
                 _____   _____  _____  _____  _______________
                /    /\ /    /\/     \/     \/\              \
               /    /  /    / /   __    __   \ \     ________/
              /    /  /    / /    \ \  / /    \ \    \_____ 
             /     \_/    / /     /\ \/ /\     \ \     ___/
             \___________/ /_____/ /    \ \_____\ \____\
              \__________\ \_____\/      \/_____/ /____/

                         /\______    ________/\___
                         \/_____|---|____--------_|    
                         /___  _~~~_____________|   
                       _/   _\(_) //      
                      (___)(___)~~  
                      /  (____)
                      \__(__)                     

			UMF Text Magazine Issue #1

                    Information for people with Brains!



				INDEX:


			1.  RUSSIAN PROBE PHOBOS II

			2.  SPACED OUT - UFO ARTICLE

			3.  FBI LAUNCHES POLICE STATE AGENDA

			4.  HOME ROBOTICS ON THE MOVE
	
			5.  AMERICA'S INVISIBLE SHIP 

			6.  AIDS: STRECKER MEMORANDUM

			7.  GATEWAY TO A CASHLESS SOCIETY

			8.  MACH 25 TRANSPORTER

			9.  AMERICA'S TOP SECRET MACH 6+ AURORA


=============================================================================

	ARTICLE #1

OMNI: ANTIMATTER MAY 1993

TYPED BY: The P/\NTHER TRSI-UMF

Martian Mystery: Is the Red Planet host to a third lunar body or UFOs?

	When a Soviet probe spun out of control near Phobos, one of two
Martian moons, experts called the accident an unavoidable hazard of
venturing on high.  But to some members of the UFO community, the crash was
the evil handiwork of aliens based on Phobos for years.
	Fueling this otherworldy rumor, it seems, was a statement by none
other than Alexander Dunayev, chairman of the Soviet SPace organization
responsible for the space probe, named Phobos 2.  The doomed craft, Dunayev
stated, had photographed the imaged of an odd-shaped object between itself
and Mars.  The object could have been "debris in the orbit of Phobos,"
Dunayev suggested, or perhaps the spacecraft's jettisoned "autonomous
propulsion subsystem." But his tone of uncertainty-and the fact that the
Russians never released the spacecraft's final photographs-left saucer
buffs guessing the mysterious object had been a genuine UFO.
        Their suspicions were heightened just recently when retired Soviet
Col. Marina Popovich made a trip to the United States.  Speaking at a press
conference in Los Angeles, UFO advocate Popovich stated that the object had
measured a whopping 25 kilometers, or 15.5 miles, in length.  A former test
pilot and the wife of a highly decorated cosmonaut, Gen. Pavel Popovich,
the visiting colonel said she had received the alarming photo itself from
cosmonaut Alexei Leonov, her friend.
	But if Washing, DC, Astronomer Tom Van Flandern, formerly of the
U.S. Naval Observatory and now head of his own group, Meta Research, is
correct, the failure of the probe was no mystery at all.  The Soviets had
long said that the craft had spun out of control because of an erroneous
ground command on March 27, Van Flandern discovered, yet the photo of the
mystery object had been dated March 25. "it was unlikely," he explains,
"that the object in the photo had anything to do with the spacecraft's
demise."  
	To determine the identity of the object, however, Van Flandern
analyzed the picture.  "The first thing that struck me," he explains, "is
that the object was similar in brightness to Phobos, and asteroid like body
that is carbonaceous and dark." It did not reflect light as a metallic,
artificial object would.
	Van Flandern also examined the timing of the Phobos II camera, set
to track the motion of the Martian moon.  Anything not matching the moon's
relative motion would appear to streak or trail across the photographic
page.  Thus, the "streak," thought to be 25 kilometers long was, in face, a
much smaller object imprinting its motion, not its length, across the
image.  Only the very end of the enlongated streak hints at the object's
true shape: rounded but irregular, with one end narrower than the other.
To Van Flandern, the clues suggest the mystery object was a moonlet, or a
third, miniature Martian moon.
	Of course, Van Flandern's conclusion has not pleased everybody.
one German researcher says the image is just an artifact produced by the
malfunction of the Phobos 2 camera in space.  And Popovich contends the
object may be an alien craft.  To make her point, she has even given a copy
of the telling photo to Don Ecker, director of research for UFO Magazine,
based in Los Angeles.  Ecker, deferring to "the facts as presented by the
Russians," favors the notion of a Mars-based UFO.
	But Van Flandern contends the lack of alien involvement in the
image should not detract from its importance: "It is an exciting
astronomical discovery," he contends, "and means that instead of just two
moons revolving around Mars, we may have three."

=============================================================================

	ARTICLE #2

                              "SPACED OUT"

                        Starstruck UFO freaks and
                        the company they keep..

                  (Fringe-Group Profile by Doug Vincent)

                        Typed in by [MEtONeR]-TRSI


          What's the difference between a transplanted alien from
          Venus and a raving lunatic at a space nut convention?
                 Who knows?


	The audience sits spellbound as the elderly gentleman before
	them tells his story. His name is Alfred Bielek, he says, and
	he's a survivor of an incredible, secret U.S. military operation
	called the "Philadelphia Experiment"

	  According to Bielek, in 1943 the U.S. Navy used Einstein's
	Unified Field Theory to successfully turn the warship U.S.S.
	Eldridge entirely invisible. When the ship reappeared, however,
	some crewmen inexplicably burst into flames. The bodies of
	others were horribly buried within the metal bulwark of the
	ship. Those that remained went insane.

	  Bielek and his brother, deep in the hold of the ship, were
        somehow spared the terrible fate of their fellow crewmen.
	Undeterred by the tragic results of the initial test trial,
	however, the Navy, anxious to employ this spectacular advantage
	over the Nazis, involved them in a second attempt three weeks
	later, this time striving only to render the warship invisible
	to radar-supposedly a simpler, less deadly ambition.

	  Again, thanks to Einsteinian, top-secret physics break-
	throughs, the experiment worked. The Eldridge became radar
	invisible for about a minute-afterwhich, to the Navy's
	consternation, there was a blue flash, and the ship vanished
        completely.

	  The Bieleks-apparently protected by a special energy field
	in the ship's hold-recognized the now familiar signs of
	incipient insanity in their defenseless shipmates and jumped
	overboard. Instead of finding themselves floating in the
	chilly waters of Philadelphia Harbor, however, they landed on
	solid ground at Montauk Army Base in Long Island, New York-
	In 1983-where they were greeted by the project's director,
	Dr. John Von Neumann, who had waited 40 years for their arrival.

	  Bielek was sent back in time to 1943. There he was brain-
	washed by military brass, given a new identity and set free to
	live his life anew, totally unaware of what had happened
	to him.

	  Alfred Bielek's audience at the National New Age and Alien
	Agenda Conference in Phoenix, Arizona, hangs on every word.
	After the oldster's disturbing revelation, hundreds jockey
        for the chance to query him on every sensational aspect of his
	incredible tale. Many pay an additional fee for his special
	evening workshop, where Bielek discusses the Philadelphia
	Experiment and other government cover-ups.

	  Bielek's proof that his story is true? Nothing but the
	sudden recollection of his incredible adventure during a visit
	to Montauk Army Base after having seen the science fiction
        movie The Philadelphia Experiment.

	  Lack of hard evidence doesn't deter conference attendees
	from avidly supporting Bielek's astounding revelation. Most
	are convinced he is telling the truth.

	  "Why would he lie?" asks a fiery conference attendee, a
	gray-haired, grandmotherly woman. "In light of Watergate and
	Contragate, and all the other -gates, Alfred Bielek's story
	makes perfect sense. The government will do anything to
	protect its ass. The cover-up of the Philadelphia Experiment
	is a prime example. I think poor Mr. Bielek should be
	compensated for the hell he's been through!"

	  The woman's female companion, her sweater decorated with a
	We Are Not Alone! button, agrees. "The reality of time travel
	makes perfect sense," she declares. "I wouldn't be at all
	surprised to find out that the government discovered how to
	do it with help from extraterrestrial visitors. How can any
	ordinary person describe the tremendous technological achie-
	vements scientists have made in just a few years? People
	like Al Bielek should be congratulated for coming forward
	with the truth."
	  
	  Following Bielek on the National New Age and Alien Agenda
	Conference's schedule of amazements, hypnotherapist Calvin
	Vanness and psychic Jack Stephens directors of the House of
	the Dawn, a metaphysics center in Phoenix, Arizona, purportedly
	channel the spirit of Nikola Tesla, the creator of the Tesla
	electrical coil and the rumored mastermind behind the so
        called Philadelphia Experiment.

	  Rambling in an odd, middle-European accent, Stephens/Tesla
	warns that the Earth is going to hell in a handbasket, and that
	things will get worse unless changes are made, after which
	dozens of people wave hands in the air, eager to ask the chann-
	eled spirit of the long-deceased electrical genius more infor-
        mation on his involvement with the Philadelphia Experiment
	and the fate of the planet.

			*		*		*

	  The National New Age and Alien Agenda Conference is one of
	dozens of such symposiums covering the broad spectrum of UFO
	research, New Age prophecy and high weirdness held each year
	around the country.

	  Judging by the vocal testimony of the audiences these assem-
	blies attract, the vast majority of Americans who are fasc-
        inated by UFOs and associated paranormal activity sincerely
	believe in the existence of alien spacecraft. Many, in fact,
	are convinced they've had extraterrestrial encounters of some
	sort.

	  Quiet, serene New Ager Jerry Wills claims he used to be a
	UFO alien, no less. According to Wills, his alien self died
	when his spaceship crashed in the desert outside Roswell,
	New Mexico, in 1947. His extraterrestrial spirit wandered
	through the land for five years before finding a home inside
        the obliging consciousness of a Kentucky infant named Jerry Wills.

	  Wills claims his first close encounter with a fellow star
	person came when he was 13 years old. Some time later, he fell
	ill and believed he was going to die. That night, a group of
	extraterrestrials took him aboard their craft and administered
	a healing medication. He recovered quickly, and has been
	relatively healthy since.

	  Wills says he observed American prisoners being used as guinea
	pigs during the testing of nuclear bombs in the Nevada desert.
	These unlucky men and women were promised freedom if they
	survived, he says, and free medical care if problems arose.
	Unfortunately, nothing has been heard of them since.

	  Like Al Bielek, Wills has little to offer as proof of his
        astounding tale. Nevertheless, he is regularly mobbed at UFO
	conventions by people anxious to tell him they think they
	were "walk-ins" (stranded aliens) like him. At the 1992 Inter-
	national Symposium on UFO Research in Denver, Colorado, a
	woman known only as Sheila happily proclaimed that she herself
	might have been an extraterrestrial in another life, an obser-
	vation apparently corroborated through hypnotic regression-a
	form of hypnosis regressing its subject to the reaches of
	earliest memory.

	  That wasn't all, Sheila ecstatically related. In another
	regression, she found out that she'd been Moses's sister in
	Biblical times!

          Joining Bielek, Wills and other firsthand UFOologist
	at the New Age and Alien Agenda Conference is a gospel minister
	named Dr. Frank Stranges. Stranges claims to have met a kindly
	visitor from Venus who had taken part in top-level discussions
	at the Pentagon.

	  The alien told Stranges his name was Valient Thor (though
	his friends called him Val), and he purported to be visiting
	Earth to help the peoples of all nations, though the specific
	nature of Val's employment at the Pentagon was kept a mystery.
	Val was obviously an alien, according to Stranges, because he
	had no finger-prints, could heal people with a single touch
        and wore an indestructible coat.

	  Pentagon officials deny any knowledge of the friendly,
	helpful Venusian, Stranges says, but he feels the infor-
	mation is too spectacular to keep to himself.

	  A pretty blonde from Oaklahoma, named Christa Tilton,
        tells an enthralled crowd at the National New Age and Alien
	Agenda Conference that she has been repeatedly impregnated by
	the aliens-and that the extraterrestrials later snatched the
	fetuses from her womb. Tolton is convinced that the episode
	was the insidious work of aliens because she became pregnant
	during a period when she wasn't sexually active.

	  Tilton claims that in 1987 she was taken into an underground
	facility beneath the Oaklahoma desert, where she saw human
	military personnel and extraterrestrials working side by side
	on extremely mysterious projects.

	  During that visit, Tilton announces, she was taken into a
	private room and given a pelvic exam by human and alien doctors.
	Afterward, she was made to forget the entire visit, and returned
	to her home in Tucson, Arizona. The episode finally came to
	light when she underwent hypnotherapy to deal with some disturb-
	ing dreams.

	  "That poor girl," laments a tall, lanky man to the woman sitt-
	ing next to him. "What a horrible, horrible experience. Some of
	those aliens are real bastards." The woman nods sympathetically.

			*		*		*

	  Many UFOologists anticipate the future disclosure of a bizarre
	working relationship between extraterrestrials and the United
	States government. According to spacecase symposium rumor, the
	U.S. government has been in cahoots with alien forces for decades.

	  *The U.S. military is working hand in hand with ETs to create
	an alien/human hybrid, which explains why many female abductees
	report having eggs or fetuses removed from their bodies during
	examination by extraterrestrials.
	  *Aliens keep track of the humans they abduct by implanting
	special receiver/transmitters in their ears or noses.
	  *A secret cabal of U.S. military leaders known as Majestic-12
	was established in 1947 by an executive order from President
	Harry Truman, created as a liaison between the U.S. government
	and extraterrestrial civilizations.
	  *The military has dozens of dead aliens on ice at installations
	nationwide, and also dozens of downed alien spacecraft, which are
	routinely test-flown at a secret part of Nevada's Nellis Air
	Force Base known only as Area 51.

			*		*		*

	  A great number of those who attend UFO symposiums are simply
	looking for answers. Some have had experiences that defy ration-
	al explanation, such as witnessing strange craft in the air or
	recurring, otherworldly dreams. Alien abduction is, without
	question, the most commonly discussed topic.

	  Much of clinical psychologist Dr. Edith Fiore's practice is
	devoted to the treatment of people who believe themselves to be
	victims of extraterrestrial abduction. A simple poll conducted
	during a Fiore alien-abduction workshop reveals that more than
	half of the audience believes that they have been abducted by
	extraterrestrials.

	  Fiore, who typically induces hypnotism in treatment of such
	cases, claims to have treated many people plagued by the trauma.
	She has compiled the ten most common signs of alien abduction:
		1. Unaccountable periods of missing time.
		2. Persistent nightmares or dreams about flying
		   saucers or extraterrestrials.
		3. Sleeping disorders.
		4. The sudden appearance of unusual marks on the body.
		5. Awakening with strange bodily sensations, including
		   tingling or temporary paralysis of the limbs.
		6. The feeling of being watched or communicated with.
		7. Repeated sightings of UFOs.
		8. Vague recollections of an abduction experience.
		9. The unexplained healing of ailments or diseases.
	       10. Reacting with fear or discomfort when looking at
		   pictures of flying saucers or extraterrestrials.
		   ("One woman wet her pants in a bookstore when she
        	   saw the cover of Whitley Strieber's book Communion,"
		   Fiore notes.)

	  During her workshop at the International Symposium on UFO
	research in Denver, Colorado, Fiore stresses that such symp-
	toms don't necessarily mean one has been abducted by aliens;
        but anyone with persistent doubts might want to consider a
	hypnotic regression for a more conclusive answer-and after
	saying this, she produces her business cards.

	  Phenomena researcher Linda Moulton Howe, author of An
	Alien Harvest: Further Evidence Linking Animal Mutilations and
	Human Abductions to Alien Life Forms, recalls the bizarre case
	of a Georgia man named David Huggins who was seduced by a
	beautiful, female alien and used as a walking sperm bank.

