From: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #629 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@mail.orst.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@mail.orst.edu Precedence: Skunk Works Digest Sunday, 3 March 1996 Volume 05 : Number 629 In this issue: Re: YF-22/YF-23 decision Skunky projects at Dryden Re: C17 reborn.. RE: U2 Carrier Ops Re: SR-71 presentation Re: Press Release from Hughes Aircraft TRW Press Release Space Imaging Press Release RE: U-2 Carrier ops Re: News Nevada Test Site EIS/hearing (secrets revealed!) 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: fmarkus@pipeline.com (Frank Markus) Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 07:34:34 -0500 Subject: Re: YF-22/YF-23 decision On Mar 01, 1996 15:53:47, 'larry@ichips.intel.com' wrote: > > >Art writes: >>>In fact, the YF-23's supercruise speed with the >>>GE engine (both aircraft showed better performance with the YF120) was >>>so high that it was classified. > >Eric replies: >>... >>I doubt that the performance of YF-120-powered YF-23 was so high that it >>would be worthy of conspiracy theories. > >I agree, especially with IHPTET around the corner. I'm anxious to see the >the neat engines they're going to be building with that technology, and of >course Pratt & Whitney just happens to be developing F-119 parts in their >IHPTET programs! > >I expect some F-22 to greatly benefit from IHPTET, as well as the newer >programs where IHPTET will be a critical design factor from the start. > >Larry > Err ... what is IHPTET? ------------------------------ From: "Joe Pialet" Date: Sat, 2 Mar 96 10:09:53 +0000 Subject: Skunky projects at Dryden According to a recent Lockheed Martin Skunk Works Star, there seem to several "skunky" projects currently going on at Dryden. The tier III minus Darkstar was to undergo taxi tests in February so it could fly in March. The first flight of an SR-71 with real-time data link capability was expected by the end of February. The linear aerospike engine (LASRE) was scheduled to be transported to Edwards in February so it could be checked out before flying on the SR-71 in April. Can anyone give an update on the status of any of these projects? ------------------------------ From: megazone@world.std.com (MegaZone) Date: Sat, 2 Mar 1996 10:36:41 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: C17 reborn.. Once upon a time Charles_E._Smith.wbst200@xerox.com shaped the electrons to say... >Apparently, MD has straightened out its problem child. The Defense Aquistion >Board has given a green light to the C-17 program. The Air Force will be cleared to >spend $18 BILLIION to triple its C-17 fleet. The money will expand the >operational fleet from 40 to 120 AC. > >Boy, we sure need another big ugly with a 130,000 pound payload. Yes, we do - rather badly. The C-141 is really pushing it, and it can't take outsize payloads. And the C-5 is too valuable to use until it breaks. And remember cutbacks in the overall force structure are based on the premise of being able to rapidly deploy them to trouble spots, voiding the need to keep forces stationed around the globe in force. But in reality, today, we don't have the ability to deploy as fast as we need. At this point it is basically the C-17 or nothing, there isn't money to do development again. The only other option might be restarting the C-5 line, but that would absorb a lot of funds too. - -MZ - -- megazone@world.std.com 510-527-0944 MegaZone's Waste Of Time Moderator: anime fanfic archive, ftp.std.com /archives/anime-fan-works; rec.arts.anime.stories - Maintainer: Ani Difranco Mailing List - Mail to majordomo@world.std.com with 'subscribe ani-difranco' in the body. ------------------------------ From: JOHN SZALAY Date: Sat, 2 Mar 96 16:12:54 EST Subject: RE: U2 Carrier Ops > From:"cfii@msn.com" "Mark E. Schmidt" > RE:Subj: U2 Carrier Ops > > On wings this evening I saw a U2 land and take off from an aircraft carrier. > I am not aware of any U2 variant with folding wings, but cannot imagine > leaving one uncovered on an open deck for long. U2 is way to wide to fit > on any elevator of an aircraft carrier I've been on (the largest being > CVA-63, the Kitty Hawk - *sh_ __y kitty*). According to Jay Miller's book on the U-2, The Kitty Hawk itself was used in 1963 by the CIA for touch & go's by 2 agency U-2A's (Project Seeker) also USS RANGER 1963 & 1964 > > Did U2's stay on board long enough to warrant removing wings to stow on > hangar deck, or . .. . According to Lockheed test pilot Bill Park, the outer 70" of the U-2R wings can be folded and by careful placement on the USS America's elevator and was able to be taken to the hanger deck. ( REF: The Hook magazine article quoted in Jay Millers U-2 book) (on page 62 of Jay Millers U2 book, there are 2 pictures of NASA's ER-2 # 706 with the wing tips folded, according to the caption, the ER-2, TR-1A and the U2C all had folding wing tips & the G models were C's with tailhooks added for carrier use.) From: Ben Rich's book "Skunk Works" as well as Jay Miller's book. the U-2G launched and recovered from USS RANGER & was used to monitor the French nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll in Late 1963 & early 1964 since the tests take place over a several week time period, I suspect since the "G" was a "C" with folding wing tips, it was probably stowed on the hanger deck until needed. John Szalay jpszalay@tacl.dnet.ge.com PS: had to go digging in the reference corner of my bookshelf to verify the facts on this one, I remember the folding wing tips, but really had to dig for the books & pages... :) ------------------------------ From: Kathryn & Andreas Gehrs-Pahl Date: Sun, 3 Mar 1996 01:41:50 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: SR-71 presentation The SR-71 presentation of Tom Allison, curator of the National Air and Space Museum, and also retired SR-71 pilot, is postponed from March 4th, 1996, to April 1st, 1996. It will still be held at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge at Seven Corners, Virginia, though. It costs $60 per couple, and reservations are necessary. Tom Allison is not selling or signing books of his own, but there will be a door prize, consisting of a signed SR-71 pilots manual. We planned to attend, but $60 is a hefty price... We were packed and ready for the trip to Washington D.C., but since we had not received an answering email yet from the contact, we called him and found out the above. Oh well, the postponement allows us to go to the USAFM at Dayton instead, as we have wanted to do for quite a while. :) I hope they repeat the U-2 show on PBS soon, because I missed the first 40 minutes -- which made me quite grumpy. - -- 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: Kathryn & Andreas Gehrs-Pahl Date: Sun, 3 Mar 1996 01:59:22 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: Press Release from Hughes Aircraft Frank Markus wondered: >What is low observable radar? It sounds like an oxymoron. All that I can >think of is some sort of spread spectrum or low power emitter -- and both >seem quite detectable. What is this technology? I suppose they were talking about the B-2s LPI (Low-Probability of Intercept) radars, the Hughes AN/APQ-181, a Ku-band SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar), used for navigation updates, terrain following, and target location and also identification. The technologies employed to make it a LPI radar may include extra short-time intermittent use, frequency hopping, side-lobe control, and probably more things I never heard about. :) Similar radars are planned to be employed for surveillance and targeting on both long endurance UAVs, the Lockheed/Boeing Tier Three-Minus DarkStar and the TRA Tier Two-Plus Global Hawk. Maybe someone else with a more technical background can explain LPI radars a little better, as far as those technologies are not (too) classified. - -- 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: Kathryn & Andreas Gehrs-Pahl Date: Sun, 3 Mar 1996 01:53:39 -0500 (EST) Subject: TRW Press Release Here is another press release, this time from TRW: SAN DIEGO, Feb. 29, 1996, TRW announces the award of a $36.7 million three- year subcontract from Boeing Defense & Group, Helicopters Division. The award was made to the TRW Avionics Systems Division in San Diego. The subcontract is for the design, development and production of integrated communications, navigation and identification avionics for the U.S. Army's RAH-66 Comanche combat helicopter. "This is a significant and strategic win for TRW as it is the first step towards our future in the application of our F-22 avionics onto other platforms," said Roy Adams, vice president and general manager of TRW Avionics Systems Division. "We look forward to working with Boeing." Under the terms of the 36-month subcontract TRW will provide the advanced communications and navigation package required for the Comanche helicopter. The TRW subsystem will deliver combat information to commanders in near-real time and provide digital and joint forces connectivity equal to the challenges of the 21st century. The subsystem also will perform the critical function of identifying friend or foe and has the capability to be expanded to include global positioning system navigation. Deliveries will include a laboratory system in 1997, followed by an integrated system for the aircraft as well as a software upgrade in 1998. "Combining next-generation avionics with advanced sensors, processors and displays will make Comanche a unique weapon system. As a preferred supplier of military avionics we look forward to expanding the use of our avionics on other air vehicles," said Frank Flores, Comanche program manager. Boeing Defense & Space Group, Helicopters Division, produces the CH-47D Chinook tandem rotor helicopter, the world's most reliable and capable heavy- lift rotorcraft, in service with the U.S. Army and nearly 20 international customers. It is developing the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft for the U.S. Marine Corps, Air Force and Special Operations Command in partnership with Bell Helicopter Textron; and the RAH-66 Comanche, the U.S. Army's 21st-century combat helicopter, with its partner, Sikorsky Aircraft, a subsidiary of United Technologies. TRW Avionics Systems Division, San Diego, is part of TRW Space & Electronics Group, with headquarters in Redondo Beach, Calif. TRW Space & Electronics Group is a leader in avionics systems, unmanned aerial vehicle systems, software support systems, space systems, spaceborne electronic subsystems and other advanced technologies