From: skunk-works-digest-owner@pmihwy.com To: skunk-works-digest@pmihwy.com Subject: Skunk Works Digest V5 #759 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@pmihwy.com Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@pmihwy.com Precedence: Skunk Works Digest Friday, 20 December 1996 Volume 05 : Number 759 In this issue: Re: F14 EC-130V Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #756 Hellcat Drones Re: RE: ID4 and Area 51 Re: Astronomers Detect Gamma-Ray Multi-Bursts Re: Nuclear Powered Flights Re: Astronomers Detect Gamma-Ray Multi-Bursts Re: Astronomers Detect Gamma-Ray Multi-Bursts Re: Astronomers Detect Gamma-Ray Multi-Bursts Re: F14 Book of X-Planes Barnes & Noble-Secrets Revealed Cruise Missle Mahan Naval History list Holiday Humor 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: thad@hammerhead.com (Thaddeus J. Beier) Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 20:15:56 -0800 Subject: Re: F14 There are no flight controls in the back of an F14. My father-in-law had an "interesting" time in Iran, teaching a bunch of fairly unqualified kids to fly the plane. One of the other instructors had an even more fun time... "Now, roll out of the spiral, then pull back... no, roll out, roll out, come on, don't pull back, pulling back just makes it worse...just roll it level, come on, come on...ok, I'm going to punch out here..." The RIO has enough to do managing the radar and weapon systems, and really doesn't have a very good view out the front of the plane anyway. Heck, in the F14A, even the guy in front didn't have all that good a view. thad - -- Thaddeus Beier thad@hammerhead.com Visual Effects Supervisor 408) 287-6770 Hammerhead Productions http://www.got.net/people/thad ------------------------------ From: Xelex@aol.com Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 02:35:39 -0500 Subject: EC-130V In response to the question regarding the EC-130V/ NC-130H (87-0157), I have the following information: The aircraft is operated by the Air Force flight Test Center at Edwards AFB. It is flown by the 418th Flight Test Squadron and 413th Flight Test Squadron "Red Hats." The aircraft serves as a testbed for classified electronic warfare (EW) equipment. The "Red Hats" are in charge of the EW assets, and report to the Electronic Warfare Test Directorate at AFFTC. The EC-130V is usually parked on the main flightline at Edwards. Sometimes, it is kept at the highly secure "Red Hats" compound at North Base. Someone said it had been painted gray. Maybe. When I saw it a few weeks ago, it was still in Coast Guard colors. Peter W. Merlin ------------------------------ From: Cathy Doser Date: Wed, 18 Dec 1996 23:48:54 -0800 Subject: Re: Skunk Works Digest V5 #756 >From: Jeff H Clark >Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 10:54:27 -0500 (EST) >Subject: Re: Mergers and Re: Nuclear Aircraft > >On the subject of mergers: > >United Technologies owns Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky, Hamilton Standard, >Norden (WWII bombsight maker), and a bunch of other non-aero companies. > >Back a long time ago, United Technologies Corp was called United Aircraft, >and at one point UA also owned United Airlines _and_ Boeing. Boeing split >off at some point (I don't know why or how) and I believe UA had to split off >United Airlines to avoid anti-monopoly laws. > Actually, United was owned by Boeing, as it was orginally Boeing Transport. Anti-trust laws made Boeing sell off United. I'm fairly assured that United Technologies(Aircraft?) was a wholly separate company. (snip) > >Jeff Clark >jclark@freenet.tlh.fl.us > > Cathy Doser, P.O. Box 69271, Seattle, WA 98168 Mail: cathyd@halcyon.com CIS 70515,544 AOL CathyD2 ------------------------------ From: Hank_Lapa@signalcorp.com (Hank Lapa) Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 07:25:40 -0500 Subject: Hellcat Drones Designation was F6F-5K. I believed they were used operationally during Korea, from carriers, remotely controlled from accompanying aircraft. They were overall red, for visibility, which was standard for Navy drones, even PB4Ys. China Lake project. The Hellcat at the New England Air Museum is a former -5K, restored back to -5 configuration and original wartime markings, though there is a large photo displayed of the "before" condition next to it. The photo may be avail on their website -- www.neam.org. Regards, Hank ------------------------------ From: John Stone Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 08:29:12 -0500 Subject: Re: RE: ID4 and Area 51 Greg Fiesher quoted Dean Kanipe > 15.From the assault scenes on the Alien "Destroyers', it appears > that the F-18 must have had a 10,000 unit production run. In the future does the F-18, become the JSF? BTW, I didn't see any Super Hornets, do you think that maybe flight testing didn't go well! > 36.In 10 hours, one man with a Macintosh Laptop can code a virus in > C++ that will take down a completely alien computer system. Okay, so maybe the aliens were not as advanced as we first thought! > 37.Even though the Mac isn't compatible with most other Earthly > operating systems, it can interface with an alien computer. Okay, so maybe more advanced civilisations use Macs......or maybe the Mac was designed by aleins that visited the earth early in the development of computers, kinda like the Pyramids, and the Aztecs..... Just a thought, John | / ^ \ ___|___ -(.)