From owner-skunk-works-digest@netwrx1.com Sat Sep 12 01:02:50 2009 Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 23:56:02 -0500 From: skunk-works-digest Reply-To: skunk-works@netwrx1.com To: skunk-works-digest@netwrx1.com Subject: skunk-works-digest V16 #5 skunk-works-digest Friday, September 11 2009 Volume 16 : Number 005 Index of this digest by subject: *************************************************** Re: skunk-works FW: How little girls make their dad's proud. Re: skunk-works FW: How little girls make their dad's proud. skunk-works Fw: [forteana] To the Moon skunk-works FW: TMIH - First Americans Killed in Vietnam War skunk-works OT for you space geeks skunk-works UFO UpDate: Re: 08-19-09 Larry King Live On UFOs Online skunk-works Elementary Teacher Flew SR-71 Blackbird skunk-works Ride in a U-2 spy plane video RE: skunk-works Ride in a U-2 spy plane video skunk-works FW: [Fwd: Fwd: I am honored to do this] Re: skunk-works [I am honored to do this] Re: skunk-works FW: [Fwd: Fwd: I am honored to do this] skunk-works AURORA was Re: Flying Triangle (sort of) *************************************************** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:53:45 -0700 From: "Anne" Subject: Re: skunk-works FW: How little girls make their dad's proud. Hi Greg, I thought I might have deleted, but "no".. a good thing. I'm resending it as an attachment - it may be deleted on auto re the list, but feel free to pass it on bc. I wish I could do what this little girl does. She's amazing (good Dad..). Anne ----- Original Message ----- From: Deacon Greg Weigold To: skunk-works@netwrx1.com ; Undisclosed Recipients Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 8:09 AM Subject: Re: skunk-works FW: How little girls make their dad's proud. was there an attachment or something - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - From: Anne To: Undisclosed Recipients Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 12:15:05 AM Subject: skunk-works FW: How little girls make their dad's proud. (wish I knew how to do that Heh.. LOLOL) Kinda brings a tear to my eye... How little girls make their dad's proud. [demime 1.01b removed an attachment of type video/x-ms-wmv which had a name of What_little_girls_do.wmv] No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.339 / Virus Database: 270.12.90/2198 - Release Date: 06/23/09 17:54:00 [demime 1.01b removed an attachment of type video/x-ms-wmv which had a name of What_lit.wmv] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:28:35 -0700 From: Patrick Subject: Re: skunk-works FW: How little girls make their dad's proud. "What_little_girls_do" can be found at YouTube. It is the video of a young girl field stripping an AR-15 military assault style rifle on her dad's pool table while he, proudly, times her with a stopwatch. The rifle is the same color as an SR-71 but alas, it can only accelerate a bullet to a third the speed of an SR-71. So the relevance here is somewhat circumspect. Oh wait, my old boss wandered around the hangers at Beale carrying and M-16. So yes, we have an winner! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:09:24 -0400 (EDT) From: Terry Colvin Subject: skunk-works Fw: [forteana] To the Moon - -----Forwarded Message----- WeChooseTheMoon.org, http://www.wechoosethemoon.org, will go live on July 16, 2009 at 8:02 a.m. and will take off at 9:32 a.m. - exactly 40 years to the minute after the historic launch. The site, powered by AOL, will recreate Apollo 11's lunar mission, minute by minute, with an interactive experience that lets visitors experience the mission as it happened, using archival audio, video, photos and "real-time" transmissions on the site. http://wechoosethemoon.org/ Terry W. Colvin Ladphrao (Bangkok), Thailand Pran Buri (Hua Hin), Thailand http://terrycolvin.freewebsites.com/ [Terry's Fortean & "Work" itty-bitty site] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:48:54 -0700 From: "Anne Faulkner" Subject: skunk-works FW: TMIH - First Americans Killed in Vietnam War _____ From: Footnote [mailto:thomasj@footnote-inc.com] Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 5:46 AM To: annefaulkner@shaw.ca Subject: TMIH - First Americans Killed in Vietnam War Footnote.com If this email doesn't display correctly, view it in your browser. Fifty years ago, the first U.S. soldiers were killed in Vietnam - 1959 Fifty years ago, on July 8, 1959, Major Dale R. Buis and Sergeant Chester M. Ovnand were killed in Vietnam. These men became the first US soldiers in Vietnam to be killed by enemy fire. Thus, they occupy the first two spots on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. Click here to view the Virtual Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Footnote.com Buis and Ovnand were part of an eight-man American Military Assistance Advisory Group at a base camp in Bien Hoa, twenty miles northeast of Saigon. On the night of July 8, six of the men were in the mess hall watching a movie when Viet Cong terrorists attacked and opened fire. Major Buis and Sergeant Ovnand were killed along with two Vietnamese guards. These men became the first of thousands to die in the most controversial US conflict. Footnote Pages * Dale Buis Page * Chester Ovnand Page * Vietnam War Page *Chester M. Ovnand's, also known as Charles, name is misspelled on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as Chester N. Ovnard. His name does appear further down on the Memorial correctly with the appropriate facts and dates. Vietnam Photos from the National Archives Vietnam Soldier Vietnam Photos Collections Vietnam War Marine Corps Photos (Color) Vietnam War Marine Corps Photos (B/W) TwitterFootnote on Twitter | Facebook Footnote on Facebook | The Footnote Blog Reminder! Upgrade to an Annual Membership Now at a discounted rate of $59.95 before the price increase (August 1, 2009). Upgrade Now Millons of people and thousands of institutions use Footnote.com to discover and make sense of history. Footnote.com, where history just might surprise you. * Search Documents * Browse Documents * Footnote Pages * New & Updated Titles * WWII Collection * Black History Footnote.com This email was sent to: annefaulkner@shaw.ca To avoid this email being sent to your junk mail folder, please add this address (thomasj@footnote-inc.com) to your safe senders list. C 2009 Footnote. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe | Customer Support No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.387 / Virus Database: 270.13.16/2241 - Release Date: 07/16/09 05:58:00 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:09:49 -0400 (EDT) From: Terry Colvin Subject: skunk-works OT for you space geeks OT for you space geeks Date: Aug 11, 2009 7:01 AM Granting, most of us here aren't all that enthusiastic about manned space flight, but still, some of y'all might find this interesting. A clip from the BBC Four documentary, "James May at the Edge of Space"; James May takes a ride in a 2-seat variant of the U-2 "spy plane". http://www.flixxy.com/u2-worlds-highest-flying-airplane.htm Eleven minutes long. Terry W. Colvin Ladphrao (Bangkok), Thailand Pran Buri (Hua Hin), Thailand http://terrycolvin.freewebsites.com/ [Terry's Fortean & "Work" itty-bitty site] ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2009 08:54:17 -0400 (EDT) From: Terry Colvin Subject: skunk-works UFO UpDate: Re: 08-19-09 Larry King Live On UFOs Online Larry King questions three people interested in UFOs. Seth Shostak: astronomer, SETI researcher, and author Nick Pope: former Ministry of Defence analyst, now UFO proponent James Fox: Hollywood filmmaker, UFO documentary I Know What I Saw The usual mismash in Larry King's shotgun approach, citing little science, and again the anecdotal approach. The plural of anecdote is not data. Terry UFO UpDate: Re: 08-19-09 Larry King Live On UFOs Online Date: Aug 20, 2009 4:39 PM Dear colleagues, The segment from from last night's - August 19 - Larry King Live devoted to UFOs is now available online: http://tinyurl.com/mcmz27 Transcript is available here: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0908/19/lkl.01.html Terry W. Colvin Ladphrao (Bangkok), Thailand Pran Buri (Hua Hin), Thailand http://terrycolvin.freewebsites.com/ [Terry's Fortean & "Work" itty-bitty site] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:01:33 -0400 (EDT) From: Terry Colvin Subject: skunk-works Elementary Teacher Flew SR-71 Blackbird [the-tlc-mission] "Elementary Teacher Flew SR-71 Blackbird" Date: Aug 23, 2009 1:13 PM http://www.abqjournal.com/obits/profiles/2222852profiles08-22-09.htm [Requires subscription so entire article included] Saturday, August 22, 2009 Elementary Teacher Flew SR-71 Blackbird By Lloyd Jojola Journal Staff Writer Retired Air Force Col. Gilbert Martinez flew aboard the super-fast SR-71 Blackbird spy plane during the Vietnam War era as part of a long military career that ended with him holding the title of Air Base Wing Vice Commander at Kirtland Air Force Base. But Martinez