-Grumman bid $750M each for another 20, that would seem to indicate that the $2B each price for the first 20 included $1.25B of development cost, or $25B total. I have seen the actual figure, but don't remember if this is exactly it. ------------------------------ From: Tim Ottinger Date: Tue, 25 Jul 95 11:25:33 CDT Subject: Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #365 : :Since Northrup-Grumman bid $750M each for another 20, that would seem to :indicate that the $2B each price for the first 20 included $1.25B of :development cost, or $25B total. I have seen the actual figure, but don't :remember if this is exactly it. : Let's hope that a really cool 750M plane is harder to cancel than a really cool 2B plane. BTW: I saw the quick fly-by at Dayton. Very nice. Banks really steep for a big plane, besides the coolness of seeing a tail-less plane fly. TR1 was also there (so my message isn't entirely non-skunky). - -- Tim - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | You aren't an expert until you've done the work. | - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- | Tim Ottinger tottinge@csci.csc.com (217)351-8508x2420 | | CSC CIS Champaign, IL - The Silicon Prairie " -7420(fax) | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ ------------------------------ From: Jay.Waller@analog.com Date: Tue, 25 Jul 95 14:53 EDT Subject: Lockheed Vandenberg Launch Lockheed has scheduled the launch of their LLV (Lockheed Launch Vehicle) for Wed. July 26. The launch window is 11 AM to 6 PM PDT. This will be the first commercial launch from Vandenberg. I'm not at all familiar with the area so I don't know if you could see it or not, but I thought I'd post this just in case. Its not skunky, but it is a Lockheed bird! Regards Jay ------------------------------ From: "Terry Colvin" Date: Tue, 25 Jul 95 07:18:46 EST Subject: Aviation and Space - Oshkosh 95 Date: 24 Jul 1995 18:56 UT From: Ron Baalke Subject: NASA Reports on Aviation, Space Advances at Oshkosh '95 Don Nolan-Proxmire July 24, 1995 Headquarters, Washington, DC (Phone: 202/358-1983) Michael Mewhinney Keith Henry Ames Research Center Langley Research Center (Phone: 415/604-3937) (Phone: 804/864-6124) Cam Martin Lori Rachul Dryden Flight Research Center Lewis Research Center (Phone: 805/258-3448) (Phone: 216/433-8806) RELEASE: 95-119 NASA REPORTS ON AVIATION, SPACE ADVANCES AT OSHKOSH '95 "National Leadership/National Partnership" is NASA's theme at this yearUs Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Fly-In Convention and Sport Aviation Exhibition July 27 - Aug. 2 at Oshkosh, WI. Exhibits highlighting the latest innovations in aerospace research will be featured in an updated exhibit hall and technical aerospace forums at AmericaUs largest fly-in convention and air show. Craftspersons from NASA's research centers will discuss and demonstrate how they make wind tunnel models, instruments and other devices that make NASA's advancements in aeronautical research possible. Computer experts and novices alike will enjoy an exhibit area devoted to a new on-line Internet World Wide Web hookup devoted to general aviation. A featured exhibit identifies unique partnerships formed between government, industry and academia to revitalize the general aviation industry in areas ranging from modernizing cockpits to reducing aircraft weight and cost. A concept demonstrator flight simulator will introduce advanced general aviation technology. Highlighted are activities of selected companies developing general aviation technology through the NASA Small Business Innovation Research program. Another exhibit showcases NASA's role in making air travel safer for thousands of pilots and millions of passengers. The agency's research on weather-related hazards such as wind shear and icing, and on new technology to combat them will be featured. Visitors will learn how the products of NASA research travel from the lab to the runway in a recap of the payoffs of NASA's aviation research. The way NASA technology is utilized in a variety of products, ranging from new engines and nacelles for the Boeing 777 to small aircraft, automobiles and sailboats, also will be discussed. Although NASA's Oshkosh exhibit is geared toward aviation, exciting displays of the agency's space programs will include the latest on the Hubble Space Telescope and the international Space Station. NASA's contribution to the EAA forum program includes a panel of distinguished researchers, government officials and industry representatives who will discuss aviationUs past and future. Other presentations will range from using revolutionary composite components in wind tunnel research to icing protection, advanced cockpit systems for general aviation aircraft and the challenge of flying subsonic aircraft at very high altitudes. Four NASA aeronautics research centers are supporting the Agency's presence at Oshkosh this year: Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA, Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, CA, Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, and Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, OH. