From: owner-skunk-works-digest@netwrx1.com (skunk-works-digest) To: skunk-works-digest@netwrx1.com Subject: skunk-works-digest V7 #69 Reply-To: skunk-works@netwrx1.com Sender: owner-skunk-works-digest@netwrx1.com Errors-To: owner-skunk-works-digest@netwrx1.com Precedence: bulk skunk-works-digest Tuesday, October 6 1998 Volume 07 : Number 069 Index of this digest by subject: *************************************************** Latest Skunk Works project Re: Latest Skunk Works project Re: [Fwd: UFOMIND: Chris Pocock on Origin of Area 51] SR-71 web sites - maybe new to skunkers, maybe not Skunk Works List New Look for the New Millenium Re: SR-71 update Re[2]: SR-71 update Re: SR-71 update Re: New Look for the New Millenium TLC High Power Lasers TV Show (Long) Re: TLC High Power Lasers TV Show (Long) Re: Lasers and lightcraft Aerodynamics Question RE: Aerodynamics Question Re: Aerodynamics Question *************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 12:45:53 -0700 (PDT) From: David Lednicer Subject: Latest Skunk Works project If you want to see the first picture (or at least first I have seen), of the my recent Skunk Works product, see the 29 July - 4 August issue of Flight International. On page 24, there is a picture of a F-16, with a Lockheed Martin JASSM below the right wing. The fins are all folded and the angle of the picture is not the greatest, but it does at least show the missile! - ------------------------------------------------------------------- David Lednicer | "Applied Computational Fluid Dynamics" Analytical Methods, Inc. | email: dave@amiwest.com 2133 152nd Ave NE | tel: (425) 643-9090 Redmond, WA 98052 USA | fax: (425) 746-1299 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 01 Oct 98 16:44:43 -0500 From: gregweigold@pmsc.com Subject: Re: Latest Skunk Works project David, Congrats!! What can you tell us about the latest at the SW? Without getting us or you in any trouble of course! ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Latest Skunk Works project Author: at INTERNET Date: 10/1/98 12:45 PM If you want to see the first picture (or at least first I have seen), of the my recent Skunk Works product, see the 29 July - 4 August issue of Flight International. On page 24, there is a picture of a F-16, with a Lockheed Martin JASSM below the right wing. The fins are all folded and the angle of the picture is not the greatest, but it does at least show the missile! - ------------------------------------------------------------------- David Lednicer | "Applied Computational Fluid Dynamics" Analytical Methods, Inc. | email: dave@amiwest.com 2133 152nd Ave NE | tel: (425) 643-9090 Redmond, WA 98052 USA | fax: (425) 746-1299 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1998 15:39:17 +0200 (METDST) From: pharabod@in2p3.fr Subject: Re: [Fwd: UFOMIND: Chris Pocock on Origin of Area 51] On Wed, 30 Sep 1998 18:46:49 -0600, Brent Clark forwarded a message from Chris Pocock, according to which Groom Lake was "discovered" by Oz Ritland, Richard Bissell, Tony LeVier and Kelly Johnson. But it's not the story told by LeVier himself: according to "Area 51: The Dreamland Chronicles", by David Darlington, Henry Holt&Co, 1997, LeVier said that those who "discovered" Groom Lake were Tony LeVier himself and Dorsey Kammerier (Dorsey Kammerier was in charge of logistics (sp?) at the Skunk Works, see Jay Miller's book). Ref: The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 1998, p. 64. Who is right? J. Pharabod ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 20:03:44 -0700 From: "Terry W. Colvin" Subject: SR-71 web sites - maybe new to skunkers, maybe not SR-71 BLACKBIRD makes EMERG LAND'G @ UDORN 5/72 (I got a PIC need to scan it) Blackbird Timeline, 1970's http://www.thepoint.net/~jstone/srtl70.html CombatSim: SR 71 Blackbird Interview http://www.combatsim.com/sr71_int.htm (Richard Graham - 555th UDORN '72) - -- Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean@primenet.com > Home Page: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Shadowlands/8832 Sites: Fortean Times * Northwest Mysteries * Mystic's Cyberpage * U.S. Message Text Formatting (USMTF) Program - ------------ Member: Thailand-Laos-Cambodia Brotherhood (TLCB) Mailing List TLCB Web Site: http://www.seacoast.com/~jsweet/brotherh/index.html Southeast Asia (SEA) service: Vietnam - Theater Telecommunications Center/HHC, 1st Aviation Brigade (Jan 71 - Aug 72) Thailand/Laos - Telecommunications Center/U.S. Army Support Thailand (USARSUPTHAI), Camp Samae San (Jan 73 - Aug 73) - Special Security/Strategic Communications - Thailand (STRATCOM - Thailand), Phu Mu (Pig Mountain) Signal Site (Aug 73 - Jan 74) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1998 06:25:26 -0400 From: Chris Davies <100703.3474@compuserve.com> Subject: Skunk Works List Please post me ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 