Message posted by TD Barnes on June 11, 2011 at 17:43:03 PST:
We had the wooden model on the pole for 18 months. We had to take it down quite often to hide it from the satellites. We later placed the real thing on the pole for some quickie RCS scans, but because of the Russian satellites, we didn't do much of this. Didn't do much good to take them off the pole because we later learned that Russia acquired the outline and measurements of the A-12 from scanning where its shadow was using infrared. Towards the end of the Oxcart project we conduced Mach 3 overhead RCS scans in flight, which was quite a challenge for the radar operators. We used the Nike with the other antennas slaved to it using a bullgear that we designed and built, which was a piece of engineering miracle at the time. I just posted the account of one of our guys at the link below that tells a little about this.
Attached link: EG&G Special Projects StoryIn Reply to: Pole-testing the Oxcart posted by JamesB on June 09, 2011 at 12:24:44 PST:
Replies: