From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #387 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Thursday, 17 August 1995 Volume 05 : Number 387 In this issue: Info please Beware uninformed speculators! You have been warned! Re: Darkstar UAV: Two Hunter Drones Damaged 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: "Terry Colvin" Date: Wed, 16 Aug 95 08:10:24 EST Subject: Info please OK, skunkers. Can anyone help with sources? Please email privately to the originator, Bill, . Terry Terry W. Colvin or Fort Huachuca (Cochise County), Arizona USA "No editor ever likes the way a story tastes unless he pees in it first." -Mark Twain ______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________ Subject: Info please Author: skeptic@listproc.hcf.jhu.edu at smtp Date: 16/8/1995 2:56 AM While travelling recently, I ran across one Ray/Roy Carpenter. A raconteur, certainly, but also a (claimed) SR71 pilot, also U-2 pilot, also a (possibly medically) retired US Navy Commander, also... He is about 70-yrs, and probably a recovered stroke victim. He has 'been there; done that' more than _almost_ anyone I've met in 60-odd years. The stories... The trouble is, in those (sometimes arcane) areas in which _I_ had expertise, he was dead-on in every minute detail. Believability personified. Does anyone know how I might go about 'looking up' this guy? US Naval records, maybe, but what's the best way? Any UFO buffs know about U-2 and/or SR71 ("Blackbird") history, personnel, etc.? Anything, please... Anybody? - - Bill (wdl@netcom.com) William D. Loughman, PhD, FACMG Dir., Medical Genetics Lab (Cytogenetics) Childrens Hosp Med Ctr, 747 52nd St, Oakland, CA 94609 USA Dept office: (510)428-3550 Dept FAX: (510)450-5874 ------------------------------ From: George Allegrezza 16-Aug-1995 1110 Date: Wed, 16 Aug 95 11:15:33 EDT Subject: Beware uninformed speculators! You have been warned! - ----- begin included message ----- From: TNPUBS::US1RMC::"AEROSP-L%SIVM.BITNET@PSUVM.PSU.EDU" "Aeronautics & Aerospace History" 16-AUG-1995 11:07:26.79 To: Multiple recipients of list AEROSP-L CC: Subj: Re: Darkstar? Andreas, Your comments on DarkStar and other Tier program aircraft were greatly appreciated. A good summary...and one I sorely needed. You mentioned the "Skunk Works" mailing list. How do I get on this? Again, thanks for sharing your files... Jay Miller - ----- end included message ----- George George Allegrezza | Digital Equipment Corporation | "Why don't they just shut up and Mobile Systems Business | take their ass-whipping like men?" Littleton MA USA | allegrezza@ljsrv2.enet.dec.com | -- Charles Barkley ------------------------------ From: Kathryn & Andreas Gehrs-Pahl Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 14:33:13 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: Darkstar I want to answer Jay Miller's question about subscribing to the Skunk Works list, and Murat Ozhamam's about Turkey's procurement plans for Gnat 750s in this post. I also have compiled a little Tier UAV bibliography (not complete by any means). Everyone interested in Lockheed's 'Skunk Works' and 'black' aerospace projects in general, can join the Skunk Works Mailing List, by sending the following message to: subscribe skunk-works or, if you prefer the digest: subscribe skunk-works-digest or even both. If you want to submit something, send it to: . If you have a problem, you can write to: , or , and Kean Stump, the list owner/administrator, will help you. If you want to get back issues, they are available (via anonymous FTP) from , and are located in the directory: /pub/skunk-works/digest/vXX..nYYY where XX is the volume number, and YYY the issue number. And here is the Tier UAV bibliography, containing recent Aviation Week & Space Technology articles about this topic: AW&ST Nov 01, 1993, p.23: 'Gnat goes splat' and 'Speaking of reconnaissance' AW&ST Nov 08, 1993, p.28: 'Pentagon-CIA UAV gains new significance' AW&ST Jan 31, 1994, p.20: 'CIA to deploy UAVs in Albania' AW&ST Feb 07, 1994, p.54: 'Gnat-750 may raise profile of UAVs' AW&ST Feb 14, 1994, p.19: 'Gnats weathered out' and 'Mission impossible' AW&ST Jun 06, 1994, p.23: 'Spying on Bosnia' AW&ST