19:43:21 -0700 From: patrick Subject: New Look for the New Millenium 981508. DOD establishes the Defense Threat Reduction Agency WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen established the Defense Threat Reduction Agency in a ceremony Oct. 1 near Dulles Airport where the new defense agency will initially be headquartered. DTRA is dedicated to reducing the threat to the United States and its allies from nuclear, chemical, biological, conventional and special weapons. Speaking to an audience that included employees of the new organization, Cohen said, "Today's harsh reality is too powerful to ignore: at least 25 countries have, or are in the process of developing, nuclear, biological or chemical weapons and the means to deliver them... We must confront these threats in places like Baghdad before they come to our shores. Because America should not rush into the future without being rooted in the proven strengths of the past, we turn to you -- the proven professionals." Most of DTRA's 2,089 personnel were previously employed at organizations that merged to form the new agency. Elements of the Office of the Secretary of Defense staff, the Defense Technology Security Administration, the Defense Special Weapons Agency and the On-Site Inspection Agency were consolidated as a result of Cohen's November 1997 Defense Reform Initiative which directed the creation of DTRA. That initiative is part of the Clinton administration's overall effort to improve government efficiency. "I want you to know that by bringing you together we are elevating and enhancing the critical work you do; your talent, your creativity and your remarkable expertise," Cohen told the audience. Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre called DTRA a "coherent, focused organization that will create the intellectual infrastructure for a new approach to deal with the weapons of mass destruction challenge." Hamre said, "The Agency will bring together into one organization the principal department of defense organizations with weapons-of-mass destruction expertise." DTRA executes technology security activities; cooperative threat reduction programs; arms control treaty monitoring and on-site inspection; force protection; nuclear, biological and chemical defense and counterproliferation. The Agency supports the U.S. nuclear deterrent and provides technical support on weapons of mass destruction matters to Department of Defense organizations. Dr. Jay Davis is the director of DTRA. The Agency's FY 99 budget is projected to be about $1.9 billion. ==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Art- You know anybody over in DTRA interested in shopping for some used monitoring airplanes? ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 21:55:29 -0700 From: "Michael J. Poirier" Subject: Re: SR-71 update - --------------A970E7B6E2FFF23AE9B0E5CF Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit betnal@ns.net wrote: > Second, which Air National Guard would get it? This is obvious: the California Air National Guard would be assigned that duty, with a new base-sharing arrangement at Beale :) - --------------A970E7B6E2FFF23AE9B0E5CF Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit betnal@ns.net wrote:
Second, which Air National Guard would get it?
This is obvious: the California Air National Guard would be assigned that duty, with a new base-sharing arrangement at Beale  :)
  - --------------A970E7B6E2FFF23AE9B0E5CF-- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 03 Oct 98 13:15:13 -0500 From: gregweigold@pmsc.com Subject: Re[2]: SR-71 update Can you imagine the ANG pilots who would die for the chance to fly the SR?? ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: SR-71 update Author: at INTERNET Date: 9/30/98 9:55 PM betnal@ns.net wrote: > Second, which Air National Guard would get it? This is obvious: the California Air National Guard would be assigned that duty, with a new base-sharing arrangement at Beale :) ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 03 Oct 98 18:43:29 GMT From: betnal@ns.net Subject: Re: SR-71 update On 9/30/98 9:55PM, in message <36164910.AB28CD7@mbay.net>, "Michael J. Poirier" wrote: > betnal@ns.net wrote: > > > Second, which Air National Guard would get it? > > This is obvious: the California Air National Guard would be > assigned that duty, with a new base-sharing arrangement at > Beale :) > > Michael, There you go being logical and sensible again. If it was funded, the SR-71 program would be a feather in any State's cap. You'd see all kinds of lobbying to have a detachment of whatever State's guard be located at Edwards as a tenant. Of course, considering what Edwards charges, they may not be able to afford it. The biggest problem, though, would be funding in the face of USAF opposition. Art ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Oct 98 02:49:10 GMT From: betnal@ns.net Subject: Re: New Look for the New Millenium On 10/2/98 7:43PM, in message <3.0.1.32.19981002194321.00727b48@e-z.net>, patrick wrote: > . > > > ==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > Art- > You know anybody over in DTRA interested in shopping for some used > monitoring airplanes? > Remember, those aircraft can answer questions that many of the powers that be don't want asked. And given the SR-71 shutdown, Scott Ritter's and others information and all the technology we've provided the Chinese ICBM programs, I can't say that I have high hopes for DTRA. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 11:30:41 -0700 From: Larry Smith Subject: TLC High Power Lasers TV Show (Long) Did anybody else see the TLC show on last night about High Power Lasers? Pretty impressive! This program seems like it was produced sometime this year. The USAF seems to have declassified a lot of information about the airborne and space based laser weapons development programs. When I was at the USAF Museum this summer on sabbatical, I found a large official history, recently puiblished, of the laser weapons development effort. This history goes up to the YAL-1 ABL program. Back to the TLC program. There was video of the first gound based laser weapons lab out at Kirtland, as well as the first ground to air kill of a RC propeller powered drone. There was interesting video on the ALL (Airborne Laser Lab) system, which is yet another KC-135 clone. There was video of the laser compartment on that aircraft, as well as still photos of the laser operating in that compartment! The beam was exposed in that compartment for part of its travel up to the turret!! The beam was so powerful (of course) that it ignited normal ambient dust inside the aircraft!! It was quite interesting to see the air seemingly spark (dust igniting)as the beam went through the air up to the turret on the top of the fuselage. There was also video of the still secret Alpha Laser Facility which is a ground based development model of a space based laser that would destroy an ICBM in space up to a distance of 5,000 miles. They showed some interesting video of the components of this system. Talk about sci-fi!! There was also some recent video (it seems) of Prof. Leik Myrabo's lightcraft tests. They showed a lot of video of testflights of this disk shaped, ground based laser propelled, aircraft. Including Prof. Myrabo himself spinning the disk up to 6,000 rpm via compressed air blowing on the disk, standing right next to the subscale lightcraft, and then ducking for cover just before the pulsed laser fired! You could hear the repeated detonations of ambient air, caused by the laser focused on the combustion chamber on the underside of the aircraft. No fuel used, just ambient air! They showed detail shots of the very light aluminum constructed aircraft. There is a guy with a butterfly net that attempts to catch each descending lightcraft so they can save money and possibly reuse it. The ones they miss sometimes break. You could hear it clunk on the ground, which gave you a good feel for how light these machines really are. Each pulse of the laser on the lightcraft made the lightcraft glow as the air detonated on the lightcraft underside, even in the bright New Mexico sunlight. The lightcraft was NOT using a guide wire, like on the earliest tests at the end of last year. That's why they were spinning it, to get some auto stabilization. They still had a problem with the lightcraft flying out of the beam at the top of the trajectory. Myrabo is runing out of money, and the laser shots are expensive for his budget, so his last effort was to achieve with his lightcraft, a flight equal in altitude to Robert Goddard's second successful flight of 90 feet! They showed this on the video. I was impressed! Myrabo thinks the symbolic nature of this feat might help him procure some additional funds. After all, Goddard achieved his second flight just east of there in Roswell New Mexico! This guy should be funded! They covered the current YAL-1A ABL program last. The most interesting video was of how the adaptive optics will work. They showed some real video of an adaptive optic lens focusing on a star and correcting for atmospheric aberation. Very interesting! The original intention was to couple an attack laser to a fighter plane. This is still the long range desire I think. However, the laser systems are all way too heavy to do that, thus the need for a large aircraft. The large aircraft is of course somewhat vulnerable, however, the first successful shootdown by the ALL was of a sidewinder missile fired AT the ALL!! That's the way they did it. They however attempted to make sure that the sidewinder would run out of fuel as a safety measure before reaching the ALL, assuming the F-4 pilot, who launched the sidewinder, didn't send the sidewinder on a ballistic