From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #374 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Friday, 4 August 1995 Volume 05 : Number 374 In this issue: Re: stray thoughts Re: D-21 program Re: closed-cycle engine A Surprose on the Road Re: stray thoughts Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #373 Re: stray thoughts 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: George Allegrezza 03-Aug-1995 0754 Date: Thu, 3 Aug 95 07:59:45 EDT Subject: Re: stray thoughts Matt Velazquez wrote: >The second Perseus A aircraft (AU-003) crashed at 36,000 ft >on November 22, 1995, just after the engine was turned off ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ >and the airplane committed to coming home. The powerplant >is, in fact, 60 kW, but it's a closed-cycle reciprocating engine. >It had been aloft for about three hours, and the team had been >deployed to Dryden for much longer than four weeks. Glad to see that time machine project is working out. Seriously, what's a "closed-cycle" engine? Thanks, George George Allegrezza | Digital Equipment Corporation | From there to here, from here to there, Mobile Systems Business | Funny things are everywhere. Littleton MA USA | allegrezza@ljsrv2.enet.dec.com | -- Dr. Seuss ------------------------------ From: neil@bedford.progress.COM (Neil Galarneau) Date: Thu, 3 Aug 95 08:06:29 EDT Subject: Re: D-21 program > From: ConsLaw@aol.com [snip] > > 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.< > > -The bigger problem with the D-21 is they couldn't land it. Now remote > control technology is much better. Even so, I suspect it will be much > easier to land a big-winged TR2+ than some kind of supersonic RPV. Not only is remote control technology much better, but automated landing technology is also much better. There is an automated landing computer on the F/A-18 for carrier landings which works wonderfully except the Navy doesn't want their pilots to forget how to do the landings, so they don't use it (according to Orr Kelly anyways). So I don't think landing the D-21 would be a big problem today. Neil neil@progress.com ------------------------------ From: "Matt Velazquez" Date: 3 Aug 1995 09:17:06 U Subject: Re: closed-cycle engine Reply to: RE>closed-cycle engine I caught the time-machine thing about five seconds after I sent the message. Oh well. The 'mishap' happened in 1994, not 1995. There isn't much air at very high altitude, so you have to compensate for it somehow. Most aircraft accomplish this by inserting turbochargers between the inlet and engine intake manifold, but this is only practical up to a point. At 30 km (98,000 ft), the required compression ratio for a turbocharging system exceeds 80! All that turbo- machinery can get quite heavy, thus limiting the maximum altitude. Aurora's solution has been to provide the airplane with its own oxygen system. O2 feeds from a big tank in the fuselage directly into the engine. If we were to just leave it at that, the combustion would be stoichiometric, very hot, and cause engine failure in very short order. The reason that doesn't happen in airbreathing systems is that the nitrogen naturally present absorbs the combustion heat and does the useful work of the engine. In order to prevent the engine from getting too hot with pure O2 injection, the exhaust gases (CO2, mostly) are looped back into the engine inlet and mixed with the fuel and oxygen. It's a neat solution, although it required a lot of cooling to keep the temperatures reasonable. It also eats oxygen at roughly the speed of light. Anyway, I digress from the topic, the charter, the whole deal. Back to skunky stuff, please. T Velazquez Aurora Flight Sciences (no, not that Aurora) ------------------------------ From: Mary Shafer Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 11:00:17 -0400 (EDT) Subject: A Surprose on the Road There are going to be some surprised folks on the roads between Edwards and Barstow this morning. As I was turning down Lilly Drive, I met a lowboy with a D-21 on the back. Regards, Mary Mary Shafer DoD #0362 KotFR shafer@ursa-major.spdcc.com URL http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/People/Shafer/mary.html Some days it don't come easy/And some days it don't come hard Some days it don't come at all/And these are the days that never end.... ------------------------------ From: David Windle Date: Thu, 03 Aug 1995 20:02:19 Subject: Re: stray thoughts Al Jagnow wrote: >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. How about an electric translucent/transaparent Lifting Body LTA craft. Inherently Stealthy to Radar, IR, even Visual or Acoustic sensors, no power consumption for lift and relatively inexpensive.If it's Radar coverage you're looking for ..it could house one helluvah antenna. Laser/microwave power transmission (not so stealthy!) or a hybrid of fuel cells/solar panels could make for a very useful - and practical vehicle. Ok..I admit it...I'm an LTA man :) Best D ------------------------------ From: Mike.Mueller@jpl.nasa.gov (Mike Mueller) Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 12:13:32 -0700 Subject: Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #373 At 12:06 AM 8/3/95, skunk-works-digest-owner@gaia.ucs.orst.edu wrote: >> How about an electric helicopter (or some kind of similar ducted fan >> type craft) powered by a fuel cell, covered with an ------------------------------ From: kuryakin@arn.net (Rick Pavek) Date: Thu, 3 Aug 1995 16:47:14 -0500 Subject: Re: stray thoughts +How about an electric translucent/transaparent Lifting Body LTA craft. +Inherently Stealthy to Radar, IR, even Visual or Acoustic sensors, no +power consumption for lift and relatively inexpensive.If it's Radar +coverage you're looking for ..it could house one helluvah antenna. +Laser/microwave power transmission (not so stealthy!) or a hybrid of fuel +cells/solar panels could make for a very useful - and practical vehicle. + +Ok..I admit it...I'm an LTA man :) Gee... something like the DEA blimps? Speaking of which... I caught a clip from the CBS radio news that talked briefly about a surveillance blimp hanger that had burned and took the blimps with it. Anybody have any other details? Like... is the drug war escallating? Sounds like fodder for a Clancy novel. Rick ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #374 ********************************* 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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