From: owner-skunk-works-digest@eagle.netwrx1.com (skunk-works-digest) To: skunk-works-digest@eagle.netwrx1.com Subject: skunk-works-digest V6 #55 Reply-To: skunk-works@netwrx1.com Sender: owner-skunk-works-digest@eagle.netwrx1.com Errors-To: owner-skunk-works-digest@eagle.netwrx1.com Precedence: bulk skunk-works-digest Monday, June 2 1997 Volume 06 : Number 055 In this issue: Test of Majordomo 1.94.3 and Perel 5.004 Majordomo 1.94.3 and Perl 5.004 Final test Recent articles... Military Spaceplane "Spies in the Sky" Documentary Re: Military Spaceplane - erratum Re: Recent articles... Mach Re: Northrop Hawthorne Groom commuter flights Re: Mach Declassified Articles 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. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 16:21:35 -0400 (EDT) From: "George R. Kasica" Subject: Test of Majordomo 1.94.3 and Perel 5.004 Well, here I am in my hotel in Atlanta on the notebook trying to get the newest version of Majordomo (1.94.3) and Perl (5.004) to live happily together. Let me know if this works...if it does I'm off for Peach Cobbler else more typing.... George R. Kasica President Netwrx Consulting Inc. P.O. Box 27242 West Allis WI 53227-9998 (414)541-8579 VOICE --- (800)816-2568 FAX ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 16:58:11 -0400 (EDT) From: "George R. Kasica" Subject: Majordomo 1.94.3 and Perl 5.004 Final test Well, everything seems to be working. If anyone has problems please let me know. George R. Kasica President Netwrx Consulting Inc. P.O. Box 27242 West Allis WI 53227-9998 (414)541-8579 VOICE --- (800)816-2568 FAX ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 20:05:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Kathryn & Andreas Gehrs-Pahl Subject: Recent articles... I just bought the new Airpower magazine, Volume 27, No. 4, July 1997. Its main article is about the SR-71 Blackbird, written by none other than Art Hanley. The article is written in Art's well-known, entertaining and insightful style, and is highly recommended -- a must for any Skunk Works subscriber! The only negative point are the absolutely lousy photo captions. Not only are they written in a terrible abbreviated style -- omitting most articles and pronouns -- but they are also absolutely riddled with factual errors. Whoever was responsible for them, should have his (or her) writing license revoked! Other recent, and maybe not yet mentioned here, Skunk Works-related articles and publications are: * AFM (AirForces Monthly) No. 111, (June 1997), with a follow-up to the Boscombe Down incident article -- consisting mainly of letters to the editor, most of which are worthless. * PM (Popular Mechanics), June 1997, with one of the most ridiculous articles about Area 51, that I ever had the misfortune to pay for. * The premier issue of Combat Aircraft, Vol. 1, No. 1, (May 1997), which replaced AFi (Air Fan international), contains a nice little article about the "RC-7B" ARL (Airborne Reconnaissance Low) program. * Several AW&ST (Aviation Week & Space Technology) and Flight International issues with reports on the F-22, JSF, UAVs and related topics. * Spy Flights of the Cold War, by Paul Lashmar is finally available in the USA, (for example from Zenith Books), and costs $29.95. * The United States Air Force Year Book 1997, should soon be available in US bookstores, like Borders -- the RAF Year Book 1997 has been available for quite some time now, and the USAF Year Book usually follows a couple of weeks or months later. - -- 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/ - --- --- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 01 Jun 1997 16:20:07 +1200 From: Brett Davidson Subject: Military Spaceplane This may not be news to many here, since I was only passing through... Just noted in passing. The Federation of American Scientists have updated their military spaceplane page. See http://www.fas.org/irp/mystery, or specifically, http://www.fas.org/spp/military/program/launch/msp.html I note that the project is mostly to develop computer design methods as much as anything, with the near-term aim being a virtual vehicle, rather than metal. A range of options is detailled. Most are considerably larger than, say, Black Horse... or the hypothetical upper stage of Brilliant Buzzard. That may be significant - any comment Dan? For example - the demonstrator would have a 10'x5'x5 payload bay and 3-5000 lb capacity, and only be suborbital (mach 16). Proposed/suggested operational and fully orbit-capable versions would, (a) pop-up to deliver 15000 lb - including upperstage, or orbit and (b)deliver 4000 lb. Payload bay is 25'x12'x12'. Other versions are about VentureStar-sized. All-in-all, quite big, and ambitious. It would suggest, and I mean *sugest* in that it doesn't rule out, rather than prove, the existence of the sort of "Uragan," "50/50", or X-20 Dynasoar type. Well, as my version of the well-known joke goes: I could tell you more, but then I'd be making it up. Langley NASA have also got their advanced launch vehicles resources more ordered lately. It is at least of historical interest with various shuttle and RLV successors, supplements etc. Also some notes on Hyper-X and "Future-X." - --Brett ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 01 Jun 1997 10:26:57 -0700 From: santiagoj@delphi.com Subject: "Spies in the Sky" Documentary If someone has a copy of the "Spies in the Sky" documentary that was the begining basis of the Paul Lashmar book "Spy Flights of the Cold War" would they be willing to make a copy of it and send it to me? I would pay for a tape(or send you one) and pay all the postage. I could offer in trade a copy of the "American Experience" PBS Series Documentary on the U-2 which aired in May 1997. Please. Thanks, J.E. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Jun 1997 13:12:39 +1200 From: Brett Davidson Subject: Re: Military Spaceplane - erratum Oops! Forgot to add the address: >Langley NASA have also got their advanced launch vehicles resources more >ordered lately. It is at least of historical interest with various shuttle >and RLV successors, supplements etc. Also some notes on Hyper-X and "Future-X." See http://vab02.larc.nasa.gov/Activities/ALV.html >--Brett > > > ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Jun 1997 22:21:42 -0400 (EDT) From: Wei-Jen Su Subject: Re: Recent articles... On Sat, 31 May 1997, Kathryn & Andreas Gehrs-Pahl wrote: > Other recent, and maybe not yet mentioned here, Skunk Works-related articles > and publications are: Also, There is a article of F-22 by Bill Sweetman in Popular Science June 1997. May the Force be with you Su Wei-Jen E-mails: wsu02@utopia.poly.edu wjs@webspan.net Nicklas' Law of Aircraft Identification: "If it's ugly, it's British; if it's weird, it's French; and if it's ugly and weird, it's Russian." Brian Nicklas ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Jun 1997 22:29:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Wei-Jen Su Subject: Mach Here is not a Skunk Works question but it will lead to a couples if some aero can answer me this: How a supersonic aircraft know her Mach speed? I know that they use its pitot tube, it measure the total pressure after the shock wave and knowing the static pressure before the shock wave you will know the Mach number. But, how does it knows the static pressure before the shock wave? Some people said that they use a diamond shape pitot tube (like the F-117) so the shock wave is behind of it... But, I don't know. Can someone explain me and why the F-117 pitot tube is diamond shape? Thanks in advances. May the Force be with you Su Wei-Jen "Reporting back to duty :)" E-mails: wsu02@utopia.poly.edu wjs@webspan.net Nicklas' Law of Aircraft Identification: "If it's ugly, it's British; if it's weird, it's French; and if it's ugly and weird, it's Russian." Brian Nicklas ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 1 Jun 1997 23:49:53 -0400 (EDT) From: Xelex@aol.com Subject: Re: Northrop Hawthorne Groom commuter flights The mystery commuter flight may have been one of the Beechcraft 1900s operated by EG&G Special Projects, McCarran Operations in Las Vegas. They transport personnel to Groom Lake from Las Vegas, Palmdale, Edwards AFB, and other locations (perhaps Northrop's facility in