	  According to Howe, Huggins met his alien lover when extra-
	terrestrials led him aboard their craft. Later, an alien
	appeared in his apartment and asked him to use his body.
	Huggins said yes, and pretty soon found himself having sex
	with the alien woman on a regular basis.

	  Most times, Huggins would be awakened in the middle of the
        night to find himself paralyzed in bed, a raging hard-on tenting
	his sheets. While a strange mantis-like creature watched from
	a discreet distance, the alien woman appeared, mounted Huggins
	until he climaxed, after which she usually climbed off and
	disappeared.

	  One night, the alien woman appeared to Huggins with a hybrid
	baby in her arms-the apparent result of having mated with the
	fertile Georgia man. The woman told Huggins that the baby was
	dying. Suddenly Huggins found himself aboard her spacecraft.
	He touched the baby and felt an odd jolt of static electricity.

          The baby immediately exhibited signs of reviving. The aliens
	became very excited about this. They took Huggins to a nursery
	where hundreds of hybrid babies were being kept in tiny incu-
	bators. The aliens told Huggins that all of the babies were his,
	and asked him to give each a life-saving touch.

	  The next morning, Howe relates, Huggins became angry at being
        used by the aliens simply as a sperm bank. He masturbated
	three or four times that day so they wouldn't have anything to
	take the next time they dropped in. But an understanding was
	finally reached, and the climactic close encounters continued
	until reaching at least, a more amenable conclusion.

	  Huggins who grew emotionally attached to his extraterrestrial
	lover, is unlike most other abductees in that he didn't need
	hypnosis to figure out what had happened. Instead, Howe reveals,
	vivid memories of his erotic experience came flooding back while
	reading abduction specialist Budd Hopkins's book Intruders-espe-
	cially the seventh chapter, which deals with another man who
	reported similar sperm-retrieval methods utilized on his behalf
	by alien visitors.

			*		*		*

	  UFO buffs appear to be, by nature, an open-minded lot, but
	there's one thing they adamantly refuse to tolerate:debunking.
	Attendees know what they know-or have seen or experienced-and
	they aren't interested in being told that their particular
	phenomenon might be something else, no matter how logical
	alternative explanations may be.

	  Cynics in any New Age alien conference audience quickly
	learn that the majority of their fellow attendees are fervent
	devotees of the latest, hot abduction story or conspiracy
	theories, regardless of absurdity or lack of proof. A negative
	observation is almost always met with an equally earnest re-
	buttal supporting the veracity of the disputed situation, in part
	or entirely because:
	  *A noted researcher said so.
	  *The person telling the story would have nothing to gain
	   by lying.
          *A skeptical analysis of the alleged facts would merely
	   contribute to the government's ongoing disinformation campaign
	   to discredit reputable UFO research.

	  One of the most hated figures in UFOology is Philip Klass, an
        aviation journalist and author of several books debunking the UFO
	phenomenon.

	  Klass's reputation within the UFO community is well deserved-
	he pulls no punches. In his 1983 book, UFOs: The Public Deceived,
	for example, he notes: "One possible explanation for the mush-
	rooming number of abduction cases in recent years is that (the
        UFOers) are growing bolder.... The alternative explanations that
	people have discovered how easy it is to fool famous UFOologists
	with tall tales and to become instant international celebrities
	via the pages of sensationalist tabloid newspapers."

	  One would think that the UFO community would embrace people
	like Klass on the merit that a skeptical eye helps maintain
        objectivity. Instead, prominent UFOologists spend considerable
	time, especially before an audience, flogging Klass's research in
	the zealot's belief that skeptics do more harm than good.

	  The 1992 International Symposium on UFO Research is no exception.
	Daniel Drasin, a writer and long-time UFO researcher, offers a
 	somewhat tongue-in-cheek view of the situation in a humorous
	lecture titled "How To Debunk Just About Anything." In his talk,
	Drasin outlines in careful detail how the debunkers and skeptics
	of the world go about the task of downplaying or explaining away
	every new finding in the UFO field. Not unexpectedly, his vicious
        tweak of Philip Klass gets one of the biggest laughs of all, as
	eyes once more turn to the inexplicable to explain all.

=============================================================================

	ARTICLE #3

TYPED BY: The P/\NTHER TRSI-UMF

Urgent News:

FBI DIRECTOR LAUNCHES POLICE STATE AGENDA AGAINST LAW-ABIDING GUN OWNERS.

	For the first time in its history, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation has marched into politics to attack law-abiding gun owners by
recommending radical gun control laws.  This attack could spell disaster
for civil rights and the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.
	
	FBI Director William Sessions has officially recommended that the
Justice Department endorse a wide range of gun control proposals,
including:

* Mandatory licensing of all handgun owners.
* A ban on the manufacture, transport and possession of semiautomatic
firearms, with no compensation for current owners.
* A ban on high-performance ammunition commonly used for hunting and
self-defense.  
* Taxpayer-funded handgun buy-back programs within an amnesty period.
* Passage off the Brady bill "national waiting period."
* Reallocation of FBI resources to increase regulation of federally
licensed firearm dealers.

	It is the position of the National Rifle Association that this
unprecedented action is beyond the purview of the FBI, repugnant to
American freedoms, and an ominous sign of police state tactics against
law-abiding gun owners.
	Since the FBI was founded in response to government corruption
there has been widespread concern that the Bureau might become a potent
political police force.  Recognizing that danger, the FBI acknowledged it
should "remain apart from politics" because engaging in political debate
"would destroy the confidence of the Executive Branch, the Congress and the
American people."
        The Above quotation was taken directly from the FBI's June 11, 1993
manifesto outlining the "FBI's Gun Control Policy."
	The hypocrisy is obvious.  On one hand, the FBI claims it must
avoid partisan politics to keep the confidence and trust of the American
people.  But Director Sessions has ignored this critical principle and
chosen to thrust the FBI into the fray of one of the hottest political
issues of the day.
	Even more incredibly, the same document recommends that the FBI's
Office of Public and Congressional Affairs "develop a media strategy to
publicize and develop support for the FBI's position."  This directive
defies federal law Sec. 1913, Title 18, U.S.C., which prohibits the use of
congressionally appropriated funds for the purposes of lobbying.
        The entire BIll of Rights was born of fear of the federal
government infringing on the individual rights of law-abiding citizens.
This is precisely the course now being pursued by William Sessions.  Unless
he is brought under control, Sessions' policies will lead to a
government-driven civil and Second Amendment rights disaster.
        It is an insult to the FBI and its agents that their Director has
advanced a political agenda.  It is doubly insulting that the justification
for his proposals contain no citations of any evidence or any supporting
criminological research.  Glaringly absent is the massive research
conducted on firearms issues funded by the Department of Justice
itself-research which clearly proves gun control laws are a failure in
reducing crime.  
	Implementing Sessions' New York City-style anti-gun schemes will
cost millions of taxpayer dollars, restrict the rights of honest people to
defend themselves against violent predators, and could trigger an epidemic
of infringement upon civil liberties protected by the U.S. Constitution.
	This amounts to nothing short of an attack by a federal police
force on the rights exercised in half the households in the country.  In
fact, the June 11 FBI document reveals a wish list that included "a general
ban on the possession of handguns" but that "after careful consideration
[it was] concluded that a proposed ban would not receive sufficient
support." So they settled for mandatory licensing for anyone who wishes to
possesses a handgun, and a handgun buy-back program for those who don't wish
to submit to government licensing or who are denied a license.
	Whatever the result of Sessions' recommendations, one thing is
certain: Violent criminals will continue to plague American neighborhoods,
unaffected by laws which only the law abiding obey.
	What we need from government isn't more restrictions on honest
citizens, but more restrictions on violent criminals.  And what members of
Congress need is to hear NRA members express their immediate outrage over
WIlliam Sessoins' move to politicize the FBI, and insist that Congress and
the Clinton Administration reject all such restrictive gun laws.
	Sessions' vision of the FBI is our Founding Fathers' worst fear: A
federal police force disarming the law-abiding populace.

