Jul 242011
 

In 2003, at the Lockheed Martin factory in Sunnyvale, CA, a NOAA GOES satellite (“NOAA-N Prime”) was being readied. It was bolted to a “turn over cart,” a mechanism that allowed the satellite to be tilted up or down to be worked on. On September 3, 2003, it was in the vertical position, basically sitting on the turn over carts support platform. Several people working on another satellite needed some bolts, saw that this particular satellite was not being worked on and was in the vertical position (thus not needing its bolts). So… they undid the bolts and wandered off with them. Then the crew whose job it was to work on the NOAA-N Prime satellite came back. Their first task was to tilt the satellite over to work on it. Since it had been bolted down securely a few days earlier, they simply assumed that it was *still* bolted down securely.

The results:

Reportedly, there was considerable excitement on the factory floor when this happened. Not just because of the sudden conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy (and then into acoustic energy), but also because the satellites fuel tanks were already topped off with hydrazine. Hydrazine is *not* one of those chemicals you really want splashing around humans who are unprotected and who don’t want to get cancer and die.

This was one of those incidents where several people worked together to accomplish something monumentally stupid.

Fortunately, the satellite was not a total writeoff. While damaged, it was repaired, and eventually launched on February 6, 2009.

 Posted by at 6:08 pm
Jul 232011
 

Reading through the “log” portion of the nuts manifesto. He had clearly been planning a “martyrdom operation” (his words) for several years.  And here’s when it’s patently obvious that he’s completely insane:

Page 1598:

I have been thinking about my post-operational situation, in case I survive a successful mission and live to stand a multiculturalist trial. When I wake up at the hospital, after surviving the gunshot wounds inflicted on me, I realize at least for me personally, I will be waking up to a world of shit, a living nightmare. Not only will all my friends and family detest me and call me a monster; the united global multiculturalist media will have their hands full figuring out multiple ways to character assassinate, vilify and demonize. They will possibly do everything they can to distort the truth about me, KT and our true objectives, and attempt to make even revolutionary conservatives detest me. They will label me as a racist, fascist, Nazi-monster as they usually do with everyone who opposes multiculturalism/cultural Marxism. However, since I manifest their worst nightmare (systematical and organized executions of multiculturalist traitors), they will probably just give me the full propaganda rape package and propagate the following accusations: pedophile, engaged in incest activities, homosexual, psycho, ADHD, thief, non-educated, inbred, maniac, insane, monster etc. I will be labeled as the biggest (Nazi-)monster ever witnessed since WW2.

I have an extremely strong psyche (stronger than anyone I have ever known) but I am seriously contemplating that it is perhaps biologically impossible to survive the mental, perhaps coupled with physical torture, I will be facing without completely breaking down on a psychological level. I guess I will have to wait and find out.

Regardless of the above cultural Marxist propaganda; I will always know that I am perhaps the biggest champion of cultural conservatism, Europe has ever witnessed since 1950. I am one of many destroyers of cultural Marxism and as such; a hero of Europe, a savior of our people and of European Christendom – by default. A perfect example which should be copied, applauded and celebrated. The Perfect Knight I have always strived to be. A Justiciar Knight is a destroyer of multiculturalism, and as such; a destroyer of evil and a bringer of light. I will know that I did everything I could to stop and reverse the European cultural and demographical genocide and end and reverse the Islamisation of Europe.

Bonkers.

 Posted by at 5:47 pm
Jul 232011
 

If you really want to, and really really don’t have anything better do do with your time, you can download “2083 – A European Declaration of Independence” by “Andrew Berwick,” which appears to be the manifesto of Anders Behring Breivik. It’s a “.docx” file, which always gives my computer fits, but I did manage to convert it into a regular Word “.doc” file. And.. . it’s more than 1600 pages.

Clearly I haven’t read the whole thing. Nor do I intend to. But I did skim through it; it *appears* to be largely a compendium of other peoples work describing the history and evils of Islam. But it does have original work in it, such as a whole lot of blather about the Knights Templar, Marxism and Nordic races.

Page 1284:

3.84 Knights Templar and ethnocentrism

Knights Templar has three primary functions;

 To act as a pan-European Crusader Movement for the banishment of Islam from Europe

 To act as an Indigenous Rights Movement; to serve the interest of the European ethnic groups and to destroy cultural Marxism/multiculturalism

 To act as a War Crimes Tribunal

Page 1287:

The Marxist regimes in Europe grant us privileges by either completely liberalising the biotechnology-laws. They must encourage and even directly sponsor repro-genetics programs on a private and/or state level, which facilitates reproduction clinics who focus strictly on indigenous genotypes from pure sources (non-diluted (95-99% pure) Nordic genotypes) found in Northern Sweden and other areas where this is available. The European Marxist regimes will never allow or contribute to this which only leaves two options;

Conservatives/nationalists/traditionalists in each European country are given reservations where we can exercise autonomy (political control) just like the Native Americans after their defeat against the US Army. This is not acceptable yet to a large majority of conservatives as we expect to defeat the cultural Marxist regimes of Europe within 70 years. The third option should be outlined as follows;

Conservatives must seize political and military power through a combination of armed and democratic struggle within 70 years and implement the above policies. The alternative is the continued bastardisation model, very similar to the Brazilian model; where it has been (due to the Brazilian Marxist revolution) established a melting pot of European/Asian/African mix.