trajectory, in which case it could reach the ALL. The videos of missile destruction by the ALL were really cool. The ALL blew them right out of the sky! Check out this program! Larry Smith ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1998 12:58:55 -0700 From: "A.J. Craddock" Subject: Re: TLC High Power Lasers TV Show (Long) Yes, I taped it. Not shown, of course, were the Thor 2 laser cannons that are purported to have been operational for at least a decade or more. See http://www.cseti.org/crashes/069.htm Tony Craddock ****************** See At 11:30 AM 10/6/98 -0700, you wrote: > >Did anybody else see the TLC show on last night about High >Power Lasers? > >Pretty impressive! > >This program seems like it was produced sometime this year. > >The USAF seems to have declassified a lot of information about >the airborne and space based laser weapons development programs. > >When I was at the USAF Museum this summer on sabbatical, I found >a large official history, recently puiblished, of the laser weapons >development effort. This history goes up to the YAL-1 ABL program. > >Back to the TLC program. > >There was video of the first gound based laser weapons lab out >at Kirtland, as well as the first ground to air kill of a RC >propeller powered drone. > >There was interesting video on the ALL (Airborne Laser Lab) system, >which is yet another KC-135 clone. There was video >of the laser compartment on that aircraft, as well as still photos >of the laser operating in that compartment! The beam was exposed >in that compartment for part of its travel up to the turret!! The >beam was so powerful (of course) that it ignited normal ambient >dust inside the aircraft!! It was quite interesting to see the air >seemingly spark (dust igniting)as the beam went through the air >up to the turret on the top of the fuselage. > >There was also video of the still secret Alpha Laser Facility >which is a ground based development model of a space based laser that >would destroy an ICBM in space up to a distance of 5,000 miles. >They showed some interesting video of the components of this >system. Talk about sci-fi!! > >There was also some recent video (it seems) of Prof. Leik Myrabo's >lightcraft tests. They showed a lot of video of testflights of this >disk shaped, ground based laser propelled, aircraft. Including >Prof. Myrabo himself spinning the disk up to 6,000 rpm via compressed >air blowing on the disk, standing right >next to the subscale lightcraft, and then ducking for cover just >before the pulsed laser fired! You could hear the repeated detonations >of ambient air, caused by the laser focused on the combustion chamber >on the underside of the aircraft. No fuel used, just ambient air! >They showed detail shots of the very light aluminum constructed >aircraft. There is a guy with a butterfly net that attempts to catch >each descending lightcraft so they can save money and possibly reuse >it. The ones they miss sometimes break. You could hear it clunk on >the ground, which gave you a good feel for how light these machines >really are. Each pulse of the laser on the lightcraft made the >lightcraft glow as the air detonated on the lightcraft underside, >even in the bright New Mexico sunlight. The lightcraft was NOT using >a guide wire, like on the earliest tests at the end of last year. >That's why they were spinning it, to get some auto stabilization. >They still had a problem with the lightcraft flying out of the beam >at the top of the trajectory. Myrabo is runing out of money, and the >laser shots are expensive for his budget, so his last effort was >to achieve with his lightcraft, a flight equal in altitude to Robert >Goddard's second successful flight of 90 feet! They showed this >on the video. I was impressed! Myrabo thinks the symbolic nature >of this feat might help him procure some additional funds. After all, >Goddard achieved his second flight just east of there in Roswell >New Mexico! This guy should be funded! > >They covered the current YAL-1A ABL program last. The most interesting >video was of how the adaptive optics will work. They showed some >real video of an adaptive optic lens focusing on a star and correcting >for atmospheric aberation. Very interesting! > >The original intention was to couple an attack laser to a fighter >plane. This is still the long range desire I think. However, the >laser systems are all way too heavy to do that, thus the need for >a large aircraft. The large aircraft is of course somewhat vulnerable, >however, the first successful shootdown by the ALL was of a sidewinder >missile fired AT the ALL!! That's the way they did it. They however >attempted to make sure that the sidewinder would run out of fuel as >a safety measure before reaching the ALL, assuming the F-4 pilot, who >launched the sidewinder, didn't send the sidewinder on a ballistic >trajectory, in which case it