          IF YOU ARE A U.S. Citizen CALL YOU CONGRESSMAN NOW!!!
			 1 + 202 + 224 + 3121

=============================================================================

	ARTICLE #4

Talking with Rosie: Home Robot Interfaces

	The Average person on the street could not care less about the
turing test, but if you mention a robot that could help around the house,
the level of interest skyrockets.  The next questions are where to buy it
and how much it costs.  The general public has long been tantalized with
Hollywood images such as Rosie Jetson, R2D2, and Short Circuit and is now
waiting for consumer service robotics to appear in the household section of
the local department store along side vacuum cleaners and dishwashers.
Getting"Rosie" into the American home is not only a mechanical challenge
but also a major litmus test for AI technology.  
	"We are living in a pre-Wright-Brothers era where home robots don't
fly," says Brad Smallridge, director of the San Francisco-based Robotics
Society of America.  "Who will be the one to put the right combination of
mechanical and electronic devices together? It may be a big company, but I
suspect it may also be a garage-type inventor, possible working in
conjunction with a local robot organization."
        Are technology pieces still missing? Six hundred and fifty
thousand first-generation, industrial robots have already proven the
ability to outperform humans in many repetitive tasks requiring advanced
skills with high precision in difficult factory environments.  Simulation
to alleviate programming, extended mobility, and augmented reality
capabilities are a few of the reasons why advanced computing will continue
to improve first-generation robots for new manufacturing requirements.
	On the other hand, the unstructured nature of the home puts higher
demands on robots to interact with humans and raises the specter of
intelligent robotics.  The general principle of "intelligent robotics" was
developed by G. Saridis more than a decade ago in a quest to increase
intelligence with decreased precision.  If robots are to assist the
handicapped and elderly, befriend the young, cook, clean, patrol, and
perform other tasks, a primary target must be the development of simple
interfaces to intelligent machines.
        Maybe the real feasibility of household robots requires something
further: machine intelligence that involves situational awareness and human
empathy.  We may just need a fourth law to supplement Asimov's three laws
of robotics:
* One: A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a
human being come to harm.
* Two: A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except
where such orders conflict with the first law.
* Three: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection
does not conflict with the first or second laws.
* Four: A robot must understand the dynamic environment and offer a helping
hand to improve the environment for the human being (except when in
conflict with the three laws).
	Development of the previously outlined intelligence capability is
probably beyond our time.  However, there is a huge market that would be
content with a low-cost, metallic servant that can hear, understand,
effectively perform a limited set of "dirty work" household chores, and
doesn't require social security tax payments!

MAKING ROOM FOR ROSIE
	A recent roundtable session at the 1993 Robots & Vision Automation
Conference in Detroit, Mich., was devoted to the topic of household robots.
Joseph Engelberger opened the debate with a video presentation, prepared by
Transitions Research Corp. (TRC) of Danbury, Conn., showing simulations of
bathroom cleaning, car washing, and drink serving.  Other robotic tasks
shown were window washing, dishwasher loading, and hospital courier
service.  The key concepts included: 
* Accurate sensory suites are available today
* The broad range of preprogrammed tasks must not require absolute
locations
* Tactile feedback must be able to adjust to the right amount of force.
* Interchangeable end-effectors must be able to match the right tool to the
job.
* Dynamic scene analysis must accompany appropriate task nesting.
* As long as the robot is ready for the next assignment, time is a
noncritical issue.
* They keyboard form of human-machine interface is not acceptable.
* Voice recognition technology is now adequate for many tasks.
* A potentially profitable market exists for household robots.

	The Detroit roundtable debate discussed the national implications
of a program to develop the household robot.  Brian Carlisle, president of
the Robotic Industries Association, stated that a business plan was needed
to get this program off the ground.  He suggested that direct research
funds, such as those in the Advanced Technology Program at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), were needed.  Carlisle
pointed to the fact that in Japan 3% of the workforce is robots, compared
with United States, where they only constitute .017% of the workforce.  To
overcome such inertia, Carlsile suggested that the United States would need
a multibillion dollar robotics program, which would be analogous in program
commitment to sending someone to the moon.
	The debate quickly turned to costs.  Engelberger reminded everybody
that the first VCR was very costly and that initial global positioning
systems (GPS) cost $25,000, while today a GPS unit costs less than $25.
Engelberger speculated that the first household robots would probably cost
about $50,000 and could be included in the mortgage.  Engelberger stated
that the current cost of the technology behind "smart houses," which are
essentially data collection networks of the microchips attached to
everything, is approximately $30,000-$60,000.  In promoting home robotics,
Engelberger said that, rather than merely pushing data around, the
household robot would also be capable of pushing things around.
	James Albus, chief of the Robot Systems Division at NIST, posed
that replacing the neighborhood kid who cuts the grass for $20, the local
drive-through, or $6 car wash is not practical.  However, Albus declared
that home robotics could help reduce the cost of health care.  Albus stated
that a leading cause for the elderly giving up the comfort of their own
homes for a nursing home, at an annual cost of approximately $25,000 per
person, is hip injury from falling on the way to the bathroom.  If, for
example, a home robot could provide physical assistance for the elderly,
and postpone relocation to a nursing home by merely two years, the robot
cost could be covered.  
	Larry Leifer, director at the Center for Design Research at
Stanford University in Palo ALto, Calif., pointed to the home robot as a
solution to reduce the $84 billion the United States spends annually to
care for 80,000 severely physically or mentally impaired persons: Robots
would be able to provide immediate benefit in such circumstances.  William
Harwin, director of Rehabilitation Robotics at the A.I. duPont INstitute in
Wilmington, Del, suggested that people with disabilities are
"techno-friendly" and could readily make the transition to using home
robots. 
	James Hwang, project manager of Automation and Robotics at Johnson
NASA, suggested that development of the house robot could leverage the
advanced work in dexterous and mobile robots and teleoperations at
government robotics laboratories.  For example, Hwang suggested that the
ability to control robotic tasks from a desktop has already been developed
at NASA.  He pointed to the advanced robotics at numerous universities,
including Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, MIT, and Texas.
	The roundtable session concluded with different viewpoints
regarding whether home robots should be developed as multipurpose machines
or as basic, single-task units with optional, add-on modules to perform
specialized tasks.  It was argued that the economics of providing optional
$3,000 modules (to wash dishes, clean windows, and so on) would entice
more customers to invest in the basic model.  Others argued that while the
basic "stripped-down" model may be cheaper to build initially, only the
multipurpose robot could integrate tasks intelligently and provide the
necessary flexibility the consumer market will eventually demand.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU
        Robotics will continue to benefit from the exploding developments
in sensor technology: smart sensors, adaptive architectures, microlens
imaging, and embedded fiber-optic sensors.  Intelligence processing is
slowly migrating to the distributed sensors.  For example, the aerospace
industry has long been interested in smart structures for applications in
structural dynamics, active vibration control, and aircraft health
monitoring.  Likewise, the utility industries are interested in solutions
requiring remote operation and tolerance for harsh environments including
radiation.  Surely if robots can clean up Chernobyl, they should be able to
clean most homes.
	An important principle for home robotic flexibility is
force-feedback.  A simple device that demonstrates this principal was
recently developed at Stanford.  An operator commands the cutting action of
a remote set of scissor blades ("slave") through the use of a standard
scissors-type pair of handles ("master"). The intermediate electronics
("control logic") take the positional input from the master and direct the
slave to move accordingly while reading the force interaction data from the
slave and furnishing the master with the movements to reproduce the same
response: This gives the operator the sensation of actually cutting an
object, even though no direct physical connection exists.
	Applications of teleoperation principles to robotic devices have
been successful at A.I. duPont and are improving manipulator control for
people with severe disabilities.  Individuals with spinal cord and other
paralyzing injuries may have complete loss of motor and sensory functions
that can impair their abilities to interact with the environment and
perform tasks such as feeding themselves or turning the pages of a book.
To enable these individuals, voice input and visual feedback provide an
electronic interface that approaches the integrity of a physical linkage.
Such research proves that systems that provide proprioceptive feedback can
offer superior control.
	T. Rahman and W. Harwin suggest that persons with physical
disabilities could use teleoperative methods remotely to operate robotics
devices for tasks such as vacuum cleaning.  However, for people who are
seldom at home and want a robot that can automatically vacuum the house at
a convenient time, other issues are involved.  The robot must monitor
itself and be able to return to base to recharge batteries or dispose of
trash.  The robot must be able to distinguish between a lost earning and
household dirt and recognize task completion.  The robot must be designed
so that it does not fall down the stairs, leave the house to vacuum the
lawn, or attempt to vacuum the cat.  
	In recent years, considerable discussion has surfaced in robotics
literature about the automatic acquisition of skills, while avoiding the
high computational costs associated with sensory processing, planning, and
control. For example, J. Gefland discusses a hybrid architecture of vision
and neural nets for teaching a robot to dribble a basketball.  This skill
requires the robot to learn to interact dynamically with an external object
at the correct force levels.  The robotic arm dribbles the basketball, and
the position of the ball, arm, and obstacles are sensed.  A neural net
learns the proper response through kinesthetic information from the joint
angle sensors, and the acquired control laws compensate for errors in joint
locations and velocities.  The ball-dribbling skill cannot be
preprogrammed.
	Replacing human manipulation with electromechanical analogues also
introduces another significant challenge-the issue of safety and the Asimov
laws.  Consider the recent successful application of robotics to the
orthopedic procedure of total hip replacement by the ROBODOC surgical
assistant, from Integrated Surgical Systems INc. of Sacramento, Calif. With
a human surgeon present, ROBODOC machines a cavity in the patient's femur
bone before the prosthetic implant is inserted.  This procedure requires a
person-machine interface that is powerful and easy to use by individuals
who are not roboticists.
	In industry, gates, pressure-sensitive mats, flashing lights,
cages, and other devices keep people out of the robot workspace.  Since the
surgical staff and the patient must be inside the ROBODOC work envelope, a
safety subsystem must ensure that people are not harmed in the event of a
robotic malfunction.  ROBODOC has an independent safety hardware processor
with a direct interface to a second set of position encoders, force
sensors, and motion monitors for detection of potential collisions, task
failures, or other inconsistencies.
	Resolution of safety concerns is critical.  The household robot is
envisioned as a general factor: part butler, cook, maid, bodyguard, and
grounds keeper.  This list of roles demonstrates that the heavy-handed
approach in industry of isolating the robot is not acceptable in home
application.  Electronic auras around robots could be used to prevent robot
movement whenever a human enters a robot's territory or vice versa.
Meanwhile, household robotics must continue to meet Asimov's criteria.
	
