From: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Subject: Skunk Works Digest V3 #6 Reply-To: skunk-works-digest@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Errors-To: skunk-works-digest-owner@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu Precedence: bulk Skunk Works Digest Monday, 9 August 1993 Volume 03 : Number 006 In this issue: Re: AW&ST/Popular Mechanics/Jane's Defence Weekly Interesting names Stealth tecnology Interesting names 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: sbooth@lonestar.utsa.edu (Simon E. Booth) Date: Sun, 8 Aug 93 3:29:07 CDT Subject: Re: AW&ST/Popular Mechanics/Jane's Defence Weekly Hello! Pardon me for sounding like a UFO nut :-), but in February of 1981, when I was living in San Bernardino, Ca. , I saw something matching this description flying overhead one night: > "America's New Secret Aircraft", Popular Mechanics, December 1991 : > > "The big wing : > Meanwhile, several Antelope Valley residents say they've seen a craft that > simply strains credulity. > According to reports over the past two years, a vast black flying wing, > estimated at between 600 and 800 ft. in width, has passed silently over > city streets, empty desert and rural freeways. The craft moved so slowly > one observer said he could jog along with it. A pattern of seemingly random > white lights on the vehicle's black underside provided "constellation > camouflage" against the starry sky. Observers who followed the craft long The object I saw was like this: black enough to blend in with the dark sky (moonless night btw), and the first sign of it I saw were indeed what appeared to be dim, white running lights outlining the object, although initally I saw only a few lights at a time, moving very slowly. I thought at first it was a group of several craft at high altitude, until I saw most of the constellation of Orion blotted out by this big, black 'thing' approaching from the south. I could not tell what size it was, or exactly what altitude it was at, and I don't seem to recall any noise as it passed overhead, although I might have heard faint engine sounds. But I definitely didn't hear any 'conventional' aircraft sound. The object kept heading northward, and dissapeared from sight as it neared the San Bernardino Mountain range north of the city. There was another incident early one morning in December of 1983 where several friends and I saw something at a high altitude gleaming in the sunlight, leaving no vapor trail, and we could just barely make out a triangular shape. > enough detailed unlikely maneuvers in which the vehicle stopped, rotated in > place and hovered vertically, presenting a thin trailing edge to the ground. Now, I didn't see any unusual manuevers. > Although such sightings encourage those who link the military with unearthly > technology, a mammoth, quiet flying wing may have a conventional explanation : > it could be a lighter-than-air craft pushed by slow-turning propellers. > Certainly, such a vehicle could elude Doppler radar by slowing to a crawl. > Alternatively, the fact that the craft holfs station vertically suggests that > it might serve as a huge reflector for a bistatic radar system. Other possible > missions include troop delivery or covert surveillance" For 12 years I've been wondering what I saw that night, and one theory that I came up with was that perhaps it might have been some sort of exotic airship. But where would something that big be hidden during the day? > > Thanks, and sorry for the bad English and the typos. > > Emmanuel Marin. > hanneton@frulm63.bitnet > Your English and text seemed ok :-) later! Simon ------------------------------ From: John Erling Blad Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1993 13:26:47 +0200 Subject: Interesting names Hi! Some time ago I tried to figur out what the name "FX/R" stand for. Some people think it come from an recce version in the FX program, but both the F16 and the F18 have recce versions. So I still wonder. F117 are made basicly of standard components so perhaps it can be called a "FX" -plane. Still an other possibility is that I got the name mixed up. Lets see an "F" can be an "S".. "SX/R", "XS/R", "RX/S", "SR/X" oops.. Lately the name SR-75 has emerged, I do not know if the plane exist but the name SR-X seems to resamble something familiar. John ------------------------------ From: John Erling Blad Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1993 13:43:43 +0200 Subject: Stealth tecnology Hi once more! Some time ago I heard about some country (I think it was France) that had plans to build an stealth aircraft. Then I forgot it until I heard about an starnge aircraft observation in some european country. Is there anyone that will like to comment about this? John ------------------------------ From: John Erling Blad Date: Sun, 8 Aug 1993 13:26:47 +0200 Subject: Interesting names Hi! Some time ago I tried to figur out what the name "FX/R" stand for. Some people think it come from an recce version in the FX program, but both the F16 and the F18 have recce versions. So I still wonder. F117 are made basicly of standard components so perhaps it can be called a "FX" -plane. Still an other possibility is that I got the name mixed up. Lets see an "F" can be an "S".. "SX/R", "XS/R", "RX/S", "SR/X" oops.. Lately the name SR-75 has emerged, I do not know if the plane exist but the name SR-X seems to resamble something familiar. John ------------------------------ End of Skunk Works Digest V3 #6 ******************************* To subscribe to skunk-works-digest, send the command: subscribe skunk-works-digest in the body of a message to "listserv@harbor.ecn.purdue.edu". If you want to subscribe something other than the account the mail is coming from, such as a local redistribution list, then append that address to the "subscribe" command; for example, to subscribe "local-skunk-works": subscribe skunk-works-digest local-skunk-works@your.domain.net To unsubscribe, send mail to the same address, with the command: unsubscribe skunk-works-digest in the body. 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