could reach the ALL. The videos of >missile destruction by the ALL were really cool. The ALL blew them >right out of the sky! >Check out this program! > >Larry Smith > > ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 16:36:11 -0500 From: Wayne Busse Subject: Re: Lasers and lightcraft Here are locations of additional information on High Energy Weapons and Lightcraft. TRW THEL (Theater High Energy Laser) http://www.trw.com/seg/sats/THEL.html Boeing ABL (Airborne Laser System) http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/abl/ Image: http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/abl/images/abl2.jpg SHIVA STAR 1 Terawatt pulsed energy system: http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/pa/factsheets/shiva.html Image of SHIVA STAR capacitor banks discharging: http://www.de.afrl.af.mil/ws_gifs/shivafire.gif Air Force Lightcraft Press Release - 10/97: http://www.ple.af.mil/public/articles/971027lc.htm Lightcraft Images from Propulsion Directorate Lab: http://www.ple.af.mil/lcimages.htm - -------------------------------------------------------------- From: Larry Smith Did anybody else see the TLC show on last night about High Power Lasers? Pretty impressive! This program seems like it was produced sometime this year. The USAF seems to have declassified a lot of information about the airborne and space based laser weapons development programs. When I was at the USAF Museum this summer on sabbatical, I found a large official history, recently puiblished, of the laser weapons development effort. This history goes up to the YAL-1 ABL program. Back to the TLC program. There was video of the first gound based laser weapons lab out at Kirtland, as well as the first ground to air kill of a RC propeller powered drone. There was interesting video on the ALL (Airborne Laser Lab) system, which is yet another KC-135 clone. There was video of the laser compartment on that aircraft, as well as still photos of the laser operating in that compartment! The beam was exposed in that compartment for part of its travel up to the turret!! The beam was so powerful (of course) that it ignited normal ambient dust inside the aircraft!! It was quite interesting to see the air seemingly spark (dust igniting)as the beam went through the air up to the turret on the top of the fuselage. There was also video of the still secret Alpha Laser Facility which is a ground based development model of a space based laser that would destroy an ICBM in space up to a distance of 5,000 miles. They showed some interesting video of the components of this system. Talk about sci-fi!! There was also some recent video (it seems) of Prof. Leik Myrabo's lightcraft tests. They showed a lot of video of testflights of this disk shaped, ground based laser propelled, aircraft. Including Prof. Myrabo himself spinning the disk up to 6,000 rpm via compressed air blowing on the disk, standing right next to the subscale lightcraft, and then ducking for cover just before the pulsed laser fired! You could hear the repeated detonations of ambient air, caused by the laser focused on the combustion chamber on the underside of the aircraft. No fuel used, just ambient air! They showed detail shots of the very light aluminum constructed aircraft. There is a guy with a butterfly net that attempts to catch each descending lightcraft so they can save money and possibly reuse it. The ones they miss sometimes break. You could hear it clunk on the ground, which gave you a good feel for how light these machines really are. Each pulse of the laser on the lightcraft made the lightcraft glow as the air detonated on the lightcraft underside, even in the bright New Mexico sunlight. The lightcraft was NOT using a guide wire, like on the earliest tests at the end of last year. That's why they were spinning it, to get some auto stabilization. They still had a problem with the lightcraft flying out of the beam at the top of the trajectory. Myrabo is runing out of money, and the laser shots are expensive for his budget, so his last effort was to achieve with his lightcraft, a flight equal in altitude to Robert Goddard's second successful flight of 90 feet! They showed this on the video. I was impressed! Myrabo thinks the symbolic nature of this feat might help him procure some additional funds. After all, Goddard achieved his second flight just east of there in Roswell New Mexico! This guy should be funded! They covered the current YAL-1A ABL program last. The most interesting video was of how the adaptive optics will work. They showed some real video of an adaptive optic lens focusing on a star and correcting for atmospheric aberation. Very interesting! The original intention was to couple an attack laser to a fighter plane. This is still the long range desire I think. However, the laser systems are all way too heavy to do that, thus the need for a large