SAY IT AGAIN, SAM
	Humans should not have to agonize over making their wants known.
The robot must be able to recognize and understand the spoken word, and,
using voice synthesis, it must respond as situations demand.  This interface
requirement is within current voice recognition and speech synthesis
capabilities.  Consider the speech-activated manipulator (SAM), the
research tool developed over the last decade at AT&T Bell Laboratories in
Murray Hill, N.J. SAM has been used in the study of robotics in which
executing complex tasks without requiring detailed programming instruction
is necessary.  SAM is a 450-pound, six-axis arm equipped with advanced
sensory capabilities and can interact with a human via spoken language-thus
simulating a certain level of intelligence.
	According to M. Brown, speech recognition has been augmented in SAM
with semantic evaluation to form a natural language understanding system
that makes it easy to use, without requiring that the user know about
robots, computers, or programming. SAM is connected to a knowledge base,
which makes it more resistant to user errors. SAM uses minimal descriptions
thus, the user is spared the tedium of listening to protracted descriptions
every time SAM references an object.
	SAM obtains information interactively from the user while
attempting to complete a command task.  For example, a human may request
that the robot move an object that has been given an ambiguous object
description, prompting SAM to ask questions to resolve ambiguity.  In other
situations SAM can resolve knowledge or task inconsistencies by initiating
dialogue.  One escape is always provided for the user-the choice to stop
SAM's line of questioning at any time by telling it to "ignore."
	Since semantic knowledge is obtained by SAM through dialogue and
direct teaching, much depends on correct responses from the user.  Brown
suggests that this may be the weakest part of the system; that is, if the
user misleads SAM about the meaning of words, SAM has no way of knowing or
correcting the error.  Future access to commonsense reasoning, via access
to the CYC-type, large knowledge bases, could provide more robust interface
solutions.
	
SPEECH REVUE
	In the earliest speech recognition developments, systems recognized
isolated words (words typically separated by about 1/4 second) from a small
vocabulary (less than 100 words) uttered by a specific speaker ("speaker
dependent"). Such systems worked by storing normalized templates of known
words, which had been spoken by each speaker.  The incoming speech signals
were split easily into word segments because silence delimited the word
segments.  The word segments then were normalized and matched against word
templates, using dynamic time-warping methods.
        This technique worked well for the well constrained problem.
However, once any of the constraints were relaxed, this technique ran into
serious problems.  Such systems had to store and search not only the word
templates, but all potential combinations of word templates.  This process
was necessary because of coarticulation, where two speech sounds occurring
together could combine to produce a different sound (such as did you =
didja or some milk = somilk). Even for a 50 word, continuous-speech system,
this approach required storing and searching several thousand templates for
each word.  This technique proved to be unscalable.
	The next generation of speech recognition systems attempted to work
with continuous speech.  Word templates were scrapped, and an attempt was
made to understand the whole by understanding the parts.  Word segments
were broken into word syllables, or atomic speech units, called phonemes.
For example, the word "Rosie" would be represented as "r ow jh iy." In this
process, speech units were identified, and dictionaries of words were build
from these basic units.  This approach constrained the search over a finite
and relatively small number of phonemes, since coarticulation effects
between phonemes could be accounted for by phonological rules.  While
systems using this technique cleared the scalability hurdle, other problems
were created
* Segmentation: Deciding where a segment starts and where it ends is very
difficult because there is no clear, well-established delimiter between
phonemes.  Most systems resolve this problem by using heuristic rules.
* Labeling: Assigning a phoneme name to a segment is questionable because
phonemes come in various sizes and shapes, and distinguishing them in
nonrivial.  Multiple labels with corresponding matching scores are often
assigned to a segment.  Some systems, such as Dragon, use a segment-level
word-dictionary instead of labels.
* Word Matching: The sets of labels and matching scores from the incoming
stream must be quickly mapped to words, while retaining the ability to
backtrack and pick the next-best candidate word if the first choice is
found incorrect.  A majority of speech recognition systems now use the
Hidden Markov Model (HMM) network- a probabilistic finite-state automation
method for mapping label sets to words.
	These problems and others, including noise, unexpected starts or
stops, corrections, and grammatically incorrect utterances have restricted
speech technology from recognizing real-life, natural speech utterances
from multiple speakers in real time with high accuracy.  The interface
requirement to recognize every word of speech rather than sentence
recognition may need to be relaxed to understand essential robotic
commands.
	High-speed computing advances and parallel processing will
contribute significantly toward improving recognition accuracy.  Hybrid
approaches (using neural networks as a first stage classifer and distance
computation unit for local frames, dynamic time warping to compute
normalized distances over frame-sequences, and then to select the best
match) hold great promise.
        For example, neural nets were applied at duPont to characterize
nonvocabulary utterances in disordered speech.  The disordered speech that
results from timing problems associated with dysarthria (cerebral palsy) is
difficult to recognize because it often involves periods of extraneous
silence or non-speech sounds, as well as abnormally timed or misplaced
speech gestures. S. Peters used a neural net to detect the presence of
inappropriate or nonspeech sounds, and a conjugate gradient algorithm was
used to train the system to recognize breaths and silence in a single
dysarthic speaker.
	Further research is necessary to achieve robust systems that can
provide adequate voice recognition performance in the presence of speech
variability and noise.  This includes the problem of speakers under stress
or with altered voices, such as those induced by a cold.  Another research
area is prosodics, the features in human speech involving emotion,
intention, or emphasis.  Prosodic information can be detected from changes
in intonation, tonality, vowel duration, pitch, and volume.  Applications
that could benefit from such research include airborne pilot assistance,
airline baggage handling and railway ticketing systems, voice-activated
assembly, stock market transactions, and, of course, household intelligent
robotics.