Jul 11, 1994, p.20: 'CIA to fly missions from inside Croatia' and 'UAV roles defined' p.21: 'Stealthy UAV is a flying wing' p.22: 'Tier 2 UAV aborts first test flight' AW&ST Nov 28, 1994, p.28: 'Predator UAV produces high-quality images' AW&ST Jan 09, 1995, p.22: 'U.S. military to boost tactical recon in '95' AW&ST Feb 06, 1995, p.18: 'U.S. black programs stress lean projects' AW&ST May 29, 1995, p.26: 'Teledyne Ryan team wins Tier 2+ UAV competition' AW&ST Jun 05, 1995, p.22: 'U.S. readies Predator for missions in Bosnia' AW&ST Jun 12, 1995, p.41: 'Tier 3 Minus to test value of stealth' AW&ST Jun 19, 1995, p.52: 'Mission of Tier 3- reflected in design' AW&ST Jul 10, 1995, p.40: 'International market eyes endurance UAVs' p.42: 'UAV force concept' and 'New sensors show two paths to reconnaissance' p.47: 'Predator to make debut over war-torn Bosnia' p.49: 'Tier 2+ tricks enemy missiles' - this issue has also a lot of other UAV/RPV articles: p.50: 'ERAST to probe limits of flight' p.52: 'Aurora focuses UAV efforts on high-altitude flight' p.54: 'IAI reveals endurance UAV' p.55: 'Hunter to provide data for tomahawks in test' p.56: 'Decision time approaches for Dormant Maneuver UAV' AW&ST Jul 24, 1995, p.20: 'Imagery from Bosnia expected to improve' AW&ST Jul 31, 1995, p.20: 'New UAV force forms at Nellis' The information about Turkey's procurement plans comes from: AW&ST June 6, 1994, p.23: "Now the agency wants to enlarge its Tier-1 UAV fleet by buying Gnat 750s ordered by the Turkish government. The Turks have been caught in a budget crunch and cannot pay for three UAVs already delivered, much less the four still at the San Diego factory. The CIA has asked Congress for reprogramming authority to make the purchases. A Gnat 750 costs about $800,000 and a ground station about $1.2 million." and AW&ST July 11, 1994, p.20: "The CIA is considering at least two courses of action. It can operate with the two Gnat 750s (one owned, one leased), one ground station (leased) and one Schweitzer [RG-8A] it now has. Or, if Congress allows reprogramming of funds, the CIA could buy three Gnat 750s that the Turkish government ordered but can no longer afford and buy its own ground station (AW&ST June 6, p.23)." I suppose the purpose of the Gnat 750s would be to fly reconnaissance and surveilance missions, probably mainly aimed against the Turkish Kurds and specifically the PKK. - -- 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: "Terry Colvin" Date: Wed, 16 Aug 95 15:37:52 EST Subject: UAV: Two Hunter Drones Damaged :TWO HUNTER DRONES DAMAGED DURING TESTING A pair of Hunter short-range drones sustained damage in separate incidents last Tuesday, Army and TRW spokesmen confirmed yesterday. The incidents were the first flight problems with Hunter since last March. In the first event, the air vehicle deployed its emergency parachute and "made a soft landing on ranch land 100 yards beyond the base" at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., Army spokesman Bill Lopez said. The landing gear, rudder and vertical stabilizer were damaged. The drone deployed its parachute because of a communications mix-up. A signal sent by a pilot to test the emergency deployment system of a Hunter vehicle on the ground undergoing a pre-flight check was instead received by a Hunter vehicle in the air, Lopez said. The airborne drone interpreted the signal as a command and deployed its parachute. Later in the day, a second drone being operated by soldiers at Fort Huachuca was damaged during an attempted landing. The vehicle veered to the left upon landing, went off the paved runway and hit a gully, causing it to tip. It sustained about $70,000 worth of damage, Lopez said. Hunter is designed to provide imagery at short ranges to Army, Marine Corps and Navy tactical commanders. Four Hunter systems comprising eight vehicles each have been accepted by the Army thus far, reports today's edition of Defense Daily. Three more systems are slated for acceptance in September. ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #387 ********************************* 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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