was far from retirement after leaving the Air Force. He managed a division of convenience stores, then entered the field of education. "I told him, 'You said you always wanted to be a teacher. Go back on your GI Bill and get your teaching degree,' " Martinez's wife, Regina Martinez, said. "He went a step further. He went and got his master's (degree), and he taught second to fourth grade." He taught for more than a decade at several Albuquerque schools, in fact. He's also remembered for his volunteer involvement in AARP and in veterans' issues, including the development of the New Mexico Veterans Memorial library. "He was a really highly principled man, and he was a giver," said Stan Cooper, state director for AARP New Mexico. "He gave back to his community. He wasn't a taker." Gilbert "Gil" Martinez, a Raton native who lived in Albuquerque for 30 years, died Tuesday.. He was 74. Martinez was born where his body will be laid to rest. He was born in a cemetery. "His father was the caretaker, and they had their house in a cemetery," Regina Martinez said. "He was born there in the cemetery. It's a twist, but it's always good for humor." He grew up in Fresno, Calif. b^T his family was among a few from Raton who migrated due West as mining was coming to an end and so, too, were jobs. Martinez studied for a while at Fresno State University, his wife said, but it was hard to work and take classes and the money simply didn't exist. "He didn't come from a rich family," his wife said. "They all worked in the fields growing up. He picked figs, apricots and what have you, and ran the tractors and trucks." Martinez entered the Air Force and tested into the cadet program. He moved to Houston, where he met his wife, who was a freshman at a Catholic college for girls. "The chaplain there brought the nice young men over to a dance," she remembered. "And that's how we met." They were married for 49 years. During his 26-year Air Force career, Martinez, who was a navigator, flew in B-47 Stratojet and B-52 Stratofortress bombers, before becoming one of the select few to enter the then-hush hush SR-71 spy plane program in 1967. Martinez flew in the SR-71 Blackbird aircraft that undertook high-speed, high-altitude photo reconnaissance missions along the borders of China, Russia, Korea and Vietnam. "I was the first Hispanic to cruise at three times the speed of sound in a jet aircraft," Martinez said in a 2003 Journal interview. "We flew in pressure suits at Mach 3 b^T 2,200 miles per hour at 80,000 feet." Not that anyone else b^T back then b^T would have known such details. "At one time, he couldn't even talk about it," his wife said. "It was very, very classified. We didn't know where he was going, where they were flying, or what." A story that is known is that Martinez had to eject from the aircraft during one flight. One Web site dedicated to the history of the SR-71 b^T the site's address is www.wvi.com/ ~sr71webmaster/ sr-71~1.htm b^T said the incident occurred May 10, 1970, during a mission from Kadena, Okinawa, Japan, against North Vietnam. "Shortly after air-refueling, the pilot, Major William E. Lawson, initiated a normal full power climb," the Web site information reads. "Stretching before him was a solid bank of cloud containing heavy thunderstorm activity which reached above 45,000 feet. Heavy with fuel, the aircraft was unable to maintain a high rate of climb and as it entered turbulence both engines flamed out. The RPM dropped to a level too low for restarting the engines. Pilot and RSO, Major Gilbert Martinez ejected safely after the aircraft stalled. The crew were rescued near U-Tapao, Thailand. The plane crashed near Korat RTAFB, Thailand." Martinez's military career included several more stops, which ended in 1979, when he retired. His final assignment was Air Base Wing Vice Commander at Kirtland. After leaving the military, Martinez became a division manager for Circle K convenience stores, supervising more than 40 stores in New Mexico and Colorado. He earned his master's degree in elementary education from the University of New Mexico and taught for 13 years in Albuquerque schools. His final teaching spot was at Sombra Del Monte. In the 2003 Journal story, Martinez said he felt as if he could serve as a role model for students in schools where male teachers were scarce.. "Being Hispanic as I grew up, I had experienced periods of discrimination and discomfort," Martinez said in the story. "Several teachers provided me with support and guided me into a professional career instead of the trade schools where most Hispanics went." After teaching, Martinez became actively involved in AARP and veterans issues. When Cooper met Martinez, Martinez was a legislative volunteer for AARP. He later became chairman of the group's state legislative committee, state president and Southwest regional volunteer coordinator, covering nine states. Most recently, Martinez was the grass roots coordinator in Albuquerque. Martinez's other survivors include his daughters, Patti Martinez, Rose Benedict, Eve Juarez and her husband, Victor and Cathy Martinez; and seven grandchildren. A visitation will take place from 6 to 7 p.m. Sunday at French Mortuary, Wyoming Boulevard Chapel, 7121 Wyoming NE. A rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Mass will be celebrated at 8:30 a.m. Monday at Our Lady of the Annunciation Catholic Church, 2621 Vermont NE. An 11 a.m. interment with full military honors will follow at Santa Fe National Cemetery, and a final celebration honoring Martinez will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Courtyard by Marriott, 5151 Journal Center NE. Terry W. Colvin Ladphrao (Bangkok), Thailand Pran Buri (Hua Hin), Thailand http://terrycolvin.freewebsites.com/ [Terry's Fortean & "Work" itty-bitty site] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:38:14 -0400 From: "John Szalay" Subject: skunk-works Ride in a U-2 spy plane video Take an emotional ride in this YouTube video. James May is best known as the host of Top Gear. He's used to trying out the latest high-performance cars . But he recently took a ride in a U-2 spy plane. http://videos.komando.com/2009/08/15/to-the-edge-of-space/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:57:10 -0700 From: "Anne Faulkner" Subject: RE: skunk-works Ride in a U-2 spy plane video In Tribute to the pilots and those who help them fly.. It is reproduced here as a tribute to, and in memory of pilots of all generations. High Flight Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wing...s; Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long delirious, burning blue, I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew - And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod The high untresspassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God. Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee No 412 squadron, RCAF Killed 11 December 1941 - -----Original Message----- From: owner-skunk-works@netwrx1.com [mailto:owner-skunk-works@netwrx1.com] On Behalf Of John Szalay Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 5:38 AM To: Skunk Works Subject: skunk-works Ride in a U-2 spy plane video Take an emotional ride in this YouTube video. James May is best known as the host of Top Gear. He's used to trying out the latest high-performance cars . But he recently took a ride in a U-2 spy plane. http://videos.komando.com/2009/08/15/to-the-edge-of-space/ [demime found a multipart/alternative section which it tried to parse but could not find any section which it could render. Please send plain text.] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 6 Sep 2009 10:18:38 -0700 From: "Anne Faulkner" Subject: skunk-works FW: [Fwd: Fwd: I am honored to do this] _____ Subject: Fw: [Fwd: Fwd: I am honored to do this] I am honor to do this & will pass it on. Please pass it on . Rocky Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 3:19 PM Subject: FW: [Fwd: Fwd: I am honored to do this] _____ - -----Original Message----- ; Patty Hughston; Austin Hughston; Watson Hughston ; Ken Johnson; Jim Watson; Joni @ home Subject: FW: [Fwd: Fwd: I am honored to do this] If we are available, God can use us. I AM HON ORED TO DO THIS!! Did you know that the ACLU has filed a suit to have all military cross-shaped headstones removed and another suit to end prayer from the military completely. They're making great progress. The Navy Chaplains can no longer mention Jesus' name in prayer thanks to the wretched ACLU and our new administration. I'm not breaking this one. If I get it a 1000 times, I'll forward it a 1000 times! Let us pray... Prayer chain for our Military... Don't break it! Please send this on after a short prayer. Prayer for our soldiers Don't break it! Prayer: 'Lord, hold our troops in your loving hands Protect them as they protect us Bless them and their families for the selfless acts they perform for us in our time of need. Amen.' Prayer Request: When you receive this, please stop for a moment and say a