for national security and civil space. The group is an operating unit of Cleveland-based TRW Inc., which provides advanced technology products and services for the automotive and space and defense markets worldwide. The company's 1995 sales totaled $10.2 billion. - -- 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: Kathryn & Andreas Gehrs-Pahl Date: Sun, 3 Mar 1996 03:34:20 -0500 (EST) Subject: Space Imaging Press Release The following three press releases from Space Imaging deal with commercial, world-wide, (and apparently) unrestricted, space-based, high-resolution (1 meter), digital imagary and mapping data. One wonders how long it will take until new, high-resolution photos of places like Area 51 in the USA, or Ramenskoye in Russia, etc. will be available to everyone. A new generation of overhead "thread" for those who prefer to operate in the black. - -- Andreas THORNTON, Colorado, March 1, 1996, Space Imaging announced today the first products available in its CARTERRA(tm/sm) product line. CARTERRA is the company's new approach for making high-resolution earth imagery and related geographic information accessible and affordable to commercial customers worldwide. Space Imaging's first products, CARTERRA Master(tm), CARTERRA Original(tm), and CARTERRA Model(tm), will be available to customers through the CARTERRA Archive(tm/sm), also announced today (see accompanying announcement). Space Imaging is creating and offering CARTERRA products in partnership with leading mapping providers until the company launches its first one-meter resolution imaging satellite in late 1997. CARTERRA Master, the company's flagship image product, is a precise orthophoto which combines the geometry of a map with the unique properties of the visual image for interpretation. Offered in both color and black-and- white formats, CARTERRA Master image products provide an outstanding resource as dependable digital base maps and as principal data sources for manual and automated feature extraction and exploitation. These products will be processed to meet U.S. accuracy standards for 1:2400 scale mapping. The first CARTERRA Master products in the company's globally distributed digital archive are a series of images of the San Francisco Bay Area, collected by Hammon, Jensen, Wallen & Assoc. of Oakland, Calif. (see accompanying announcement). CARTERRA Original will be offered as "quick-look" color and black-and-white imagery. These products will be ideal for monitoring specific events on the earth's surface and for use in visual interpretation and exploitation where accurate metric measurements are not necessary. CARTERRA Original products require minimal processing after being collected by the satellite, enabling delivery to customers within hours of collection. These images are radiometrically processed to accommodate the satellite sensor' s properties, and geometrically processed to achieve uniform scale. CARTERRA Model products will include digital terrain models, three- dimensional imagery products and stereo images. These image products may be used as the basis for perspective scenes, animated fly-throughs, and as powerful tools for public hearings and presentations because they represent visual information realistically and dynamically. CARTERRA Model products will provide accurate models of terrain - "digital terrain models" - which are processed from pairs of stereo images, most useful for three-dimensional visualization and interpretation. Space Imaging will provide high-quality, high-resolution satellite imagery of the earth to commercial, government and consumer users, including such markets as utilities, transportation, resource management and geographic information systems. Space Imaging will be the first commercial company to offer one-meter black-and-white and one-meter color-enhanced imagery of the earth, and ground accuracy as high as one-and-a-half meters. The company, headquartered in Thornton, Colo., will launch its first commercial satellite in late 1997. Sample CARTERRA imagery from Space Imaging can be viewed on the company's World Wide Web home page at http://www.spaceimage.com. Note: All product and service names are trademarks or trademarked services of Space Imaging. ### THORNTON, Colorado, March 1, 1996, Space Imaging, the first company to provide commercial users with a new generation of high-accuracy earth information, and Hammon, Jensen, Wallen & Assoc. (HJW), a California-based aerial mapping firm, announced today the availability of high-precision mapping imagery covering 3700 square miles of the San Francisco Bay Area. The imagery is first in what will become a globally distributed archive of digital orthophotos for Space Imaging CARTERRA(tm/sm), also announced today (see accompanying announcement). "We want customers to know they can come to us today for their geographic information needs," said William Folchi, Space Imaging's vice president of marketing and sales. "New CARTERRA customers will receive special advantages today, and again when we launch our first satellite in late 1997." Among the primary products to be delivered from the CARTERRA San Francisco(tm) project are panchromatic digital orthophotos at one-meter ground sample distance (GSD), processed to meet U.S. accuracy standards for 1:2400 scale mapping. Additional