Aliens On Earth.com Resources for those who are stranded here Our Bookstore is OPEN Over 5000 new & used titles, competitively priced! Topics: UFOs - Paranormal - Area 51 - Ghosts - Forteana - Conspiracy - History - Biography - Psychology - Religion - Crime - Health - Geography - Maps - Science - Money - Language - Recreation - Technology - Fiction - Other - New Search... for keyword(s)   in Page Titles in Book Title/Author in Contents of Pages ---other searches--- Metacrawler Yahoo FAST Search Google Altavista Dogpile Inference Find Northern Light IWon.com MSN Search Las Vegas Sun Location: Mothership -> UFO -> Updates -> 1997 -> Sep -> Air Force Makes Cigar-shaped Craft

UFO UpDates Mailing List

From: TotlResrch@aol.com [Kal K. Korff]
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 22:18:48 -0400 (EDT)
Fwd Date: Thu, 04 Sep 1997 08:17:46 -0400
Subject: Air Force Makes Cigar-shaped Craft


Air Force Makes Cigar-shaped Craft

By MICHAEL WHITE
.c The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (Sept. 3) - It's made of the same stuff as golf clubs, shaped
like a cigar and reusable. It's the Space Maneuver Vehicle - the future of
Air Force reconnaissance.

The Air Force and the <A HREF="http://www.boeing.com/">Boeing Co. designed
the crewless craft to perform reconnaissance and put small satellites into
orbit. The military says it will give it more flexibility in gathering
intelligence.

''It's one of a number of programs that will define the way the Air Force
operates in the next century,'' said Mike Matthews, a spokesman for Boeing's
Space and Missile Systems Sector in Seal Beach, Calif.

The prototype to be unveiled today was developed under a $5.3 million
contract by Boeing and the Air Force's Phillips Laboratory in Albuquerque,
N.M. The cigar-shaped craft with stubby wings is made of graphite, epoxy and
aluminum. It is 22 feet long and weighs 2,500 pounds.

The final version of the vehicle will be slightly larger and could be
launched into orbit by rocket or a space shuttle. It could carry a
1,200-pound payload, remain in orbit for up to a year and land on its own.

''These would essentially be flyable satellites,'' said Rich Garcia, a
spokesman for Phillips Laboratory.

Initial flight tests were scheduled to begin in November at Holliman Air
Force Base in New Mexico. The craft will be dropped from a helicopter at
10,000 feet, perform gliding maneuvers and land under its own power.

Planned test flights in space and tests of military applications have not
been funded.

The project is related to the Military Spaceplane Program, which involves the
development of a larger craft that would take off and fly into orbit without
the assistance of a booster rocket.

Last week, the Air Force awarded contracts to Lockheed Martin and Boeing to
submit concept designs for the plane, which could be used to deploy the Space
Maneuver Vehicle.