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, is contributing space exhibits and interpreters. - end - NOTE TO EDITORS: News media attending Oshkosh '95 are invited to participate in a signing ceremony/media briefing and award presentation Saturday, July 29, at 10 a.m. at the EAA press site. NASA administrator Daniel Goldin will be present to sign for NASA. The agreement will formally establish a consortium for the revitalization of general aviation in this country. The consortium is made up of NASA, the FAA, U.S. aviation companies and universities. In addition, winners of the first NASA/FAA general aviation university design competition will be announced, and NASA officials will unveil plans for a new general aviation CD-ROM and the establishment of a general aviation site on the Internet World Wide Web. ------------------------------ From: Patrick Wiggins Date: Tue, 25 Jul 1995 15:05:57 -0600 (MDT) Subject: Aurora Howdy! Over the years I've heard stories of some sort of "new fangled flying machine" called Aurora. I've even seen stories about it in Aviation Week (though not recently). And now I find myself being asked about it when I do some of my public astronomy talks. So, anybody care to quote the "party line"? Does it exist? Anybody care to pass on gossip? :-) Thanks very much, Patrick Wiggins, Hansen Planetarium Ed. Dept., SLC, UT email: patrick.wiggins@k12.uen.gen.ut.us ------------------------------ From: "Terry Colvin" Date: Tue, 25 Jul 95 11:27:56 EST Subject: B-2 Munitions :NORTHROP GRUMMAN'S SECOND GPS TEST NOT A COMPLETE SUCCESS Northrop Grumman's second test of a new precision-guided munition for its B-2 Stealth bomber was less than fully successful, with the weapon failing to hook up with a Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite. In a test conducted July 6 at Edwards AFB, Calif., the weapon was to have acquired a GPS satellite signal within 10 seconds and guided itself downrange to the target area. Although the GPS-aided Munition (GAM) failed to acquire the GPS signal, it nonetheless impacted within 20 feet of the target area. Northrop Grumman blames the problem with the test on the GPS receiver, which was a pre-production unit. The test will be conducted again with a GPS production unit. On June 15, the company announced that the first critical test of GAM was a success. Further GAM tests will be conducted this month and continue throughout the year. The first operational GAMs are to be delivered to the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo. next July, reports Friday's edition of Defense Daily. ------------------------------ From: wizard@sccsi.com (John F. Regus) Date: Tue, 25 Jul 1995 17:03:18 -0500 Subject: *&!% AW&ST WWW I found a net address for aw&st doing a net search through the eds netscape net search facility. When I tried to surf over to the site -- nothing--. Is this a restricted site that you have to pay to belong to? Enquiring minds want to know. My question is still up in the air...i.e. with only a limited number of defense dollars available, would you spend more on the F-22 or the B-2? ************************************************************************* * STRATACOM WORLDNET * internet: wizard@sccsi.com | SYS/370/390 * internet: STRATACOM_WORLDNET@msn.com | Systems Software Engineering * voice: 713-960-0045 | Data and Tele-Communications * fax/data:713-960-0015 | * WUI: REGUSHOU | John F. Regus, Consultant ************************************************************************* ------------------------------ From: JOHN Date: Tue, 25 Jul 95 21:12:55 EDT Subject: Lockheed launch delayed. Straining the charter of the group a little ! (Just a little) press-release@augusta.lmsc.lockheed.com LLV-1 LAUNCH POSTPONED VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, California, July 25, 1995 -- The first flight of the Lockheed Launch Vehicle-1, scheduled for this morning, has been delayed until engineers solve two problems that arose on the launch pad Sunday evening as the vehicle was being readied for its historic liftoff. The anomalies were identified during the final stages of integrated tests on the vehicle and its payload, said Howard Trudeau, Missile Systems Division vice president, Lockheed Martin Missile & Space, Sunnyvale. The first occurred during a mission dry run, and the second during final vehicle closeout testing. "While I would like to proceed with the first LLV launch, it is essential that we understand and solve both anomalies before we proceed," Trudeau said. One problem was traced to a mechanical failure of an actuator in the second-stage controller. A replacement actuator is being tested in Sunnyvale today and will be flown to Vandenberg and installed in the vehicle. The second problem, which involves the LLV first-stage Flight Safety System, is being studied. As late as Monday afternoon, the LLV teammates were confident that the delay would be minor and that they could launch on July 26 or 27. However, it soon became evident that the risks were unacceptable, both the to LLV teammates and to the customer, CTA, Inc., whose GEMStar-1 satellite is the payload. A new launch date will be established only when the investigation is completed. A delay of one or two weeks is likely. "We will launch only when the vehicle is ready," Trudeau said. "There is no substitute for success in this business." # # # July 25, 1995 95-81 Missiles & Space Public Relations Office Contact: Don Bane (408) 743-0687 Email: donbane@lmsc.lockheed.com ------------------------------ From: "Terry Colvin" Date: Tue, 25 Jul 95 17:10:17 EST Subject: U-2 History [[Suspected Duplicate]] RESEARCHING THE U-2 STORY An appeal for help by Chris Pocock In the preface to my original book DRAGON LADY - THE HISTORY OF THE U-2 SPYPLANE, published in 1989, I noted that "without access to official records, this history of the U-2 program cannot pretend to be defini- tive". However, various insiders in the U-2 program congratulated me on its breadth and accuracy, and encouraged me to "do another one". I have subsequently met and interviewed many more participants in the U-2 story, including British and Chinese personnel. I also helped preserve one of only 11 remaining early-model U-2 aircraft in the UK in 1992. Through this whole process, I seem to have become the 'unofficial' U-2 historian! Nevertheless, for five years I resisted the temptation to "do another one", until I was recently prompted by [name of publisher omitted be- cause I don't know if Chris wants this spread worldwide yet. -JD]. I have now embarked on a revision and update of DRAGON LADY for them, which will be published in later 1995 to coincide with the 40th anni- versary of the U-2's first flight. Following the collapse of the USSR, Comecon and the Warsaw Pact, a world climate which was more conducive to the release of previously- classified information on Cold War operations came into effect. In the US, for instance, CIA director Robert Gates announced significant change to the Agency's historical review process in early 1992. In the former USSR, researchers began gaining access on an ad-hoc basis to ar- chives and participants in formerly secret programs. However, this process does not appear to have had any effect on some significant US archives relating to the U-2 program. Although most of the memoranda relating to political control of the program at higher government levels has been declassified, in response to periodic re- quests from political historians, biographers etc, virtually none of the operational archive has been released. (Except for some material relating to the Cuba Missile Crisis, which was released for research- ers working within that context). There is some debate over the extent to which U-2 operational archives still exist. The Lockheed 'Skunk Works'was obliged to shred a portion of its archive in the mid-1980s in response to a government investiga- tion over improper or non-existent classification. However, I now un- derstand that some significant material relating to early U-2 history remains, held within the U-2 program office and at the company's Rye Canyon storage facility. The US Air Force Historical Research Center maintains unit and command histories relating to the Air Force part of the U-2 story, but the mil- itary did not control the most significant U-2 operations in the time- frame of my interest, which is the 1950s and 1960s. Records also exist within Federal Depositories, and these include CIA documents which were consulted by CIA historian Don Welzenbach when he was assigned to write a history of the U-2 program in the 1980s. This history was subsequently revised and completed by another CIA histori- an, Greg Pedlow, after input from Leo Geary and others. THREE THOUSAND copies of this work were produced, supposedly for internal consumption only within the Agency. Although it remains classified, copies have been circulated outside the Agency to interested parties with the necessary clearance. At a minimum, that document ought to be released! Don Welzenbach (who is now retired) has been given to understand that the only reason for it remaining classified is the foreign government sensitivity, ironic- ally including my own government! If so, I frankly find that argument somewhat disingenuous, considering that the involvement of the UK, Norway, Pakistan, India, Thailand etc has been well-documented in print already, as have all of the 'targets' (USSR, Warsaw Pact, Suez, PRC, Cuba, Dimona, Mururoa, etc). Even if one accepts this constraint, however, it should be possible to release this history after censorship. As long as this censorship were not too crude, the essential elements would be retained eg the story of the development and overflights. Going further, though, I would like to gain access to the original source material in the Federal Archives' and to the remaining material held at Lockheed. The Skunk Works would request release of any such material through its present-day security reporting channels, but be- cause the U-2 was built and flown for the CIA as well as the Air Force, I presume that any such requests would eventually find their way to the original 'customer' at Langley. There is, I believe, a potential logjam here, and I need some well- placed 'sponsors' to help clear it! Why should you help? Hasn't the U-2 story already been told? HELL, NO! For sure. aspects of the story have been told. The politics have been well-covered by Beschloss(1) and others. For photo-interpre- tation and intelligence analysis for the national authorities, there is excellent work by Brugioni.(2) For the Lockheed perspective, the U-2 story forms a (relatively small) part of Kelly Johnson's autobiography, and the more recent book by Ben Rich.(3) But my work concentrates on the development and operational perspective...the amazing work done to create, deploy, maintain and modify this unique aircraft. Apart from mine, the only hardcover book which has ever covered this territory was Frank Powers' autobiography in 1970. I want to highlight the role played by such people as Ozzie Ritland, Leo Geary, Jim Cunningham, John Parangosky, Dick Boehme, Bob Murphy, Stan Beerli, Bud Wheelon... that's just a selection, but they are names you don't hear about in the existing literature. I want to document the overflights: although various participants have recounted their stories from memory, I need access to the archives to check for accuracy, time- frames etc. I already have the "flesh" of the story, but I don't have the "skeleton"! Ironically, I foresee no problem in getting the Soviet side of the story, and the Chinese have published an official history detailing their attempts to combat the U-2 overflights, which has been trans- lated for me. And yet the US Government, which has nothing to lose by releasing details of this major success story, has not yet extended its co-operation. I welcome offers of direct help, or suggestions about how to proceed further. Chris Pocock Dragon's Dream Grove Lane Uxbridge UB8 3RG United Kingdom tel or fax +44 1895 259317 ________________ (1) "Mayday-Eisenhower, Khruschev, and the U-2 Affair"' pub Harper and Row, 1986 (2) such as "Eyeball to Eyeball - The Inside Story of the Cuban Missile Crisis"' pub Random House, 1990 (3) "Skunk Works" by Ben Rich and Leo Janos, pub Little, Brown, 1994 ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #366 ********************************* 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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