products available for the entire project will include digital terrain model data and one-meter true color digital orthophotos. CARTERRA San Francisco is designed to revolutionize the use of image-based mapping in local government, utilities, telecommunications and emerging markets that depend on geographic information. Space Imaging and HJW have formed a strategic relationship whereby HJW has collected one-meter imagery of 3700 square miles covering the San Francisco Bay Area, including Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. The high-resolution aerial imagery is digitally sampled to recreate as accurately as possible the imagery products Space Imaging's satellite will collect. CARTERRA products for other major metropolitan U.S. cities are projected to be offered within the next year. In addition to having access to archived imagery, customers can request specialized aerial image collections of any given area during the pre-launch promotion. Advantages new CARTERRA customers will receive include significantly lower costs for one-meter resolution imagery and eventual access to the Space Imaging globally distributed digital imagery archive. After the company's first satellite launch, these customers will benefit from low-cost digital base map creation and revisions; map scale accuracies as high as 1:2400; and reduced product delivery time. Special incentives will be provided to customers who contract with Space Imaging for custom imagery collections prior to the company's first satellite launch in late 1997. The project between Space Imaging and HJW brings significant benefits to the market for high-resolution earth imagery and derived geographic information products. "HJW can provide future business opportunities to customers in value-added services, including map feature extraction, database conversion and integration," said Axel Hoffman, HJW's president. "We're excited to play an instrumental role with Space Imaging to introduce a revolutionary way of visualizing and measuring the earth's surface." "Not only have we reached our goal of offering products to customers before our first satellite launch, we have a tremendous opportunity to expand the market for earth-based imagery and geographic information into the commercial arena," Folchi added. Space Imaging will provide high-quality, high-resolution satellite imagery of the earth to commercial, government and consumer users. Space Imaging will be the first commercial company to offer one-meter black-and-white and one-meter color-enhanced imagery of the earth, with positional accuracy as high as one- and-a-half meters. The company is headquartered in Thornton, Colo. Sample CARTERRA San Francisco imagery can be viewed on the Web at http://www.spaceimage.com. Note: All product and service names are trademarks or trademarked services of Space Imaging. ### THORNTON, Colorado, March 1, 1996: Space Imaging announced today a new approach to make imagery of the earth and related geographic information affordable and accessible to commercial customers worldwide. CARTERRA(tm/sm) for the first time ever, will enable customers all over the world to obtain high-resolution, accurate, off-the-shelf images of the earth without paying the high costs of custom data collections. The availability of the first CARTERRA products was announced separately today (see accompanying announcement). CARTERRA will enable customers to easily access, request and view digital imagery of the earth through its globally distributed digital archive. When Space Imaging's first satellite is launched in late 1997, it will supplement the CARTERRA Archive(tm/sm) with high volumes of global imagery. Space Imaging will provide a digital archive of the entire globe, beginning with primary markets in urban areas. Space Imaging has already begun to stock the CARTERRA Archive with imagery of 3700 square miles of the San Francisco Bay Area that was collected in partnership with Hammon, Jensen, Wallen and Assoc., an Oakland, Calif.-based aerial mapping company. CARTERRA San Francisco(tm) imagery has been photogrammetrically and digitally processed to represent Space Imaging's satellite-based orthophotos and will be offered to customers at a special discount. The high-capacity technical backbone of the CARTERRA Archive provides unique advantages to Space Imaging customers. One of the company's investors, Raytheon's E-Systems Inc., has developed the world's most advanced commercial digital image processing system for Space Imaging and its international partners. The satellite's orbital altitude of 680 km above the earth's surface facilitates the collection of wide-area images at high speeds. The images can be downloaded to a ground station as soon as the satellite collects them, allowing extraordinary customer responsiveness. Ground stations will receive digital images at a rate equivalent to 10 video channels broadcast simultaneously, four times faster than any other commercial system in the world. The Space Imaging satellite system, with its unrivaled collection, downloading and storage capabilities, will provide faster delivery of products to customers worldwide. "CARTERRA will be the first globally distributed archive of its kind," said William Folchi, Space Imaging's vice president of marketing and sales. "For the