Message posted by Tom on August 05, 2007 at 12:54:56 PST:
After playing around with the new sat pic for a while, I was able to pull some interesting data out. Since our friends at the unnamed facility were so kind as to have a couple of Janet 737's in the picture for scale, I was compute dimensions for the hangar. I'd say the measurements are accurate within +/- 5%. The hangar has a footprint of 183' x 345' (conversion to metric is left as an exercise for our European readers). Knowing the date/time of the image (July 18 at 11:43 AM), it was possible to look up the Sun angle at that instant. That was found to be 68.3 degrees altitude. Measuring the shadows off the northerly side of the structure gives a height of about 75' at the edges and about 95' at the center peak. The southerly hangar door opening that is visible in the panorama appears to measure about 132' wide and about 70' tall. The shadows in the sat pic suggest the same dimensions for the northerly side hangar door. The new taxiway under construction to the north of the structure measures 75' wide. Finally, the berm. This is a bit difficult without knowing the slope angles used in their design. Conservative engineering practice would use a slope no steeper than 2 feet horizontal per every 1 foot vertical. With good material, and being in the middle of nowhere with no one looking, they might push it to 1.5:1, which is what I assumed. The berm has an overall footprint of about 125' by 628'. There is a 6' flat bench on each side part of the way up, and the top is an 18' wide flat pad 524' in length (BTW, I wouldn't be surprised to see maybe a 10'-15' screening fence installed on this top pad by the time the job is done). Doing some rough calcs I put the top of the berm at 32' above existing ground. Looking at the panorama, that seems a little low, but in the ballpark. Finally, with the dimensions given, I calculate a total fill material volume of about 51,000 cubic yards, a healthy amount of material. Yet to be determined is where this volume of stuff came from.
Replies: