From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #416 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Tuesday, 12 September 1995 Volume 05 : Number 416 In this issue: Airshow B-52 Crash [Historical Inquiry] Son of SR-71 Tech Update (Again!) Reno Air Races Re: Reno Air Races Re: B-52 Crash [Historical Inquiry] Nimrod Crash in Toronto Re: B-52 Crash [Historical Inquiry] 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: "RUSSELL.B" Date: 11 Sep 1995 07:08:07 GMT Subject: Airshow Date: Monday, 11 September 1995 7:08am ET To: Internet From: RUSSELL.B@GOMAIL Subject: Airshow Went to the Winston-Salem, N.C. airshow this past weekend. It was devoted mostly to WWII aircraft. I know, not skunkie at all. BUT˙˙ General Yeager was there and flying his P-51. Not skunkie, but it sure was great to see him in action. Just another software type question. Bob Russell Systems Programmer State of Georgia, DOAS ------------------------------ From: "Terry Colvin" Date: Mon, 11 Sep 95 09:42:33 EST Subject: B-52 Crash [Historical Inquiry] Date: 8 Sep 1995 15:02:06 GMT From: "Jerome L. Wright" Subject: NASA Achieves First Propulsion-Controlled Landing of a Transport Aircraft A similar incident happened many years ago with a B-52 going into Wright-Patt AFB. All of its tail feathers went numb. With the real-time help of Boeing engineers, the crew learned to fly the plane with engines and spoilers. They did fine in the air, but turbulent air next to the ground caused a crash. The nose broke free and all 8 crewmen survived, but the plane was mostly a big black scorch mark and some scattered debris. Sorry, I don't remember the year, but I saw pictures of the accident. - -- | Jerome L. Wright | | | jlwright@cyberstore.ca | Low-cost space transportation | | General Astronautics | is a necessity, not an option. | | Vancouver, BC, Canada | | ------------------------------ From: "Terry Colvin" Date: Mon, 11 Sep 95 09:52:24 EST Subject: Son of SR-71 Date: Wed, 06 Sep 95 00:12:13 GMT From: Gail Clark Subject: Son of SR-71 There is apparently very little information extant on the "Aurora" air/space craft which presumably leaves the runway and without benefit of boosters and/or staging, enters space. Once there, appropriate guidance and control mechanisms are engaged. Later, an atmospheric re-entry is made and control surfaces suitable for flight take over, and the craft lands. I have seen snippets in news articles and read the book by Bill Sweetman, "Aurora: The Pentagon's Secret Hypersonic Spyplane" which apparently is learned speculation. If the Skunkworks (or anyone else) is producing such a craft, it would be an evolutionary step in aircraft/spacecraft design and the entire idea is very intriguing to me. I am not a scientist, merely curious. I'd enjoy hearing from anyone who might have information about this craft...if it even exists. (Mr.) Gail Clark gclark@nicoh.com ------------------------------ From: dougt@u011.oh.vp.com (Doug Tiffany) Date: Mon, 11 Sep 95 12:58:57 EDT Subject: Tech Update (Again!) Once more from http://popularmechanics.com Tech Update Of The Day: September 11, 1995 Blackbird's Backpack PALMDALE, CA -- It's no secret that Lockheed Martin Skunk Works is sky-high on its design for the X-33 reusable rocket demonstrator. But the proposed vehicle must leap into space on a radical rocket engine -- known as a linear aerospike -- that has yet to fly. So, Skunk Works will harness its original thoroughbred -- the SR-71 Blackbird -- to conduct the first-ever flight tests of the engine. Blackbird will carry operational linear aerospike to test rocket engine at Mach 3. Developed in the 1960s by Rocketdyne, the linear aerospike looks nothing like a conventional bell-shaped rocket engine. Instead, it features two lines of small thrusters that shoot their exhaust gases onto a wedge-shaped surface. The exhaust impinges against both upper and lower faces of this surface to provide thrust. Key advantage: The engine operates with consistent efficiency at any altitude. In April 1996, a NASA SR-71 will piggyback a cutaway scale model of the Skunk Works X-33 concept, complete with its own functioning linear aerospike. - -- A hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of house I live in, how much is in my bank account, or what kind of car I drive, but the world may be a different place because I was important in the life of a child. Douglas J. Tiffany dougt@u011.oh.vp.com Varco-Pruden Buildings Van Wert, Ohio ------------------------------ From: lumber@zoom.com (Jack Gibbons) Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 12:02:46 -0700 Subject: Reno Air Races Does anyone know if there will be any stealth aircraft at the Reno Air Races this year? I heard that the B-2 flew over a couple of years ago. Any info would be appreciated. Also, if anyone else is going, drop me a message and maybe we can all meet there at some point. Lumber >:-[ - "I've done it over and over.. You see, I kill breeders." - "God is dead." -Nietzche Here