ROBOTS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS
	Effective robot interaction demands two-way communication, as we
saw with SAM.  Speech synthesis capability has been available for many
years and is much less complex in implementation than voice recognition.
Common metrics for speech synthesis are intelligibility (the degree to
which a listener can correctly understand the output) and naturalness (the
degree to which speech sounds human, not like a machine). 
	Current speech synthesis systems provide a "faceless" voice-a
generic voice rather than a personalized voice.  For Rosie to be acceptable
in many households, it would be desirable to have a distinct, personalized
voice complete with localized accents and colloquialisms.
        Most speech systems combine phonemes to produce speech.  Such
systems can effectively produce unlimited speech, but the quality of speech
is very poor because most do not account for the coarticulation.  Speech
systems that combine large units of words can produce excellent-quality
speech, but there are severe limitations in storage and retrieval.  An
intermediate approach-combining intermediate size units such as diphones-to
produce fair-quality speech with a substantial vocabulary would probably be
acceptable for robots.
	The number of commercial products for speech recognition and
synthesis is increasing.  Apple Computer developed the Casper
voice-activated interface, IBM introduced numerous voice technology
products this year, and Northern Telecom has developed a Flexible
Vocabulary Recognition system to recognize thousands of words over noise
phone lines. New "command-and-control" products are appearing on the market
for improved VCR programming, automated teller machine security, and speech
translation.  If such capability is entering the living room with the TV
and the phone, how long will it be before the same technology can be
integrated into a household robot?
	A "home robot standard" would help define the voice interface.
This might include restricted domain models and language vocabularies,
defined noise thresholds, and limitations on continuous speech and speaker
independence.  Easy integration of standardized voice interface components
will let household robotics integrators concentrate again on the
intelligent tasking requirements.

A FEW GOOD ROBOTS
	Some service robots are already hard at work. For example,
HelpMate, TRC's mobile robotic courier product, designed to perform
material transport tasks, is employed in a dozen hospitals across the
country.  The robots work around the clock, delivering meals,
pharmaceuticals, medical records, and lab results to nursing units.  By
assuming the time-consuming "go-fer" tasks, the HelpMates free up hospital
staff for more important, direct patient-care duties. 
	The health care industry is not alone in successfully applying
mobile-robot technology.  Other service industry applications include
security and patrol, commercial floor care, hazardous waste handling, bomb
disposal, nuclear plant clean-up, janitorial services, rehabilitation
programs, and the military.  A clearinghouse for information on service
robotics is the National Service Robot Association of Ann Arbor, Mich.
	Let's look at some of the household robot design requirements
(remembering that the robot must function in an environment designed
primarily for human comfort and convenience). The household robot must:
* Be able to navigate throughout the house. Humans can be made very
comfortable in surroundings amenable to the wheeled locomotion necessary
for robots; that is, homes that are modified for wheelchairs.
*Be able to locate in designated work zones.  The robot memory will contain
a map of all regions to be visited, and sensory perception will
continuously analyze to the current location: This is analogous to the maps
posted strategically in theme parks and museums that tell visitors, "You
are here." The robot's memory tells it not only where it is but also where
everything else is, of should be, located.
* Be robust, with smooth joint servos and load-bearing capabilities
appropriate for the job.  End-effectors will be equipped with quick
disconnect wrists so that general purpose hands can be selectively replaced
by special purpose tools.  Tactile sensing will be of two types: With its
finger tips, it will recognize shapes and grasping postures, and with its
wrists, it will recognize what is in hand and optimized interaction forces
and torques.
*Have few speed requirements.  Most industrial robots are bound to the
assembly line where production rates are directly proportional to robot arm
point-to-point speed. Meanwhile, the built-in servant has 24 hours a day
and seven days a week to get the job done.  Some work is scheduled, such as
meal preparation, but much can be done at night or a time when humans are
not at home.  Expensive global optimization computer calculations would
rarely have to be run for performance improvement.
* Have vision and other sensory perception, to see, recognize, and
understand.  The robot needs vision for navigation and modest scene
analysis and object location capabilities.  Because the environment will be
intimately known, the vision requirements do not need to exceed the current
state-of-the-art.  Enhancements in the next decade will reduce the cost of
vision components.

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
	Each household has a peculiar set of requirements.  Domestic robots
will have a unique definition of setup and run-time parameters,
corresponding to the particular home.  This requires a unique information
interface that stat with global task descriptions, develop into the robot
programs, and are tested in simulation.
	Simulation has shown significant savings in cost and schedule for
industrial robotic applications such as welding, painting, and assembly.
Simulation lets developers quickly and easily model robot environments to
optimize robot kinematics off-line before running them on the shop floor.
Robots can then be calibrated to the tasks, routines sequenced, collisions
detected, and exception handling defined.  This can reduce programmer
requirements and disruptions due to error.  The architecture for such
simulation is described by R. Bernhardt for a system called ROSI (Robot
Simulation).
	A similar approach could be used before bringing Rosie into a home.
They layout of the particular home environment and task expectations would
be available through databases and knowledge bases.  Simulation then could
be used to define tasks, tine-tune parameters, and identify potential
problems.  Eventually, simulation capability should be automatically
available to Rosie and transparent to the human user.
	The "Rosie the Maid" character, created in the early 1960's for the
Jetsons cartoon series, was definitely fictional.  However, with today's
advanced computing technologies and new research in robotics, sensors,
interfaces, and so on, the "intelligent" home robot will become a reality.
This venture seems like a reasonable challenge for AI technologies;
however, we should probably not say that too loudly, or the general public
will start beating down our doors.

=============================================================================

	ARTICLE #5

From:Popular Mechanics/July.93!

			    TYPED BY CoB/\LT!
                         America's Invisible Ship.
 
   If on a certain night the moon were full off the California coast, and you 
could somehow infiltrate the encircling picket line of military vessels to get
within a few hundred yards of the right spot,you might see with your naked eye
what you could see no other way.
   Disgorged from a hulking, barge-like mothership, a thin, prismatic shadow
glides silently out onto the shining water like a splinter of obsidian. It is 
a ship of some kind, but there is something baffling about its shape. As it
slowly turns to head for open water, its faceted surface presents the silou-
ette of a different object with every few degrees of rotation. One moment, it 
is long, sloping trapezoid, then it foreshortens into a jumbled gemstone, then
it resolves into a truncated letter A standing upright on the water. If you
happened to have with you a battery of sonar, radar and infrared sensors, they
would have told you that what you were seeing wasn't there at all.
                       
                         Out of the black..
   
   Until Friday, April 9, of this year, the U.S. Navy would have told you the
same thing. The vessel is the Sea Shadow, Americas only known attempt to dis-
appear as effectively on water as the F-117 Stealth fighter can disappear in
air. Construction took place in total secrecy nearly a decade ago at the lock-
heed Missiles and Space Co.'s closely guarded Redwood city, California, facility.
As one of the Defense Department's "black" programs, the whole $200-million und-
ertaking officially did not exist.
   That changed this Spring with a terse, page-long memorandum issued from the 
Pentagon. The need to conduct testing during daylight, it said, had forced dis-
closure to the program. Beyond that, the Navy kept a lid on the details. Except
for a single "Media availability" at 8am on Easter morning, reporters' questions
met with brief answers from a script that public affairs officers were forbidden
to stray from.
   Among the sparse facts made available were these: length-160 ft.,width-70 ft.,
draft-14 ft., displacement-500 tons. The ships purpose according to the memo, was
"to explore the application of a variety advanced technologies to surface ships.
These technologies involve ship control, structures, automation, seakeeping and
signature control." Signature control is just another way of saying Stealth.
   One look at the ship confirms that escaping detection was the dominant design
concern. It has been shaped according to the same principles that led to the
F-117, another Lockheed product. "If you put wings on it and cut off the pont-
oons, you could probably fly it." joked Stan Zimmerman, a veteran Pentagon wat-
cher and editor of the newsletter Navy News & Undersea Technology.
   So why did the Navy decide to build a stealth ship? How did they do it? And
what will they do with the capabilities thus gained?


