[K5pbem] The Nightsky Dragon is real....

[nestor42 at aol.com]

Doesn't surprise me.

Near-future stories were rife with VTOL aircraft before the Osprey came 
along, and once the plane became reality, it became the visual model 
for them. :-)

"Reality Bites... and I've got the toothmarks to prove it!"
- Nestor D. Rodriguez -

-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Surbrook <susano at guisarme.net>
To: k5pbem at devermore.net
Sent: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 11:46:58 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [K5pbem] The Nightsky Dragon is real....

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113928028617366870-BKlP9h9idPh1WzJ
Ja3p9JdPbUgk_20070207.html?mod=blogs 
 
I quote: 
 
"Set up in 1943 to create the first U.S. fighter jet, the Skunk Works 
has been at the vanguard of flight. Its name, a registered Lockheed 
trademark, is derived from Skonk Works, a mysterious locale in the 
"Li'l Abner" comic strip where they distilled Kickapoo Joy Juice. 
Hiding in plain sight in Burbank (its factory once was camouflaged as a 
residential neighborhood with help from Walt Disney Co.) and later in 
Palmdale, Skunk Works engineers created the U-2 spy plane, the SR-71 
supersonic spy plane and the radar-evading F-117 stealth fighter. 
During a rare visit by an outsider to the Skunk Works complex, a 
factory hall was filled with the prototype of a massive helium-filled 
airship that one day might ferry troops and heavy equipment to distant 
battlefields faster and more efficiently than ships -- no port or 
airbase needed. The blimp would float just above the ground on four 
hover pads, meaning that "you could literally pick a farmer's field" to 
set down in, says program manager Robert Boyd. The airship had its 
maiden flight last week." 
 
-- Michael Surbrook 
susano at guisarme . net http://surbrook.devermore.net/index/ 
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." 
 
Arthur C. Clarke 
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