Stealthy Rider

Stealthy Rider: "

Northrop Grumman is'kick-starting peparations for'the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the B-2 bomber's first flight, next July 17. The first step:' working with Orange County Choppers and The Learning Channel on a custom bike patterned after the B-2. Its construction will be the season premiere of the show American Chopper.

The bike features a gas tank shaped like the B-2's nose. Its manufacture was the cause of some of the show's characteristic' father-son moments - and while the Teutel family's dysfunctional behavior might seem out of place in this context, if you've ever spent a lot of time talking to B-2 design leaders John Cashen and Irv Waaland, that's not the case at all.

The bike also has a tailpiece made from spare titanium and patterned after the B-2's aft deck structure, and wheels carrying five B-2 shapes on each side, reminiscent of the star pattern painted on the ramp for the B-2's rollout in November 1989.

B-2 program vice-president Dave Mazur says that Paul Teutel Sr was given a tour of Whiteman AFB, the USAF's B-2 base, as well as a Planform Alignment 101 briefing. And before you ask, Mazur confirms that one of the wisenheimers at Tejon Pass has already proposed putting the bike 'on the pole' for radar cross-section tests.

Mazur neither'confirms nor denies that the bike was, in fact, the subject of the notorious $2 billion'secret contract that Northrop Grumman pulled in earlier this year. But a company spokesman does say that the B-2 20th'anniversary celebrations reflect the fact that 'Northrop Grumman is a bomber company.'

Now, why would they consider that an important'message?

"

(Via Ares.)

Military intercepts of aircraft decrease

Military intercepts of aircraft decrease: "WASHINGTON — The number of times military fighters have been ordered to intercept planes straying into restricted airspace has declined by about 50 percent during the past two years."

(Via Air Force Times - News.)

The Whoosh!

I shot these this morning while I was out trying to capture some sunrise photos from the balcony of my apartment complex in Amarillo. It was moving very fast and high. No sound or booms were heard and no radio traffic concerning what i called "the whoosh" were recorded.

Whatever it was it was a high fast mover. Enlargement shows a small dark non-cruciform object leaving the contrail.

Camera: Canon Pro-1 8 MP



Traveled from SE to NW across the horizon in about five minutes.

I'll post more images later.

-Steve Douglass


Images (C) Steve Douglass and require permission for reproduction.

UPDATE:

Another frame:



Enlargement - no enhancement:



Enhanced contrast:



Another photo I took with my Nikon D-70s 6.2MP and a wider lens showing relative scale and position in the sky.



Enhanced and enlarged frame:



Enhanced & enlarged color removed/contrast enhancement:



Comparison photo of jet contrail taken hours later from same viewpoint.
Note: According to my aircraft radio, this aircraft was identified as Southwest Airlines carrier flying at 33K.



(C) Steve Douglass

YouTube War

YouTube War: "

The Israel Defence Forces have taken to YouTube to bolster their claims that they are - as far as possible - targeting military objectives in Gaza, that they are serious about avoiding civilian casualties, and that Hamas has deliberately turned people into human shields by storing weapons in or under inhabited buildings.

This video shows people loading rocket-shaped devices on to a truck, apparently unaware of the reconnaissance platform overhead - a UAV, judging by the apparently tight turning radius.

We've been critical here of ground commanders' addiction to this kind of imagery, but what is's being used for here is operationally legitimate - the use of the target's behavior over time to confirm hostile intent. There is a common factor between this and the tunnel strike seen here:

That factor is that we are only seeing the end of a long and complex process. The sensors used here are not that good at detecting targets in a cluttered environment, which requires wide-area, long-term surveillance and other means, probably including human intelligence.

Also noteworthy is 'the sequence that starts about 55 sec into the second video, in which three weapons are seen to strike the same tunnel'less than two seconds'apart. Either there were several laser designators involved, or the weapons were using scene-matching electro-optical guidance.

"

(Via Ares.)

NASA looks for places to retire space shuttles

NASA looks for places to retire space shuttles: "If your organization has the right stuff, it could display one of the U.S. shuttles that NASA plans to retire from service in 2010.

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(Via CNN.com - U.S..)