prayer for our troops around the world. There is nothing attached. Just send this to people in your address book. Do not let it stop with you. Of all the gifts you could give a Marine, Soldier, Sailor, Airman, & others deployed in harm's way, prayer is the very best one. GOD BLESS YOU FOR PASSING IT ON! ____________________________________________________________________________ _ Scanned by IBM Email Security Management Services powered by MessageLabs. For more information please visit http://www.ers.ibm.com ____________________________________________________________________________ _ _____ Windows Live: Keep your friends up to date with what you do online. Find out more. = [demime found a multipart/alternative section which it tried to parse but could not find any section which it could render. Please send plain text.] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 06 Sep 2009 10:37:07 -0700 From: Joy Cohn Subject: Re: skunk-works [I am honored to do this] Ok, the problem with this crap, just like all the emails that we get saying "Hurry, pass this along to all of your friends!" is that it's fake, hysterical bullshit. The only reason that 80% of the people on the net are so damned gullible is because they're too fracking lazy to check the facts for themselves. Use the brains that God gave ya, people! #!^@#&*#(#, Joy > _____ > > Subject: Fw: [Fwd: Fwd: I am honored to do this] > > > I am honor to do this & will pass it on. > Please pass it on . ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2009 22:50:09 -0700 (PDT) From: weblists2001 Subject: Re: skunk-works FW: [Fwd: Fwd: I am honored to do this] Please spend some time doing your homework before posting false and misleading spam and claptrap. See ---> http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/cemetery.asp http://www.aclu.org/religion/gen/26244leg20060726.html - --- On Sun, 9/6/09, Anne Faulkner wrote: > From: Anne Faulkner > Subject: skunk-works FW: [Fwd: Fwd: I am honored to do this] > To: "Undisclosed Recipients" > Date: Sunday, September 6, 2009, 10:18 AM > _____ > > Subject: Fw: [Fwd: Fwd: I am honored to do this] > > > I am honor to do this & will pass it on. > Please pass it on . > > Rocky > > > > Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 3:19 PM > Subject: FW: [Fwd: Fwd: I am honored to do this] > - -- snipped to save bandwidth -- ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2009 11:51:01 +0700 (GMT+07:00) From: Terry Colvin Subject: skunk-works AURORA was Re: Flying Triangle (sort of) [forteana] AURORA was Re: Flying Triangle (sort of) Date: Sep 10, 2009 6:06 PM >Re: Flying Triangle (sort of) > Posted by: "Robert Schneck" > Date: Tue Sep 8, 2009 6:41 pm ((PDT)) >On Sep 8, 2009, at 9:26 PM, Ray D wrote: >> What - years ago? And over Belgium? Over city centers? >Why not? Development could take years. We now know there was a >program to develop roughly rectangular airships that have three >circles on the bottom. The original sightings could have been >prototypes and the whole project might have been closed down and >revived many times. As for Belgium and city centers, no idea, but >spaceships seems less likely then terrestrial ones. I must differ. I have always found it highly improbable that the USA would abandon the high ground of space to the extent that their astronauts have to hitch a ride on Soyuz flights - unless they had something above top secret on the production line. We are not talking here about blimps, but about Westworld's first real spaceship - a rocket-powered >Mach 6 aircraft triangular in shape and with no ceiling. http://wave.prohosting.com/aurora85/technical/specs.html Aurora Specifications This is a archive of all collected data that gives a good idea of how Aurora could work and its specs if it actually existed... Speed: Maximum operational speeds are reported to be in the range of Mach 5-8. Length: About 110 feet (33.5 meters) Wingspan: About 60 feet (18.2 meters) Ceiling: May have an operational altitude of 150,000 feet (28.4 miles) or higher. Design: The Aurora aircraft has an airframe like a flattened American football, about 110 ft long and 60 ft wide, smoothly contoured, and covered in ceramic tiles similar to those used on the Space Shuttle which seem to be coated with "a crystalline patina indicative of sustained exposure to high temperature ... a burnt carbon odor exudes from the surface." Engine: Several witnesses have heard a distinctive low frequency rumble followed by a very loud roar, which could be the