aircraft. The large aircraft is of course somewhat vulnerable, however, the first successful shootdown by the ALL was of a sidewinder missile fired AT the ALL!! That's the way they did it. They however attempted to make sure that the sidewinder would run out of fuel as a safety measure before reaching the ALL, assuming the F-4 pilot, who launched the sidewinder, didn't send the sidewinder on a ballistic trajectory, in which case it could reach the ALL. The videos of missile destruction by the ALL were really cool. The ALL blew them right out of the sky! Check out this program! Larry Smith Wayne Busse http://www.sky.net/~wings wings@sky.net wbusse@johnco.cc.ks.us ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1998 15:41:09 -0700 From: "A.J. Craddock" Subject: Aerodynamics Question Anyone know if this is actually true? Replies privately, I guess. Thanks Tony Craddock ************ Next fall when you see geese heading south for the winter flying along in a "V" formation, you might be interested in knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way. It has been learned that when a lead bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 15:58:39 -0700 From: ehoel@esri.com Subject: RE: Aerodynamics Question A.J. Craddock (craddock@west.net) wrote: > Anyone know if this is actually true? > > Replies privately, I guess. The list is slow ... > ************ > > Next fall when you see geese heading south for > the winter flying along in a "V" formation, you might be interested in > knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way. > It has been learned that when a lead bird flaps its wings, it > creates an > uplift for > the bird immediately following. By flying in a "V" formation, > the whole > flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on > its own. I recently read about something analogous to this in Milt Thompson's excellent book about the X-15 program ("At the Edge of Space: The X-15 Flight Program"); apparently, when F-104s flew Chase-1 during the launches, they had a hard time maintaining formation with the B-52 at 45,000'. Milt Thompson indicated that they had to fly with their afterburners on, as well as their airbrakes partially deployed (!). In any event, he said that they soon learned how to utilize the wingtip vortices off of the B-52, thus allowing their power to be reduced by 50% or so [if anyone wants to exact citation, I'll try finding it in the book tonight]. This still brings up an interesting question as to how Joe Walker (whom I would imagine occasionally flew Chase-1 and would probably be aware of this maneuver) misjudged the wingtip vortices off of the XB-70A while he was also flying another F-104. Does anyone know anything more about this? Erik - -- Erik Hoel mailto:ehoel@esri.com Environmental Systems Research Institute http://www.esri.com 380 New York Street 909-793-2853 (x1-1548) tel Redlands, CA 92373-8100 909-307-3067 fax ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1998 18:03:25 -0700 (PDT) From: Wei-Jen Su Subject: Re: Aerodynamics Question On Tue, 6 Oct 1998, A.J. Craddock wrote: > Next fall when you see geese heading south for > the winter flying along in a "V" formation, you might be interested in > knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way. > It has been learned that when a lead bird flaps its wings, it creates an > uplift for > the bird immediately following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole > flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on > its own. Yeap. This is true. If you see clearly the bird inmigrating and flying in "V" formation, you will notes that stronger and bigger bird is always flying the lead of the formation and the weakest and smallest bird at the end of the formation. Ussually, the bigger one rotates the lead so they don't get too tired. The rest of the bird, take advantage of the uplift vorticy generated by each of the birds. I heard that the famous crash of the XB-70 with the F-104 is due to the vorticy generated by the XB-70... so, the F-104 flying too close of the bomber, lost its control... May the Force be with you Wei-Jen Su E-mail: wsu@cco.caltech.edu "And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the very first Fokker airplane built in the world. The Dutch call it the mother Fokker." -- custodian at the Aviodome aviation museum, Schiphol airport Amsterdam ------------------------------ End of skunk-works-digest V7 #69 ******************************** To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe 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 local-skunk-works@your.domain.net To unsubscribe, send mail to the same address, with the command: unsubscribe in the body. Administrative requests, problems, and other non-list mail can be sent to 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". 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