Hawthorne). Northrop personnel also occaisionally use company-owned aircraft to commute to Groom and other locations. Peter Merlin ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Jun 1997 01:09:40 -0700 From: patrick Subject: Re: Mach Can someone explain me and why the F-117 pitot tube is diamond shape? >This answer works well for most F-117 questions. They made it stealthy. Then they made it fly. > >The exterior angles of the pitot tubes were designed to reflect radar signals just as all the other faceted angles on the plane do. They originally wanted surface mounted inlets. But upon deciding to use a quadruple redundancy computer, the engineers could not find a location on the plane that allowed for 4 inlets each giving a reasonably similar air flow. Thus they compromised with the 4 faceted inlets we see today. > >patrick cullumber >patrick@e-z.net ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Jun 1997 07:55:00 -0400 (EDT) From: jdonoghue@cclink.draper.com Subject: Declassified Articles begin 666 csi97.doc MT,\1X*&Q&N$ /@ # /[_"0 & !| M "P $ # $ #^____ H #_____________| M____________________________________________________________| M____________________________________________________________| M____________________________________________________________| M____________________________________________________________| M____________________________________________________________| M____________________________________________________________| M____________________________________________________________| M____________________________________________________________| M____________________________________________________________| M_______________________2!P;W-T960@86X@| M:6YD97@@;V8@9&5C;&%S65A2!M;W)E(&%R=&EC;&5S(&EN('1H:7,@;F5W| M("AA;F0@9G)E92D@;&ES="X@36-);FEN8V@G2!B92!S;VUE(&YE=R!J97=E;',@86UO;F<@87)T| M:6-L97,@8GD@1&EN;R!" ]I@@'IP@'J* %J: %J@ #,$ $ "L' | M /____\ | M | M | M # K| M!P 5@< #^ | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M "=0$" , )0# "5 P ] 4 /4% "8!@ Q08 !T' >| M!P *P< /X L AY #^ ' (>0 _@ 'P"'D /X < AY #^ + (>0 _@ !| MP"'D /X < AY #^ ' (>0 _@ !P"'D | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M $ D. \ " ! $L #P | M' 0/'_ @ < 9.;W)M86P @ 8 70, 80D$ | M (@!!0/+_H0 B !9$969A=6QT(%!A" T| M-3$W(%!O2!P;W-T960@86X@:6YD97@@;V8@9&5C;&%S0 | M %!O DP %1H92!#24$G"!O9B!D96-L87-S:69I960@87)T:6-L97,@| M9G)O;2!35%5$2453($E.($E.5$5,3$E'14Y#12!O;B!T:&5I 0 > ! $I/10 > !0!$ &\ 8P!U &T 90!N| M '0 4P!U &T ;0!A '( >0!) &X 9@!O '( ;0!A '0 :0!O &X | M #@ @#_______________\ | M + : $ | M | M /_______________P | M | M ________| M________ | M | M #_______________\ | M | M #^_P ! " ! M7-U9PN&Q"3EP@ *RSY| MKC X 0 " $ !( #P % $ 9 4 !L | M!@ '0 + ? ! "$ # (P " Y 0 !X )| M 0RY3+D0N3"X 940 P T+ # !P , ! "P | M + P0 " '@ ), !4:&4@0TE!)W,@0V5N=&5R(&9O| M2!P;W-T| M960@86X@:6YD97@@;V8@9&5C;&%S ! $I/10 > @ | M #( 1P > '@ $UI8W)O DP %1H92!#24$G"!O9B!D96-L87-S:69I960@87)T:6-L97,@9G)O;2!35%5$2453| M($E. | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M @24Y414Q,24=%3D-%(&]N('1H96ER('=E| M8G-I=&4 P | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | M | E | | end ------------------------------ End of skunk-works-digest V6 #55 ******************************** To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "majordomo@netwrx1.com". 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. Administrative requests, problems, and other non-list mail can be sent to either "skunk-works-digest-owner@netwrx1.com" or, if you don't like to type a lot, "georgek@netwrx1.com". A non-digest (direct mail) version of this list is also available; to subscribe to that instead, replace all instances of "skunk-works-digest" in the commands above with "skunk-works". Back issues are available for e-mail request by sending a message to majordomo@netwrx1.com with no subject and a line containing "get skunk-works-digest vNN.nMMM" (where "NN" is the volume number, and "MMM" is the issue number). You can get a list of all available digests by sending the one line command "index skunk-works-digest". If you have any questions or problems please contact me at: georgek@netwrx1.com Thanks, George R. Kasica