                                  Exocet's impact

   Part of the Navy's motivation can be read in the grisly headlines that have
followed the sea skirmishes of the past decade. The radar-guided sea scimming 
missile, most notoriously the French Exocet, has shown itself to be a deadly eq-
ualizer, giving the small Navies of the world a way to draw blood from much 
larger, better equipped forces. Launched from a small patrol boat, helicopter, or
attack plane, theses missiles close in on a target at near supersonic speeds, while
presenting a radar cross section the size of a sea bird. They fly so low that 
they're less than a minute from impact by the time they pop over the horizon and
into view of even the most powerful radars. Under these circumstances, currently 
available countermeasures--chaff decoys, and defense gun and missile systems--
are far from fullproof.
   Moreover, with a few hundred pounds of high explosive aboard, seaskimming 
missiles pack a tremendous bang for their relatively few bucks. Although, as was
the case with the U.S. frigate Stark, heroic damage-control measures may prevent
a ship from actually sinking--that's about the best that can be hoped for. "If a
ship gets hit by a cruise missile, I think it's fair to say that their fighting
for the day is over," says U.S. Navy Capt. John Mc Gillvray, who recently resea-
rched stealthship technology at the Naval War College. He estimates that there 
are more than 15,000 sea-skimming missiles of one type or another in the hands of
more than 50 Navies in the world.
   Little wonder, then, that there are times when a ships commander would like 
nothing better than simply to disappear.


                                  Mystery Barge

   On Nov. 4, 1982, an astute reader of the San Francisco papers might have been
puzzled by a brief item on the impending departure of a tremendous floating dry-
dock from thr Todd Shipyard there. Known as the Hughes Mining Barge, the 4700-
ton vessel was originally built for a secret CIA project in the early 70's, and 
had been in mothballs for years. The CIA project, it has since come out, was an
attempt to recover a Soviet nuclear sub that sank off the coast of Hawaii in 
1968. This time, about all a Navy spokesman would say was, "I can assure you it
is not going to be used to go after a submarine.
   Inside the Barge is a 180-ft.-long, 70-ft.-high enclosure covered by an ar-
ched roof, where work can be conducted out of sight. by flooding ballast tanks,
operators can sink the interior floor beneath the level of the surrounding sea-
water and float vessels in and out. The Barge left Todd in the summer of 1983
and arrived at Lockheed Missiles & Space in Redwood City shortly afterward. Har-
dly anyone knew why until this spring.
   According to the sketchy history released  by the Navy, construction of the
Sea Shadow took place inside the Barge, apparently between 1983 and '85. Night 
test were conducted in 1985 and '86, with the Barge keeping the ship under co-
ver for repairs and replenishment during daylight. The tests were suspended
 in 1986 and not resumed until this spring, when the ship was unveiled.


                                 Shaping a shadow..

   Although few specifics have been given on the reasoning behind the Sea Sh-
adow's design, its stealthy shape and unusual twin-hull configuration give
clues to the intentions and past experiences of those who built it.
   Creating  useful shapes with very small radar cross sections is still a
black art, but such shapes do have recognizable trademarks. Sea Shadow appe-
ars to be a product of first-generation stealth technology, which would ex-
plain its resemblance to the F-117. The shapes of both bear the imprint of a 
computer program called ECHO 1. Developed by Lockheed in the mid-1970's, this 
program was key to the company's success in winning the F-117 contract.
   ECHO 1 was a breakthrough because it permitted designers to predict the 
radar cross section of a shape before building it. The program limited opt-
ions, however, because it could only analyze shapes made up of a finite num-
ber of 2-dimensional panels. This accounts for the faceted appearance of ea-
rly stealth designs.
   Since then, more powerful computers and software have made it possible to
create more complex stealth designs like the B-2 Stealth Bomber. But stealth 
ships have intended to stick with the older approach. According to the naval 
architect Harold Armstrong of Dowty Signature Management, an English maker
 of radar absorbing materials, it's mostly a matter of cost. "Welding toge-
ther flat plates is much easier than anything which is curved," he points out.
   

                               Stealth on stilts..

   Of course, stealth at sea requires much more than just reducing a ship's 
radar cross section. Sonar and infrared sensors can be equally threatening.
And even if the ship itself could be made completely undetectable, its wake
might still give it away. Modern radars can spot the waves kicked up by small
boats, and the Navy has worried that Russia might be working on satellite-
borne wake sensors that could watch vast expanses of ocean.


                              INVISIBLE WARSHIP..

   The Sea Shadow addresses all of these concerns with a single neat design
stroke. The two thin struts that support its main hull stand on a pair of 
submerged, torpedo-like pontoons in what's known as a small water plane twin
hull(SWATH) configuration. SWATH designs have long been known for exceptional
stability in heavy seas, but in the case of the Sea Shadow,ther are important 
additional advantages.
   First, with only the knife-like struts slicing the waters surface, the wake 
is reduced to almost nothing. Secondly, the noisier of the propulsion system
can be placed high above the water, where their difficult to hear with passive 
sonar. The Navy says Sea Shadow's propulsion is diesel electric, so the probable
layout is one electric motor in each pontoon, powered by one or more diesel
generators up above. Photos show exhaust venting between the SWATH hull's struts,
where the heat would be masked from infrared sensors.
   Swath also appears to help in evading radar because it provides a wide base 
of support, from which the ship's sides can slope inward. Normally, a ship's 
sides are nearly vertical, meeting the water at close to 90 degrees. This pro-
duces a bright radar echo called a broadside flash, which is easy to home in on.
  Unfortunately, all those capability has a price. A look at the Navy's TAGOS-19
SWATH surveillance ships, which are said to incorporate lessons from the Sea 
Shadow, illustrates the tradeoffs. Built to tow sub-hunting sonar arrays at high 
latitudes, where punishing seas damage equipment and wear out crews aboard con-
ventional ships, the 3397-long-ton TAGOS-19s are the largest U.S. made SWATH 
vessels. According to Joseph McMahon, a naval architect at McDermont Internat-
ional where the vessels are built, the SWATH configuration is well suited to the 
TAGOS-19 mission, but suffers weight carrying and calm-water speed limitations 
that would be a problem in other roles.
   Looking at pictures of the Sea Shadow, McMahon commented on the inward slant, 
or dihedral, of the hull struts. This would damp out heaving motions in heavy
seas by creating vertical drag. It also requires a nightmarishly complex stru-
cture. "It's outstanding hydrodynamically. It's awful for the builder," says
McMahon.


                                What is it for?..

   So in the Sea Shadow the navy has a ship that's stealthy, but difficult to 
build, capable of only 13 knots, and unable to carry a heavy weapons load. It's
fair to ask, then what do they want with it>
   At the very least, they want information. According to what's been released,
Sea Shadow is strictly a one-off research tool. It's credited, for instance, 
with insights that helped reduce the radar cross section of the Arleigh Burke-
class destroyers. But, like several other new warship designs under construction
around the world, the Arleigh Burke is better described as low observable than
as completely stealthy. Arleigh Burke's builders made the ship hard enough to 
track that its other countermeasures are more effective, but couldn't make the 
performance compromises needed to make it disappear from radar.
   That brings us to the question of whether there is a role for a ship that,
like Sea Shadow or the F-117, puts stealth almost above everything else. Maybe
there is. Although critics of the idea point out that with nuclear submarines 
the Navy can can already operate undetected at sea, a stealthy ship would have 
at least two key advantages.One, it could be used for air defense of convoys,
which subs presently cannot. Two, it could operate in a number of areas--some
of them strategically important--where the water is to shallow for the subs to 
get close to shore.
   The bottom line is that, given how little we knew of the Sea Shadow until 
the moment of its unveiling, there's no telling what other "invisible ships" 
the Navy may have lurking at sea.