==<.>==(.)- --------o---((.))---o-------- SR-71 Blackbird U-2 Dragon Lady John Stone jstone@thepoint.net U-2 and SR-71 Web Page:http://www.thepoint.net/~jstone/blackbird.html ------------------------------ From: jblue@gate.net (Jeff Blue) Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 10:32:46 -0500 Subject: Re: Astronomers Detect Gamma-Ray Multi-Bursts On Tue, 17 Dec 1996, GREG WEIGOLD wrote: > Thought this might interest the list. Think about the possibility of > the technology to control the power of these Gamma Ray bursts..... The AP article on this in my local rag states that such single gamma bursts were first discovered by classified military experiments in the 60s. What kind of military experiment from that time would detect gamma rays from space and why would it be classified? Jeff Blue / jblue@gate.net ------------------------------ From: gregd@cambertx.com (Greg Fieser) Date: Thu, 19 Dec 96 09:35:59 PST Subject: Re: Nuclear Powered Flights For more info about Nuclear Powered Flights, check out: http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/baugher_other/x-6i.html - ------------------------------------- Greg Fieser 12/19/96 gregd@cambertx.com 9:35:59 AM (aka habu@why.net) - ------------------------------------- ------------------------------ From: keller@eos.ncsu.edu Date: Thu, 19 Dec 96 12:10:33 EST Subject: Re: Astronomers Detect Gamma-Ray Multi-Bursts >On Tue, 17 Dec 1996, GREG WEIGOLD wrote: >> Thought this might interest the list. Think about the possibility of >> the technology to control the power of these Gamma Ray bursts..... >The AP article on this in my local rag states that such single gamma bursts >were first discovered by classified military experiments in the 60s. What >kind of military experiment from that time would detect gamma rays from >space and why would it be classified? According to articles I've read in _Science_ magazine, the gamma ray bursts were first detected by military and/or reconaissance satellites equipped with gamma ray detectors intended to detect nuclear weapons tests outside the atmosphere. The result was that the military and intelligence community were the first to learn of the cosmic gamma ray bursts, and, yes, they did, indeed, classify that information for sometime, I think into the 1970s. I don't have any idea of the rationale for the classifying this information. FWW: I understand that gamma ray detection equipment, trained on the earth and intended to detect clandestine nuclear testing high in the atmosphere and in space, are now standard instruments on the US DSPS missile early warning satellites. Paul Keller keller@eos.ncsu.edu ------------------------------ From: Frank Markus Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 12:47:04 -0500 Subject: Re: Astronomers Detect Gamma-Ray Multi-Bursts The Vela (?) satellites were designed to detect nuclear detonations anywhere on earth. They date back to the 1960s and were highly classifed. - -------------------------------------- At 10:32 AM 12/19/96 -0500, Jeff Blue wrote: >On Tue, 17 Dec 1996, GREG WEIGOLD wrote: > >> Thought this might interest the list. Think about the possibility of >> the technology to control the power of these Gamma Ray bursts..... > > >The AP article on this in my local rag states that such single gamma bursts >were first discovered by classified military experiments in the 60s. What >kind of military experiment from that time would detect gamma rays from >space and why would it be classified? > > Jeff Blue / jblue@gate.net > > > ------------------------------ From: freeman@netcom.com (Jay Reynolds Freeman) Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 12:41:53 -0800 Subject: Re: Astronomers Detect Gamma-Ray Multi-Bursts Nuclear explosions emit gamma-ray bursts. I think that the theory behind classifying the equipment was, that just in case some hostile power did not realize that it had exploded an atomic bomb, it wouldn't do to have them find it out by a small item on page three of a US newspaper. Kind of demeaning... ------------------------------ From: Mike Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 06:36:27 -0800 Subject: Re: F14 TOPGUN Scenes David D. Hawes wrote: > > My housemates and I were watching Top Gun last night on TBS and we got into a > discussion on how the cockpit scenes with the actors were shot. Anyone know > anything about this? > The Close-up shots of the Actors were shot in a F-14 Cockpit Mock-up, and Real F-14 Flight Footage were used for the Actual 'Flights' and they also used scale models for explosions and other scenes. - - - - - - *Whew* Finally.. I Just finished sorting my mail.. after receiving the 'Test E-Mails' my total e-mail amounted to 250+!. I hope all goes well, in our list's new 'home'.. - - - - - - MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! AND HAVE A HAPPY and PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!! _________________________________________________________________ MIKE (tHe oRiGiNaL!) "All Major Theme Parks had it's problems and delays.." "Yeah, But, the Pirates of the Carribean don't eat the Tourists." - A scene from Jurrasic Park Mailto:Mikemail@skyinet.net DSTF:122096-630a _________________________________________________________________ "Celebrate The Reason for Season" ------------------------------ From: patrick Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 21:46:56 +0000 Subject: Book of X-Planes To Whomever was looking for the book of X-planes: This is not the book you specifically asked for, but....I saw today at a Barnes & Noble store a book entitled "X Planes of Edwards AFB". It is authored by Steve Pace and published by Classic Motorbooks. It is softbound and cost maybe $16.00. I think this is a very good book of nothing but photographs of most of the planes developed at Edwards. The "X planes" are a subset of what this book covers. I have seen the book you are looking for and this may work as a good substitute till you can find the other. patrick cullumber patrick@e-z.net ------------------------------ From: patrick Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 02:23:35 +0000 Subject: Barnes & Noble-Secrets Revealed I forgot to add this note... The only airplane book on the airplane "shelf" at B & N is a book on how to take the written test for a private pilot's liscense...All the good airplane books are sort of scattered amongst the Military History area which is 7 or 8 sections wide. Or am I the last person to figure this out? patrick cullumber patrick@e-z.net (When Tom Cruise says "Roger, ball" does he think he is talking to the ball?) ------------------------------ From: dougt@u011.oh.vp.com (Doug Tiffany) Date: Fri, 20 Dec 96 7:22:46 EST Subject: Cruise Missle Does anybody know how many miles it travelled? From the Air Force News this morning: > 961299. Cruise missile scores precision strike in flight > demonstration > > SEATTLE (AFNS) -- The Air Force and the Boeing Aircraft > Company have successfully demonstrated that an AGM-86C > Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile, guided only by Global > Positioning System navigation, can deliver precision strike > accuracy. > > During a Dec. 12 test flight, a modified CALCM, launched from a > B-52H bomber, flew for approximately four and one-half hours > and impacted the target area within the accuracy requirements > necessary for a precision strike designation. The demonstration > also included a steep-terminal-dive maneuver for delivering a > penetrator warhead on target -- the first time such a maneuver has > been performed by a CALCM. > > CALCMs -- conventionally armed, unmanned and self-guided > missiles that can be used for precision strikes against fixed targets > deep behind enemy lines -- are manufactured by converting surplus > AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missiles. The original CALCM, > used most recently in strikes against Iraq, featured an early > generation, single channel GPS receiver and a blast fragmentation > warhead. > > A new GPS receiver system featured in the test flight included > several design changes to improve navigational accuracy. These > changes included a sophisticated new navigational model, and > algorithms to compensate for signal time delays caused by pressure > and temperature changes in the Earth's atmospheric layers. > > Additional factors contributing to the highly accurate CALCM > performance include an improved GPS receiver capability for > tracking up to eight satellites simultaneously, and the use of Wide > Area GPS Enhancement, Phases I and II, which boost GPS satellite > constellation performance. WAGE Phase I technology currently is > integrated into the GPS constellation, while Phase II, which was > made operational specifically for the test