Oy vey.

Page 1289:

I am extremely proud of my ethnic group, Norwegians which is a Northern-Germanic tribe.

Gah. Being proud of one’s ethnic group is just about the most pointless pride imaginable. Be proud of the things you’ve done, not of the circumstances of your birth.

Several pages of rants and blather about the evils of “race mixing” follow that.

Page 1338:

 All 2nd and 3rd world countries (where the average birth rate is above 2,1) are to implement 1 child policies until their country is stabilised in regards to financial outlooks and overconsumption, saving their forests etc.

.
 Decrease global consummation through implementing protectionist policies

 All globalist companies will be nationalised

Page 1341:

Our planet should not exceed 3 billion individuals so radical policies will have to be implemented (we are currently more than 6,8 billion).

Page 1448: Deport all Muslims

Page 1454:

Marxists (all category A and B traitors) will be shown no mercy whatsoever. They will all be executed due to their war crimes listed in point 1-8.

Page 1475 and a whole lot beyond: Christian justification for a renewed Crusade to Christianize Europe and drive out the Muslims.

1574 to 1639: a day-to-day record of his efforts at obtaining weapons and  making explosives. The last entry is on July 21. I’ve only skimmed this pa4rt, but it promises to be rather creepy. In skimming through it I haven’t yet found an explanation of just what he was planning to do, but I suspect it’s in there.

On the whole it reads like little more than a warmed-over Mein Kampf. The guy comes across not as an American-style conservative, but as an old-school “National Socialist,” i.e. “Nazi.” He may share the American conservatives dislike of Marxism and Islam, but rather than the American conservatives goal of minimum government, he seems to want a *maximum* government that controls the genetic and ethnic makeup of a people, as well as their religions. As I’ve said before, European political labels and American political labels may include the same titles but they sure mean different things.

The extreme dislike of Marxists actually fits… what political movement did the Nazis hate most? The Marxists. And what political movement did the Nazis most resemble? The Marxists. It seems to be something of a truism that some of the greatest *hate* that humans can produce is hatred of those who are really a whole lot like them… just a little different. Shia vs. Sunni, Catholic vs. protestant, Nazi vs Commie, Serb vs. Croat. To outsiders, the two sides are virtually indistinguishable.

A big difference, of course, is that this time there is a whole lot of blather about how great the Church (i.e. Catholic church) and the Masons are.

 Posted by at 5:32 pm
Jul 222011
 

Curious about today’s terror attacks in Norway, I unleashed Google Translate on a Norwegian news article. Here is the linguistically unfortunate bit:

LONDON / Utøya (AP) Anders Behring Breivik (32) who has been arrested for the bomb in the city center, and mass killing of vermin, has lived in Oslo’s West End in his life, before he announced relocation of Hedmark for a month.

“Vermin?”

The article goes on to point out that the arrested suspect is vehemently anti-Islam and politically “conservative.” It’ll be interesting to see what he’s actually like. I can, in a theoretical sense, understand an anti-Islamic guy going buggo and car bombing a Mosque… but government buildings and a random summer camp? That seems kinda “Jared Loughner” crazy. And as always, beware of applying European political labels. They see Nazis, who want Big Collectivist Government, as “conservative” and “right wing.”

It may be that Breiviks “conservative” views extend little further than a dislike of Islam. As the assassinated, gay, former-commie, “social democrat” Pim Fortuyn of the Netherlands showed, apparently you can have all the normal hallmarks of being a leftie, but if you dislike Islam, that must mean you’re far Right. Crazy, but there it is.

 Posted by at 8:03 pm
Jul 222011
 

I’m starting up this sale at about 7:30 PM Mountain-Standard-Screw-You-Greenwich-This-Should-Be-The-Baseline-Time. I will let it run for… well, I’m gonna go watch me some TV, then I’ll come back and end it. An hour or two, unless I get distracted by a shiny object or something entertainingly explodey happens on CNN. Why should you care? Because… it’s 50% off.

Here are the restrictions:

  • Minimum order (pre-savings): $30
  • Applies *only* to downloadable products (drawings, documents, APR’s)
  • Does not apply to Reichdreams Dossiers or Unknowns or Packfiles.

The boilerplate:

There has *got* to be a way to do this with Paypal in a way that doesn’t seem lame, but I don’t know what it is. So, here’s what I’ve come up with: order the “coupon” below (a nominal fifty cents), and at least $30 more items… and I will refund you 1/2 of the total. More steps than would seem necessary, but I think it should be workable.

Remember to order the “coupon” and the items all in one order. Otherwise… it won’t work. No “coupon,” no savings…

Sale has ended. Prit near three hours it was up.
 Posted by at 6:30 pm
Jul 222011
 

The AGM-129 entered service and was withdrawn from service, all pretty much entirely without fanfare. It was a stealthy cruise missile with a faceted nose, a flush NACA-style inlet for its turbojet on the underside and flip-out forward swept wings. Very little information about this has been made public over the years; not even a decent layout drawing of the thing. Oddly, though, multiple AGM-129’s are on display at museums around the country. I’ve taken photos and measurements made by myself and others, along with a few simple but official General Dynamics diagrams, and constructed a set of layout drawings for the AGM-129.

I’ve also made available a high-rez version of this that prints out at 1/48 scale when printed at 300 dpi (fits on a standard sheet of paper). And it’s free of charge… *if* you have a copy of Aerospace Projects Review issue V1N1. When you click on the link to the drawing, you should be prompted for a username and password; the username is “v1n1,” and the password is… the first word on page 11 of V1N1 (remember that capitalization counts).

 Posted by at 4:18 pm
Jul 212011
 

Just informed via email that someone showed the photos of the Turboprop Biplane to some Relevant People and one recognized it as being a Grumman concept. No further data.

In retrospect, the forward fuselage does bear a great deal of resemblance to the Grumman XF10F Jaguar. This would make sense… the XF10F was first envisioned in 1948, the same general time period as the Turboprop Biplane. The XF10F was a design for the Navy, which the T.B. seems to have been. The XF10F featured variable sweep wings, which, while not being biplane wings, did permit for short span while stored on board a crowded aircraft carrier… just as the biplane configuration seems to have. The XF10F was *not* a turboprop, however… so this design may have also been meant for pure jet power as well.

More than two years ago I posted photos of a large display model of yet another XF10F variant HERE. Ah, good times. Here, let me cut-and-paste some of that earlier post…

NOTE: Researching all this wacky stuff takes time and money. You can support the cause by Buying My Stuff, which includes aerospace drawings and documents, as well as the journal of unbuilt aircraft and spacecraft projects, Aerospace Projects Review.

Or just plain Give Me Money.

Hint, hint…

 Posted by at 2:19 pm
Jul 212011
 

The Shuttle Atlantis landed this morning, bringing to an end the second era of American manned spaceflight. Also brought to an end is much real chance of a third era of American manned spaceflight based on the NASA model. Before Apollo ended, the Space Shuttle was on the horizon. Today, NASA has not a single vehicle on the horizon to launch American astronauts into space.

However, there is one hopeful difference: on the horizon are *other* American manned space vehicles… just not *NASA* vehicles. Companies like SpaceX, Sierra Nevada, Blue Origin, Scaled Composites, Xcor and others are all working as diligently as their finances will allow to produce the next generation of American manned space launch systems. I’d expect SpaceX, with their already-flown Dragon capsule atop their Falcon 9 launcher to be the first commercial manned spacecraft, and hopefully within the next few years.

The libertarian in me will rejoice when American private companies are selling flights into space. The cynic in me realizes that the US FedGuv will probably do what it always does… use the power of regulation and taxation to make this as difficult as possible. The space nut in me knows that while the commercial sector is by far the preferred way to go to develop new launchers, NASA still should have played a role. Not to design them, not to pick and choose winners before the fact, but to point to a destination and say “We don’t care who or how, but whatever can get us and our stuff to this destination on that schedule, we’ll buy.” Sadly, NASA is quickly being converted into an empty shell.

While private enterprise is the best way to procure launchers, NASA programs are the best way to inspire. This, of course, means NASA programs that point Out There, that push the envelope, whose reach exceeds its grasp, all those old cliches. By not having such, spaceflight changes from inspirational to a depressing reminder of things that once were but are no more.

Yes, it’ll be great when we can point to Dragon capsules and say “Americans have these.” But without a meaningful NASA, there just seems like there’ll be something missing. Kinda like being proud of all those jetliners produced by Boeing private enterprise, but wondering if maybe we aughtta have a government “Air Force” as well.

You really want to know what I want? You really want to know the truth, yes? I want my people to reclaim their rightful place in the galaxy. I want to see the Americans stretch forth their hand again, and command the stars. I want a rebirth of glory, a renaissance of power. I want us to be what we used to be! I want…I want it all back the way that it was!

 Posted by at 10:13 am
Jul 202011
 

Here’s another contest: ten dollars in download-credit to whoever correctly ID’s this chart. What’s the X-axis, what’s the Y-axis?

Here’s a hint: I suspect most regular readers of this blog will cackle like saddened criminally insane supervillains when you figure it out.

 Posted by at 10:49 pm