[Zuljin]

Originally posted by Turnsky


actually, groom lake would be a logical choice of aircraft testing, 'cause of the salt-lake which the base is situated in front of.

Yes, the extremely long runway and the many hangar buildings around the base also supports that theory.

[Turnsky]

Originally posted by Zuljin


Yes, the extremely long runway and the many hangar buildings around the base also supports that theory.

uhm, i was referring to /before/ they built the place.

[Zuljin]

Originally posted by Turnsky

uhm, i was referring to /before/ they built the place.

*slaps self*
doh.
forget that last post, I kinda misread your post, it's almost 3am my vision is getting slightly blurred

[Liberator]

It's been there since the fifties though.

Although of late the facility has grown quite a bit, they've lengthened the primary runway, added two more and built at least three new buildings.

[Bobboau]

I don't think they use it for anything realy top secret any more, too many spectators, it lacks one thing that all secret basses need to function properly, secrecy, everyone knows about it.

[Grey Wolf]

I think I remember hearing about the employees suing the government. Something about gases released by burning wrecked airplane parts causing lung cancer or something.

[Nico]

Originally posted by Bobboau
I don't think they use it for anything realy top secret any more, too many spectators, it lacks one thing that all secret basses need to function properly, secrecy, everyone knows about it.

It also lacks a giant roof so spy satellites can't have an eyefull
I'm sure there's nothing there anymore. I'd vote for some place hidden in Alaska, where nobody would think of searching, rather than a place which every darn country in the world has the exacts coordinates of .
You just don't place your most secret stuff in the most hyped place about super secret stuffs

[pyro-manic]

What I really don't get is why the yanks think they need all this stuff. There's nobody else left to compete with. The Russians are a joke, the Chinese couldn't afford it, and nobody else can be bothered to try and arms-race them. What's it all for?

I mean, yeah, scramjets mean you can go wicked-fast, but the expense of building aircraft that can take the stresses of that kind of speed would mean they'd never be commercially viable.

Originally posted by Stealth[cro]
Kalfireth[/i]IIRC, the maximum the human body can survive is somewhere close to 9G

Nah. You can get up to nearly 20G when you fire your ejector seat, apparently. 9 - 10G is about as high as people can go without blacking out. High-speed turns can get you to that.

[J3Vr6]

Originally posted by pyro-manic


What I really don't get is why the yanks think they need all this stuff. There's nobody else left to compete with. The Russians are a joke, the Chinese couldn't afford it, and nobody else can be bothered to try and arms-race them.

We're American, it's because we can

[Flaser]

Originally posted by pyro-manic


What I really don't get is why the yanks think they need all this stuff. There's nobody else left to compete with. The Russians are a joke, the Chinese couldn't afford it, and nobody else can be bothered to try and arms-race them. What's it all for?

I mean, yeah, scramjets mean you can go wicked-fast, but the expense of building aircraft that can take the stresses of that kind of speed would mean they'd never be commercially viable.



Nah. You can get up to nearly 20G when you fire your ejector seat, apparently. 9 - 10G is about as high as people can go without blacking out. High-speed turns can get you to that.

Atome bombs? Sure only America had them....for a while.

...and it apparently didn't take as much of extreme technology as one would think. It was more of an issue of brainpower and smart solutions.

A simple scientific breakthrough in some field of science - and don't give me any of that you need super projects with lots of money theme - could lead to a revolutionary new military application.

What if there was a way to completely black-out radars? What if you could actually do HALO jumps and put agents into someone's country without anyone noticing? What if beam weapons are possible when using the correct wavelenght..ect.ect.

This is just sci-fi fantasies so far, but science is far from being as all-powerful or all-knowing as we assume it to be.

As for the mega-project thing: yeah, sure for particle accelerators and fusion powerplants you need a load of money.

But - and this is an important but IMHO - not all projects fall into that category.

The American initiative to do all this research is justified and will be hopefully beneficial for the whole of mankind, whoever their tendency to form Manhatten projects out of every development could be more of a hindrance in most cases then a benefit.

After all the scientists worldwide who worked on Manhatten have spent the rest of their life in a free interchanging environment and also had geniouses like Oppenheimer, Teller or Einstein to bakc them up.

Without the "preparatory" Golden Age of Physics Los Alamos wouldn't have been a percent as sucessfull as it turned out to be.

[Stealth[cro]]

Originally posted by pyro-manic


What I really don't get is why the yanks think they need all this stuff. There's nobody else left to compete with. The Russians are a joke, the Chinese couldn't afford it, and nobody else can be bothered to try and arms-race them. What's it all for?

Well, let's see... Ching-kuo keeps churning out new jets 24/7 (how they rebuilt those old MiG-21s into such modern jets is beyond me ) and Russia definitely isn't as backward as most people think these days - the Su-37 Terminator has better thrust-vectoring than the F-22A and a better passive stealth mechanism, the Su-47 Berkut is the only available swept-forth wing fighter (and pretty damn good at it), and finally, they are the only one to produce a fully operational supersonic VTOL jet (the Yak-141 Freestyle), which even supercedes the Harrier in some aspects (plus the speed factor, of course). Hell, if it didn't bog down to finances (which might not become a problem as xCCCP and China export most of their war machines), the US of A would have a LOT to worry about.

< / >

Nah. You can get up to nearly 20G when you fire your ejector seat, apparently. 9 - 10G is about as high as people can go without blacking out. High-speed turns can get you to that.

I don't think ejector seats reach that high Gs, otherwise, pilots would be in one big trouble if they performed a zero-alt-zero-speed (0/0) jump - they wouldn't have enough time to react before they turned flat.

[Ghostavo]

12G is the top... above that you're dead...

[Grey Wolf]

It depends on the time scale you're talking about. Can't remember if it's worse going slowly up to high Gs or up to high Gs for quick bursts though.

Anyway, the more significant thing (for commercial purposes) is the other test the US Navy did. They nearly managed to suppress the sonic boom from a jet.  If they can fully remove the sonic boom, that means that the FAA will allow US jets to move at supersonic speeds.

[StratComm]

Originally posted by diamondgeezer
Hey, notice how this scramjet thingy looks kinda like a white version of the X-1? Maybe someone at NASA has a thing for retro x-craft

(A little late, I know)

DG, you know that's the booster rocket, right?  The actual "plane" is the little needle on the front end.

[diamondgeezer]

Conspiracy theorist

[karajorma]

What's the difference between a scramjet and a ramjet anyway?

[StratComm]

A scramjet is a ramjet in which the conbustion of the fuel takes place while the airflow is still supersonic through the engine.  They can't be used to get themselves up to speed, thus the booster rocket.

Oh, yeah, and they go fast.  Really, really fast.  I'm pretty sure it's one of those engines that (if placed into an aircraft with a suitable airframe) can actually have a thrust/drag ratio that increases with speed to a point.  The Mach 7 that this thing went are the tip of the iceburg when it comes to how fast the engine can go.

[Unknown Target]

Originally posted by karajorma


Probably nothing.

If they have any sense they don't keep anything secret there at all. They simply put on a light show every once in a while and let the dumb masses go on about UFO's and alien research while quietly getting on with something far more shifty elsewhere.

If I were gonna hide something, I'd hide it in Area 50, not Area 51, cause everyone already knows about 51

[Ghostavo]

Where is area 1 by the way?

[Fineus]

If past experience is anything to go by, it's in down town New York City - America.

Everything else is.