flight, is a prototype > satellite enhancement system developed by the Air Force. > > Carl Avila, Boeing Air Launched Missiles program manager, says > the successful demonstration marks a significant step forward for > the CALCM program. > > "These results clearly show that future CALCM variants can > deliver a conventional warhead from extremely long range stand- > off positions, with the accuracy and terminal characteristics > necessary to attack hard, reinforced or buried targets," Avila said. > "These improvements provide a baseline for future CALCM > models, but also can be easily incorporated into missiles currently > in the field." > > In July, Boeing delivered to the Air Force a version of the CALCM > with enhancements that doubled the accuracy and warhead > effectiveness of earlier CALCMs, for a conversion cost of > approximately $150,000 per missile. > > The CALCM program is managed by the Oklahoma City Air > Logistics Center at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., and > manufactured by Boeing Defense & Space Group at facilities in > Oak Ridge, Tenn. - -- Hope for the best, expect the worst, and take what God gives you. Douglas J. Tiffany (dougt@u011.oh.vp.com) | I shaped the electrons this Varco-Pruden Buildings Van Wert, Ohio | way, not my employer. ------------------------------ From: tcrobi@most.fw.hac.com (Tom Robison) Date: Fri, 20 Dec 1996 10:21:50 +0000 Subject: Mahan Naval History list To all who expressed an interest in a Naval History mailing list, a new one will be starting up this weekend. It will be administered by Dave Riddle of Microworks in Mesa AZ. Dave wrote: >I will try to get this up late this [Friday] afternoon. I will be placing >a >link on our home page to a page that tells what lists we have running >and how >to subscribe to them. >The method is pretty standard, you will send mail to >"listserv@microwrks.com" and place "subscribe mahan your name" in the body >of the message. Dave's homepage is at http://www.microwrks.com To anyone who wishes to correspond with me, my warm and loving employer has granted me nearly two weeks off for the holidays. After today and until 2 Jan 1997, please address any correspondence to tcrobi@mindspring.com. Warmest wishes to all for a blessed holiday season and a wonderful new year. Tom Robison tcrobi@most.fw.hac.com Hughes Defense Communications, Fort Wayne, IN Any opinions expressed herein are mine alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Hughes Defense Communications, Hughes Aircraft Corp, Hughes Electronics Corp, General Motors Corp, God, or my wife. ------------------------------ From: gregd@cambertx.com (Greg Fieser) Date: Fri, 20 Dec 96 11:16:34 PST Subject: Holiday Humor Okay, it's off-topic, but in season :) - --- On Fri, 20 Dec 1996 09:37:29 -0600 Kim White wrote: > > It is a little-known fact that Santa has to keep his pilot's license > current in order to make his deliveries every year, and so the old > man wasn't too surprised when he got a letter from the FAA informing > him that an examiner would be appearing shortly to run him through > the usual recertification drill. A detail of elves was sent out to > wash and polish the sleigh, another group was assigned to inspect, > service, and repair all the tack, and a third squad started > curry-combing the reindeer. Santa himself got out his logbook > and the rest of the paperwork and made sure that it was all in > order. On the appointed day the examiner arrived, and after the > ritual cup of coffee, he went over Santa's log and the paperwork, > then followed Santa outside. After a meticulous review of Santa's > weight and balance calculations, the examiner watched Santa do the > preflight, then followed behind him, looking closely at everything > from the bells on the back of the sleigh to Rudolph's nose. When he > finished, he turned to Santa and said: "It looks pretty good so far. > Let me get one thing out of my bags and then we'll take her up." > > When the examiner got back, Santa was in the sleigh and ready to > taxi. As the examiner climbed into the sleigh, Santa noticed that he > was carrying a shotgun. > > "What's THAT for?" Santa asked. > > The examiner looked at him, then winked: "I really shouldn't tell > you this, but you're going to lose an engine on takeoff." > - -----------------End of Original Message----------------- - ------------------------------------- Greg Fieser 12/20/96 gregd@cambertx.com 11:16:34 AM (aka habu@why.net) - ------------------------------------- ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V5 #759 ********************************* To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@pmihwy.com". 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