thar be monsters! - "Nietzche is dead." -God "Hey ho! Let's go!" ******************************************************************* * E-mail: lumber@zoom.com | jackg@holobyte.com * ******************************************************************* - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.2 mQCNAzABlKkAAAEEAMMmxB7oaUnMLfPqBFW0dOzJUlQqeejtmKXuGhGG4k2IhoD+ Mg9zrHuzW6s+pvM3kNswfpd7iyA4JnEmZxdDQYNc+ww5TZBoZJPr7h/dqjG5Ju4V B7OhADv35JyP0N68Q0qM3zynSbLTIAC7O6nRSfBHe08GrDIPLAyeSckdMkAZAAUR tB5KYWNrIEdpYmJvbnMgPGx1bWJlckB6b29tLmNvbT4= =hsJL - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- ------------------------------ From: BaDge Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 15:49:05 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: Reno Air Races On Mon, 11 Sep 1995, Jack Gibbons wrote: > Does anyone know if there will be any stealth aircraft at the Reno Air > Races this year? I heard that the B-2 flew over a couple of years ago. Any Just to jump in on this message to mention that the new Pop Sci. has a cover article on the B-2, and a full 2 page spread inside the cockpit! See ya! regards, ________ BaDge ------------------------------ From: kuryakin@arn.net (Rick Pavek) Date: Mon, 11 Sep 1995 22:57:26 -0500 Subject: Re: B-52 Crash [Historical Inquiry] +A similar incident happened many years ago with a B-52 going into +Wright-Patt AFB. All of its tail feathers went numb. With the Dad was in the USAF and told of an old, old maintenance tech who did things by the book. He was inspecting the cables for the elevators... and by golly, they were switched A<>B. So he switched them back to their proper location. The '52 crashed the next flight because the manufacturer had wired them backwards... the cables were actually proper. They had 767's with the same problem... and went back to retrofit them with different sized plugs for the left and right plugs... so that it would be impossible to hook them up wrong. Rick Rick Pavek | Get Windows '95!! It's kuryakin@arn.net | the last Microsoft game Graphics and HTML for hire | you'll _ever_ want to Play! http://northshore.shore.net/~wxcentrl/uncle/index.html ------------------------------ From: Doug Geddes Date: 12 Sep 1995 03:56:22 GMT Subject: Nimrod Crash in Toronto An up-date on the Toronto Nimrod crash. The plane worth 70 million is scattered in a million pieces at the bottom of Lake Ontario. Bodies of all of the crew except one have been recovered. The last one is in tangled wreckage to dangerous for the divers. Apparently the wreckage is composed of many jagged and sharp pieces with wires and cable everywhere - very dangerous for divers. Revovery of the pieces has started and is expected to take 2-3 weeks, I bet longer. At first some thought the plane migh have ingested some sea gulls and lost power, but the videos I have seen show smoke coming from engines that look to be at full power to recover a stall. The pilot is reported, and recorded on a reporter's video I believe, of stating that he was going to really show the crowd what the plane can do do avoid a missile. The maneuver is a standard one they use for this purpose and at all air shows, but possibly he pushed it just a little too far to show off. Anyway, that's the speculation by some. I believe we will just have to wait for the full investigation before we know the real story. No matter the cause it is a real tragedy for the crew members and their families. Some have said that the Nimrod is the most sophisticated anti-submarine patrol plane in the world. Does that mean it has better Japanese electronic equipment than the Americans. Grin. This statement is a test to see if my messages are getting out. Hope it doesn't start and even more off topic discussion. Speaking of skunk, the Nimrod's clean design and internal engines is supposed to give it a much weaker radar signature than prop and external engine equivalents. Doug ------------------------------ From: "Stefan 'Stetson' Skoglund" Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 08:31:16 +0200 Subject: Re: B-52 Crash [Historical Inquiry] >>>>> "Rick" == Rick Pavek writes: Rick> Dad was in the USAF and told of an old, old maintenance tech who Rick> did things by the book. He was inspecting the cables for the Rick> elevators... and by golly, they were switched A<>B. So he Rick> switched them back to their proper location. USAF maintenance techs hopefully does it by the book. Rick> The '52 crashed the next flight because the manufacturer had Rick> wired them backwards... the cables were actually proper. Rick> They had 767's with the same problem... and went back to Rick> retrofit them with different sized plugs for the left and right Rick> plugs... so that it would be impossible to hook them up wrong. They should have done that from the beginning... ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #416 ********************************* 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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