first time, users all over the world will have immediate access to an archive for browsing images of the entire earth. They'll be able to obtain imagery in a matter of hours or days instead of weeks or months, when the requested imagery is already archived." A unique aspect of Space Imaging's approach is that the imagery collected by the company's advanced satellite system -- regardless of its global location -- will have a positional accuracy of better than two meters (90% CE), which meets U.S. accuracy standards for 1:2400 scale mapping. This makes the company's orthophoto products viable alternatives to existing vector land base maps. The off-the-shelf, "shared" nature of CARTERRA will help customers avoid bearing the full cost of digital image collections. Since multiple users can access and utilize imagery from the same geographic region or city, Space Imaging and its partners are able to share the cost of collection among multiple customers, thereby reducing the price of products to individual customers. Priority and exclusive collections will be accommodated as well. "CARTERRA changes the way companies plan mapping and conversion projects," Folchi commented. "CARTERRA's 'multiple-use' archive will give customers immediate access to global imagery, and for a nominal cost compared to that of custom data collections. Customers won't have to use out-of-date base maps for their projects. Related entities, such as city and regional planners, won't have to work with inconsistent sets of cartographic data anymore. With selective periodic updates, projects will take less time, be more affordable and be able to keep up with change." Space Imaging will provide high-quality, high-resolution satellite imagery of the earth to commercial, government and consumer users, including such markets as utilities, transportation, resource management and geographic information systems. Space Imaging will be the first commercial company to offer one-meter black-and-white and one-meter color-enhanced imagery of the earth, and positional accuracy as high as one-and-a-half meters. The company, headquartered in Thornton, Colo., will launch its first commercial satellite in late 1997. Sample CARTERRA imagery from Space Imaging can be viewed on the company's World Wide Web home page at http://www.spaceimage.com. Note: All product and service names are trademarks or trademarked services of Space Imaging. - --- --- 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: JOHN SZALAY Date: Sun, 3 Mar 96 14:37:04 EST Subject: RE: U-2 Carrier ops It appears I got a little confused due to the constant shuffleing of nameing of the aircraft ( I wish the powers that be would give blasted things one name and quit trying to be PC) I have been advised that the only U-2 varient with the folding wingtips is the U-2R, Which is now called the U-2S. But it is also called the ER-2, in its NASA guise. Which WAS also called the TR-1A, in its Air Force dress. Confusing, ain't it ? John Szalay jpszalay@tacl.dnet.ge.com ------------------------------ From: Brett Davidson Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 12:38:49 +1300 (NZDT) Subject: Re: News On Fri, 1 Mar 1996, David Lednicer wrote: > This appeared in the February 28-March 5 1996 issue of Flight > International: > > 'BLACK' WING-DESIGN PROJECT REVEALED > The US design uses pressurised air bled from the engine pumped through > the upper surface of the wing. I think that the basic concept goes back to a British carrier-based attack plane, the Bucaneer (sp?). Exhaust was bled thru' ducts over the flaps, using the Coanda Effect to increase lift at T/O & landing... FLIGHT should have mentioned that. - --Brett ------------------------------ From: TRADER@cup.portal.com Date: Sun, 3 Mar 96 16:20:51 PST Subject: Nevada Test Site EIS/hearing (secrets revealed!) [March 3, 1996] Background: For almost 50 years, the Nevada Test Site, a 1,350 square mile area northwest of Las Vegas has been used for above and below ground nuclear weapons testing. In addition, other hazardous tests have been conducted in remote areas, including dispersal of plutonium in tests designed to simulate nuclear weapons accidents, and chemical spill tests have been conducted at the NTS. The report below also covers the Department of Energy's Tonopah Test Range and areas within the Nellis Air Force Range complex that were used for testing by the Atomic Energy Commission, and its successor, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). (The lands in question were taken from the Western Shoshone and Southern Paiute tribes as an aerial bombing and gunnery range during World War II in 1942, and turned over to the Atomic Energy Commission for nuclear testing in 1952.) The Nevada Test Site has been divided into numbered Areas (1 to 30), and in the past, additional areas were under AEC control, such as Area 51, home of the U.S. Air Force's secret test facility at Groom Lake, where classified aircraft such as the U-2, SR-71, F-117, B-2, and others have been tested. The 8 books of the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Nevada Test Site have just been released. (The final volume will contain comments from the public and will be released in a few months.) A lot of information about nuclear weapons testing and other activities at the Nevada Test Site is revealed in the EIS. If you would like a copy, please ask for DOE/EIS-243, "Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Nevada Test Site and Off-Site Locations in the State of Nevada", available from: Environmental Protection Division U.S. Department of Energy Nevada Operations Office P.O. Box 14459 Las Vegas, NV 89114 telephone: (800) 405-1140 or (702) 295-1433 (for Nevada residents) http://www.nv.doe.gov This EIS can also be found in DOE reading rooms, and public libraries in Nevada, such as Las Vegas or UNLV. It does not cover the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste depository, but the DOE address above will put you in contact with the Yucca Mountain people if you wish. Public comments will be accepted up to May 3, 1996. There are 4 alternatives proposed for the NTS: Alternative 1 - continue current operations, including low level waste disposal at the NTS, and be ready to resume nuclear testing. Alternative 2 - discontinue NTS operations, and close down the Test Site. Alternative 3 - expand the current operations at NTS, including more defense work. Alternative 4 - find alternate use for the Test Site, including more nuclear waste disposal. There are 4 public hearings scheduled: St. George, Utah - March 5, 1996 Pahrump, Nevada - March 13, 1996 Reno, Nevada - March 19, 1996 Las Vegas, Nevada - March 26, 1996 The Las Vegas public hearing will be held Tuesday, March 26, 1996, from 6-9 PM at Cashman Field Convention Center, 850 N. Las Vegas Blvd. Some of you will remember this place from the Air Force/BLM hearing in March 1994, where we tried to prevent the Air Force from seizing the Freedom Ridge and White Sides viewpoints into Groom Lake ("Area 51"). You are advised to show up early between 5:30 and 6 PM, so that you can register for the speakers list of who will testify. Please call the DOE for the locations and times of the other hearings. After reading the draft EIS, I am impressed by the thorough job that was done. While a lot of material on government activities in Nevada is disclosed, such as what I think the secret of Pahute Mesa is, something I've mentioned before, in conjunction with the new paved road, Buckboard Mesa Road, (Road 18-03) that was quietly built a few years ago to Area 20. Area 20 (Pahute Mesa) was used for underground nuclear tests that were larger than 1 megaton. (This wasn't revealed in previous material released under the FOIA - most nuclear tests conducted at the NTS have been less than 100 kilotons.) I think that probably the secret of Pahute Mesa (and why Buckboard and Pahute Mesa Roads were paved) is the Defense Nuclear Agency's operations at the Area 20 Support Facility with high-yield thermonuclear devices. ("The crowd pleasers", to borrow a line from the movie "Broken Arrow".) Also, the DOE has indicated that if nuclear testing resumes, it will either be done underground at Pahute Mesa, or at Yucca Flat. I am bothered by what has been omitted. For example, several researchers have old AEC documents that indicate that Area 51 was part of the Test Site. The EIS does mention Area 13 (also part of the Groom Lake complex). Area 13 was used for plutonium dispersal experiments. The current base workers have not only been exposed to toxic chemicals, like their lawsuit states, but also radioactive material. Also, according to their geological charts, there is an earthquake fault that goes north from NTS to Groom Lake. Area 13 is shown on the DOE maps as being central to what has been called "Dreamland" MOA, a rectangular block of land, more correctly known as restricted airspace R-4808N the "box" that encompasses the Groom Lake complex. I have used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request a copy of a document cited in the EIS, that might shed some light on the secrets of Groom Lake. That document is titled "Special Nevada Report", and was prepared in 1991 by spooky military contractor SAIC for the U.S. Air Force. Control of R-4808N (aka "Dreamland") belongs to the DOE's Nevada Operations Office, according to the Department of Defense, even though it is officially on the Nellis Air Force Range. Other secret sites on the NTS have also been omitted. There is a classified appendix to the EIS, but it is only briefly mentioned in conjunction with the new Lyner facility in Area 1. Another classified program that is not mentioned is the Air Force/DOE project code-named Timberwind, that is notorious for having a classified environmental impact statement. (Another name for this is the Space Nuclear Thermal Propulsion program.) This program is planned for Saddle Mountain, in Area 25, at a cost of 253 million dollars. I thought that one purpose of an environmental impact statement (EIS) was to inform the public of safety hazards -- if you want a safety hazard, consider a rocket explosion like that of the space shuttle Challenger, with a nuclear reactor onboard. I guess I'll have to go to the hearing to raise these issues. I hope to see you at the Las Vegas hearing, March 26. Paul McGinnis / TRADER@cup.portal.com / PaulMcG@aol.com http://www.portal.com/~trader/secrecy.html ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #629 ********************************* 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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