exotic engine used by a Mach 6 (4,400 miles per hour) aircraft. Experts say a methane-burning combined cycle ramjet engine (uniting rocket and ramjet designs) could have been developed to power Aurora. Observers in California have also reported seeing a large aircraft with a delta-wing shape and foreplanes. Some think this could be an airborne launch platform for satellite-delivery rockets or even the Aurora, before its more advanced engines were developed. Power comes from conventional jet engines in the lower fuselage, fed by inlet ducts which open in the tiled surface. Once at supersonic speed, the engines are shut down, and Pulse Detonation Wave Engines take over, ejecting liquid methane or liquid hydrogen onto the fuselage, where the fuel mist is ignited, possibly by surface heating. A vast amount of rumours, conjecture, eye-witness sightings and other evidence point to an aircraft, funded as a Black Project, built by the Lockheed Skunk Works, operating out of the Groom Lake / Area 51 location. Always at night, never photographed, officially denied... This is the Aurora Project. No matter what speculation takes place, it seems the secrets that lie beyond the mountains of the Nevada desert will remain until the US military decides otherwise. Power Plant: At subsonic speeds power comes from conventional jet engines in the lower fuselage, fed by inlet ducts which open in the tiled surface. Once at supersonic speed, there are three possibilities for the propulsion that carries the plane up to its mach 5+ speed: * PWDE (Pulse Detonation Wave Engines) - Essentially, liquid methane or liquid hydrogen is ejected onto the fuselage, where the fuel mist is ignited, possibly by surface heating. The PDE Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE) operates by creating a liquid hydrogen detonation inside a specially designed chamber when the aircraft is traveling beyond the speed of sound. When traveling at such speeds, a thrust wall (the aircraft is traveling so fast that a molecules in the air are rapidly pushed aside near the nose of the aircraft which in essence becomes a wall)is created in the front of the aircraft. When the detonation takes place, the the aircraft's thrust wall is pushed forward. This all is repeated to propel the aircraft.. From the ground, the jet stream looks like "rings on a rope". Another reader thinks this method is very suspicious. He goes on "a serious problem with the SR-71 and other high-speed aircraft is excessive skin heating. The last thing you want is to add combustion at or near the surface." Please click HERE for our page about PDWE's. * Ramjet - A reader points out that there is "a second possible power plant design, the Combined Cycle Ramjet Engine. Essentially, it is a rocket until it goes supersonic. At that point the rocket nozzles are withdrawn and the engines run as ramjets up to Mach 4-6. With a few minor modifications to the shape of the combustion housing, you could soup the power plant up to a scramjet, which could see speeds up to and beyond Mach 8. The fuel for this power plant could be liquid methane or methylcyclohexane, plus liquid oxygen as an oxidizer in the primary 'rocket' stage. Further data on this power plant is available through Popular Science Magazine, March 1993 issue. "However another reader feels that a ramjet is not a possible propulsion source because "the National Aerospace Plane (NASP) was cancelled in large part due to the inability to solve the materials problems with the proposed supersonic ramjets. I don't think there has been enough progress, even in the black world to solve these problems. Further, RAMJET doesn't leave doughnuts on a rope." * Regular Pulsejet - Pulsejets uses the forward speed of the engine and the inlet shape to compress the incoming air, then shutters at the inlet close while fuel is ignited in the combustion chamber and the pressure of the expanding gases force the jet forward. The shutters open and the process repeats itself at a high frequency. This results in the buzzing drone for which the pulsejet missile is named: the buzzbomb. A reader points out that "pulsejets can be cooled to solve the materials problems of supersonic ramjets. They could also generate doughnuts on a rope although this is speculation as I am unaware of any previous actual tests at high altitude." Please click HERE for our page about pulsejets. * Turbo Rocket Jet - An AAP reader named Daniel Murray gave us this possible description and image of another propultion