From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #372 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Wednesday, 2 August 1995 Volume 05 : Number 372 In this issue: Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #371 Re: NASA's Blackbirds on TV Re- Stealth UAV? Re: stray thoughts Pulsed Detonation Engines BQM-145A 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, 1 Aug 1995 07:31:49 -0700 Subject: Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #371 At 12:06 AM 8/1/95, skunk-works-digest-owner@gaia.ucs.orst.edu wrote: >On Beyond 2000 this evening (the half-hour version), the Discovery Channel >had a 6-minute or so segment on NASA's SR-71 fleet, ... > >They talked about some of the research projects they had planned, including >volcanic emissions (they wanted to have a pallet with the right sensor >equipment ready and waiting for the next eruption, wherever it was. > Unfortunately, NASA apparently decided that it could not afford to add science missions (which were managed by JPL) to the aeronautical flight research and training missions. This decision was made before the USAF was funded to share the birds. In my opinion, NASA was getting a lot of science for a small additional cost per mission. I got to know the people working on the JPL program and managed to get out for a full blown tour last year. We not only saw the SR-71 take-off and land twice, but also the NASA F-18 as a chase plane roaring over our heads at 20 feet above the deck as we stood at the mid-point of the runway hold short line! Not to mention a B-52 take-off and B-2 test flight. ------------------------------ From: "Christian Jacobsen" Date: 1 Aug 1995 09:02:59 +0100 Subject: Re: NASA's Blackbirds on TV russellk@BIX.com sed: > They showed a local school group (junior high?) touring Dryden and kids > sitting in the cockpit and having the stick explained. envy> I work at NASA/Ames Research Center and I tell you, the kids around here get the greatest opportunities! A few months back they had busloads of kids coming in to run various robots that were on an active volcano in Maui......before that kids got to use our Telepresence VR setup to play with Dante II, the walker that went into Mt Spur in Alaska....and now we have a bunch of kids here from a local school getting to use the latest and greatest multimedia systems to press their own CD ROMs for a Technology class... Geez, and all I get to do is keep the Macs here up and running. Wish I had opportunities like that when I was in school!! Sorry for dropping off-charter a bit... - - Christian jacobsen@george.arc.nasa.gov ------------------------------ From: jblue@gate.net (Jeff Blue) Date: Tue, 1 Aug 1995 12:29:24 -0400 Subject: Re- Stealth UAV? > >At some point (likely in the preliminary design/evaluation stage), an obvious >question to ask might be something like "How does this compare to a high-speed >overflight, that costs more but has less exposure time to enemy fire, and is >harder to hit when it is fired upon?" Not to say that the UAV option isn't >attractive, but a smart guy would definitely ask that question before proceeding >with FSD production of a dedicated autonomous reconnaisance platform. > Why not a UAV designed for high-speed overflight, if for nothing else but to avoid the political ramifications of Gary Powers type incidents? Along this line, why was the D-21 program unsuccessful. Would not a major D-21 problem, hatch/imagery recovery, be eliminated by current satelite relay technology. Jeff Blue / jblue@gate.net ------------------------------ From: jagnow@al.weeg.uiowa.edu (Al Jagnow) Date: Tue, 1 Aug 95 11:33:47 -0500 Subject: Re: stray thoughts Just a few stray thoughts 1. A few months back something crashed at Edwards after being aloft at about 40,000 ft for about 4 weeks. The crash occurred immediately after navigation was switched over to the secondary system. I remember something in the notes about it carrying a 60kW fuel cell. 2. Los Alamos Labs has developed an (almost) room temperature superconducting ceramic wire. 3. Somewhere (can't remember) I saw a note about electric motors capable of developing something like 8 hp per pound. 4. Laser Focus World recently had an article about optically active organic films. 5. The state-of-the-art in radar absorbing coatings has advanced tremendosly so there is no longer such a huge weight penalty. Speculation: How about an electric helicopter (or some kind of similar ducted fan type craft) powered by a fuel cell, covered with an organic-radar-absorbing-color-changing film. (A film that can change color to match the background or the sky?) You would need lights on it (or a luminescent organic film) to be able to match the illumination of the daytime sky when seen from below. It could use GPS navigation and could carry multi-spectral video equipment with an up-link to a satellite. It could also be a large aperture passive radar receiver. At an altitude of 40,000 + feet, such a craft would be unobservable from the ground except when it eclipsed stars or the moon at night (need to be careful about the moon). If it was stealthy enough it might even be difficult to observe from the air - even at close range. (If you were a pilot would you report a pink helicopter hovering at 40,000 ft that