From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #593 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Saturday, 6 January 1996 Volume 05 : Number 593 In this issue: Test - Please ignore Valves and chips Re: Valves and chips Re: Valves and chips RE: Valves (tubes) & Chips. Re: Convair... 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: "S.D.Silver" Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 11:56:25 GMT0BST Subject: Test - Please ignore ======================================================================================== you can't believe every thing you see and hear now, CAN YOU!!! j.hendrix S.D.Silver@ncl.ac.uk ======================================================================================== ------------------------------ From: "S.D.Silver" Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 13:25:31 GMT0BST Subject: Valves and chips Hello people, Happy New Year!! I was wondering if anybody could tell me, when were valves stopped being used in Military aircraft, I remember hearing a story (probably false) that in the mid-seventies the U.S. Air Force got hold of the latest MIG and found that the Russians were still using valves for essential flight circuits because of the fact that microchip's can be wiped by ECM blasts, thus keeping the Soviet Air force in the air whilst U.S. planes would be rendered useless. STU ------------------------------ From: Charles_E._Smith.wbst200@xerox.com Date: Fri, 5 Jan 1996 05:51:36 PST Subject: Re: Valves and chips They use 6L6`s for the preamp on the radio. :-) ------------------------------ From: mangan@Kodak.COM (Paul Mangan) Date: Fri, 5 Jan 96 10:11:45 EST Subject: Re: Valves and chips A couple of days ago I was Talking to A USAF Captain and he said they still use valves/tubes. Paul > Hello people, Happy New Year!! > > I was wondering if anybody could tell me, when were valves > stopped being used in Military aircraft, I remember hearing a story > (probably false) that in the mid-seventies the U.S. Air Force got > hold of the latest MIG and found that the Russians were still using > valves for essential flight circuits because of the fact that microchip's > can be wiped by ECM blasts, thus keeping the Soviet Air force in > the air whilst U.S. planes would be rendered useless. > > > > STU > > ------------------------------ From: JOHN SZALAY Date: Fri, 5 Jan 96 10:41:15 EST Subject: RE: Valves (tubes) & Chips. > "S.D.Silver@newcastle.ac.uk" "S.D.Silver" > RE: Subj: Valves and chips > hold of the latest MIG and found that the Russians were still using > valves for essential flight circuits because of the fact that microchip's > can be wiped by ECM blasts, thus keeping the Soviet Air force in > the air whilst U.S. planes would be rendered useless. If I remember correctly, all US military avionics are hardened and tested for EMP tolerance. As well as EMI/RFI/TEMPEST etc: I know they built a wooden trestle over a canyon large enough to handle aircraft including B-52,s, around this was installed a wire grid to generate EMP's to test for EMI/RFI & EMP ETC: We do testing of our products for EMI RFI here on-site. But we do have to use outside firms for other test levels. And yes the Mig-25, flown to Japan had tubes/valves. I remember that an article came out about that time, and the article made reference to the fact that a lot of stereo buffs claim that transistors do not produce pure enough sound, as compared to tubes, but tubes are hard to obtain in the US, so they were having to buy tubes produced in the USSR. John Szalay jpszalay@tacl.dnet.ge.com :::Of Course, I only speak for me, NOT the guys that pay me ! ------------------------------ From: Mary Shafer Date: Sat, 6 Jan 1996 00:10:58 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: Convair... Yes, we do. It's here at Dryden and you can read about it at http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/. Actually this plane was purchased as a parts queen for the CV990 that had been modified to carry a telescope (I think this was the Kuiper--try http://www.arc.nasa.gov/ for more information about this) but this plane was destroyed by fire in a refused takeoff at March AFB and we got the plane from Ames for the landing gear tests. Oops, I forgot to mention that it's called the Landing Systems Research Aircraft (LSTA) and carries a real Shuttle main trunnion just aft of the regular main gear. It skims along the runway, with the control system driving it to follow actual Shuttle landing load and braking profiles. A very successful and neat program. 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.... On Thu, 4 Jan 1996, Greg Fieser wrote: > Doesn't NASA still fly either a Convair 880 or 990 that's modified to test > landing gears? I seem to remember reading an article somewhere about NASA > testing the Space Shuttle main landing gear on a Convair... > > Greg Fieser ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #593 ********************************* 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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