method. This is a conceptional drawing of AURORA's engines. Although many of us Area 51 enthusiast believe that the AURORA'S engines are Ramjets or Pulse Detonation Wave Engines but I have reasons to believe otherwise. There is a new hype in the engine business. Cost effective, multi purpose engines. An engine that can fly in the atmosphere as well in space while being completely reusable (or like a conventional jet which doesn't need its engines replaced every flight). The TRJ or Turbo Rocket Jet engine uses an internal rocket motor (Hydrogen and Oxygen fueled). The elongated combustion chamber allows a set of turbine blades which turn the power shaft. The power shaft runs the length of the engine from tip to tail. The fan and compressor blades are powered by the rockets turbines. The compressors compress the incoming air into a shaft were the fuel injectors and ignition nodes are located. The fuel is mixed with the air (like a conventional jet engine) and then is ignited by a high amp and voltage electrical arc that fires from one side of the shaft to the opposite. The evenly ignited mixture allows for better fuel economy. The ignited and expanded gases rush out of the shaft to an afterburner, and then are released out of the end of the engine. The great thing about this engine is that it can be partially shut down (the fan and compression blades) and used only on the rocket engines power. Also the Jet engine part of the engine can turn over the power shaft by itself. So for only low powered flights or descends the engine's rocket motor does not need to be initiated. The jet engine section will use regular jet fuel, or even hydrogen. Hydrogen will most likely be used, because then the'll be no separate fuel tanks. The drawing I have included is conceptional only and may have few parts that differ slightly from the actual engine. Armament: Although it has been rumored that the Aurora is equipped with the capability of carrying air-to-ground armaments, it is unlikely that the aircraft is designed for, or able to, support armaments. It is likely the plane is equipped for reconnaissance only. There has been some debate about this though, as there was a Phoenix Air to Air missile that was designed to be carried in the F-12 (Basically a later interceptor version of the SR-71). This missile can only be carried by the F-12, the F-111 and the F-14 Tomcat. This missile might also be usable on the Aurora. Mission: High-altitude, high-speed, short-notice reconnaissance. Contractor: It is rumored that the Aurora was designed and built by Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co., the same company who built the SR-71. The SR-71 has served as one of the only aircraft capable of performing a mobile reconnaissance mission. Although satellites are useful in this role, the SR-71 had the advantage of going wherever and whenever an "eye-in-the-sky" is needed. In spite of this funding for the SR-71 program was canceled in 1989 and SR-71 flights ceased. Given the importance of the role of the SR-71, and the fact that it is the only plane capable of performing that role, it has been suggested that government must have some secret aircraft that was capable of replacing the SR-71. According to Richard H. Graham, Col., USAF in his book SR-71 Revealed, "in 1990, Senator Byrd and other influential members of congress were told a successor to the SR-71 was being developed and that was why it was being retired. The "Aurora" could be this plane. This argument is weakened by the fact that in 1995, Congress approved $100 million to bring the SR-71's back into service. One argument is that the Aurora was abandoned, either due to expense or technical difficulties, and that the SR-71 had to be brought back to resume its mobile surveillance role. Legacy: The Aurora's background comes from the hypersonic research of the 1960s, including the X-15, XB-70, SR-71, and high-speed aircraft testing in the deserts of southern California. Terry W. Colvin Ladphrao (Bangkok), Thailand Pran Buri (Hua Hin), Thailand http://terrycolvin.freewebsites.com/ [Terry's Fortean & "Work" itty-bitty site] ------------------------------ End of skunk-works-digest V16 #5 ******************************** 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 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 viewing by a www interface located at: http://www.netwrx1.com/skunk-works/ If you have any questions or problems please contact me at: georgek@netwrx1.com Thanks, George R. Kasica Listowner