didn't show on your radar?) It seems that the technology for such a craft exists. The question is: Has such a craft been constructed, and is it operational? I could even speculate that such a craft might be funded through DEA as part of the "war on drugs." - it might not be as secure as normal military channels, but it might be easier to hide ?? just another stray thought....................... ------------------------------ From: "Terry Colvin" Date: Tue, 01 Aug 95 09:30:00 EST Subject: Pulsed Detonation Engines Forwarded from space-tech: Date: Mon, 31 Jul 1995 15:02:42 -0700 From: Bogdan Udrea Subject: Pulsed Detonation Engines Thank you for the advice. I will contact Dr. Pratt. I believe we are speaking about different configurations and I apologize for not giving more details when I started my quest. The papers I read, by Eidelman, Grossman and Lottati referred to a tube filled with an explosive mixture of air and some fuel (ethanol I think). One end of the tube was closed and housed the injection head and aft of it, the air intakes. An ignition device was placed close to the open end of the tube. From this igniter detonation waves were sent periodically towards the closed end, also called a fire wall). It looks like the "bulk" of the thrust is produced when the detonation wave hits the fire wall. The thrust varies with the frequency of the detonations and the practical limit (for a given cross-section) is the maximum frequency with which fuel can be injected in the tube. This was the airbreathing device. In my view the rocket version would have a rocket engine like injector head and indeed a pre-combustion-mixing chamber (careful here since the products should be explosive). Bogdan Udrea Ph# (206) 685-1182 - office (206) 545-8481 - home ______________________________________________________ Kool quote of the week: Eat, sleep, play. What else is there? Source: Some vid game ad On 31 Jul 1995, TIM MITCHELL wrote: > Bogdan Udrea (udrea@aa.washington.edu) wrote: > : I've read some CFD studies on air-breathing PDEs. > : They are envisioned for use on both subsonic and > : supersonic vehicles. I believe that at high supersonic velocities > : the air inlet becomes too complex and thus prohibitive. > : Do you think a rocket PDE is feasible (inject both fuel and oxidizer > : in the chamber)? Without an air intake such an engine might propel > : violent manouevering vehicles like air-to-air missiles. > : Let's discuss this. > > Bogdan, you should talk Dr. David Pratt in the Mechanical Engineering > dept. there. He is one of the premier researchers in hypersonic air > breathing propulsion. In air breathing PDE the fuel injectors are on the > forebody of the aircraft. Fuel is pulsed through the injectors and > fuel/air mixing occurs in the oblique shock waves generated by the shape > of the fore body itself. Combustion occurs at a strong shock generated > at approx. the mid point of the vehicle undercarriage. The rear portion > of the vehicle is shaped like a supersonic exhaust nozzle cut > lengthwise. For rocket PDE to be effective both fuel and oxidizer would > have to pulsed into a pre-combustion chamber and mixed before combustion. > > Timothy L. Mitchell > Aerothermodynamics lab > Mechanical Engineering > University of Nevada, Las Vegas > tlm@nevada.edu > > > - ------------------------------ Date: 31 Jul 1995 17:36:37 GMT From: TIM MITCHELL Subject: Pulsed Detonation Engines was: Supersonic airliners (was Re: FESTIP v. X-33 ?) Bogdan Udrea (udrea@aa.washington.edu) wrote: : I've read some CFD studies on air-breathing PDEs. : They are envisioned for use on both subsonic and : supersonic vehicles. I believe that at high supersonic velocities : the air inlet becomes too complex and thus prohibitive. : Do you think a rocket PDE is feasible (inject both fuel and oxidizer : in the chamber)? Without an air intake such an engine might propel : violent manouevering vehicles like air-to-air missiles. : Let's discuss this. Bogdan, you should talk Dr. David Pratt in the Mechanical Engineering dept. there. He is one of the premier researchers in hypersonic air breathing propulsion. In air breathing PDE the fuel injectors are on the forebody of the aircraft. Fuel is pulsed through the injectors and fuel/air mixing occurs in the oblique shock waves generated by the shape of the fore body itself. Combustion occurs at a strong shock generated at approx. the mid point of the vehicle undercarriage. The rear portion of the vehicle is shaped like a supersonic exhaust nozzle cut lengthwise. For rocket PDE to be effective both fuel and oxidizer would have to pulsed into a pre-combustion chamber and mixed before combustion. Timothy L. Mitchell Aerothermodynamics lab Mechanical Engineering University of Nevada, Las Vegas tlm@nevada.edu ------------------------------ From: chosa@chosa.win.net (BYRON WEBER) Date: Tue, 01 Aug 1995 17:18:03 Subject: BQM-145A Does anyone know the statis of the BQM-145A, a UAV developed by Teledyne Ryan? Is this a Tier or something else? In June 1994 the New York Times reported it crashed. Byron ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #372 ********************************* 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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