=============================================================================

	ARTICLE #6

               It's time someone told you the truth about the
                                  AIDS
                                cover up!
			    TYPED BY CoB/\LT!

     Whats your fear about Aids? I'll tell you what mine is. It's the fact 
that i'm being deceived by the very health authorities that are supposed to
be protecting me. And my fears are entirely justified. There is a coverup;
the authorities are running scared; and there's only one way to fight it;
with the truth!

   Dear friend, 
        The person i'm about to introduce to you has literally lived thr-
ough hell to get vital truths about Aids to the people who are most in
danger.
       Yet, he has been scorned, ignored, betrayed, and viciously slan-
dered by the press, politicians, his own trusted colleagues -- not to men-
tion various special interest groups -- for his heroic stand against this
silent killer.
       Dr. Strecker submitted paper after paper on his findings to all the 
prestigious medical journals in America and in Europe. They were refused.
Later , newspapers turned down paid advertising for The Strecker Memorandum. 
Few T.V. or radio stations would allow him to be interviewed. He also suff-
ered the loss of two close associates, including his own brother, under very 
questionable and mysterious circumstances -- after repeated threats of vio-
lence. 
      This fine physician is even-handed and fair in his treatment of the fa-
cts. But he is ruthless in the sense that he will tell all the whole truth...
even if it offends some special interests. And often it has.
      Dr. Strecker has sworn, to get the truth out no matter what the cost...
and he has paid dearly for it. The fact that you're  able to get this material
at all is a miracle. Now, take a look at The Strecker Memorandum.   I can al-
most guarantee that, like me, you'll be hopping mad before you're threw rea-
ding.


           We'd better move fast, or there will be no tomorrow!!

      Are you scared? Good! Because it's time  someone told the truth about 
Aids. And it's time we started demanding our elected officials to do some-
thing about it.
      Over a 100,000 Americans have died because they didn't know the truth
about Aids. That's more people than we lost in the entire Vietnam war!
      I can't tell you how angry all of this makes me. Millions and millions 
are going to die because of the complacency of the very people we've appoi-
nted and elected to protect us from this dread disease.
      There is no time to waste; we have no more time. The number of Aids-
infected people is doubling every 12 months -- in some areas even sooner. We
must do something to protect our children and ourselves ... or there will be 
no more tomorrow.
                          Urgently, 

                      William Campbell Douglas, MD


                 Did someone finally go too far fooling 
                    around with Mother Nature?

 "I will show you how the Aids virus was actually predicted, requested, created,
produced, and developed-- and now threatens the very existence of mankind--be-
cause it works."
                           --Robert Strecker, MD, PhD


      Would scientists design and create a deadly virus on purpose? Could it 
really be done? Were two horribly fatal animal viruses somehow combined to 
create the worlds most deadly plague to hit mankind--one that may well deci-
mate the population within our lifetimes?
     
     Then answer, unfortunately, is yes.
     
     Who did this? Who ordered the creation of a virus that could potentially
destroy mankind? And worse--how did it ever get into humans?
     
    That's just one of the tough questions that Dr. Robert Strecker faces 
head-on in the incredible video, The Strecker Memorandum.
     
    Was it intentional? Dr. Strecker says it's entirely possible that the 
Aids virus was deliberately introduced into the human population. The
international infections of human groups for scientific study has been 
well-documented.

    Or was it an accidental? The frightening thought of a scientist foo-
ling around with the building blocks of nature is all to real a possi-
bility. Dr Strecker takes you inside the halls of science to reveal just 
how possible this is.

    That's not even the tip of the iceberg as far as the Aids deception 
is concerned.

    Dr. Robert Strecker spent five exhausting years studying the Aids virus,
it's origins, methods of transmission, and the  devastating effects it
has on the human body. He did not like what he saw. And now he's telling
you.

    You get a quick, easy lesson in what Aids really is--not what "they" 
want you to think it is. And at the end while your still reeling from all 
the information, Dr. Strecker holds a riveting Q&A session with several
skeptical colleagues. You will not believe your eyes...but you'd better!

    Here's just a sample of what you'll learn in the Strecker Memorandum:

   * What Aids really is
   * How the virus could have been created
   * How it replicates
   * How long it really takes to show up
   * How it kills
   * How it transmits between people
   * Four reasons it wasn't a green monkey
   * Why the govt. doesn't want you to know where and why the virus ori-
     ginated
   * How many viruses there really are--and worse, how many more there will
     be
   * Why a vaccine is literally impossible 
   * Why the cure is much more likely--and whats standing in the way
   * Why condoms don't work to stop infection

    And there's much more you'll learn in The Strecker Memorandum.
    
    After you watch The Strecker Memorandum, you'll know more about Aids than
99% of the doctors in America!

    Even if Science wasn't your favorite subject in school, you'll find this
video, not only eye opening--but easy to follow as well.

    Dr. Strecker doesn't pull any punches. I've never seen a medical problem
explained  in such a clear-cut,easy to understand way. He is a professional
in every sense of the word-
and he has no agenda to serve except to explain and disseminate the truth.

    There is so much that we aren't told--intentionally or otherwise-
about what the virus really is, what it does and how it kills. Now,  you can
know the scientific truth about this silent killer. And it's vital that you 
do understand it. Because ignorance today could have devastating consequences
for you and your loved ones tomorrow.

    If you think you are safe because you are not gay or promiscuous, or even
sexually active, then you must watch The Strecker Memorandum very carefully...
over and over again if necessary.

    

    Dr. Robert Strecker practices internal medicine and gastroenterology in Los 
Angeles. He is a trained pathologist and holds a Ph.D pharmacology. Dr. Strecker
and his brother, Ted, an attorney, were preparing a proposal for a health main-
tenance organization (HMO), and needed to know the long-term financial effects 
of insuring the treating of Aids patients. The information they covered from the 
beginning was so startling, so hard to believe, that it would dramatically alter
both their lives and lead them on a five-year quest culminating in the creation 
of The Strecker Memorandum..

		  You can reach Dr. Strecker at 213-344-8039

       Another informative news file made possible by CoB/\LT...

=============================================================================

	ARTICLE #7
                          
From:Omni/May.93 

                      GATEWAY TO A CASHLESS SOCIETY
                          Fund/Barter exchanges
			    TYPED BY CoB/\LT!   

   The 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles was the first modern Olympiad to ac-
tually turn a tidy profit for the host city--thanks to some shrewd maneuvering 
by olympic officials who relied on barter to trade licensing rights for $116 
million worth of goods and services from 30 major corporations.
   Today, more than 240,000 businesses, ranging from doctors, lawyers, cate-
rers, dentists, restaurants, accountants, hotels,and building contractors to
household names like Xerox, Pan Am, Ramada Inns, MCDonnel Douglas, Mattel, and 
Hilton, conducted $5.9 billion of barter transactions in 1991, according to the 
International Reciprocal Trade Association, up from 90,000 firms doing $2.2 bi-
llion worth if swaps a decade earlier. The sluggish economy is fueling this
phenomenal growth because barter can preserve cash and swell business 10 to 15
percent by using excess services and inventory.
   For Fortune 500 corporations,the concept of barter used to be a dirty little
secret because it reeked of unloading unsalable inventories at distress sale 
prices. No longer. The cataclysmic shifts in the geopolitical have changed that,
too. Former Eastern Bloc nations simply don't have hard currency. So companies
like Pepsi, eager to capitalize on these untapped markets, have been unashamedly
swapping soft syrup for vodka. Plus the recent development of a trading network 
that harnesses the speed of supercomputers may be the gateway to a cashless so-
ciety in the twenty-first century. Barter, once relegated to the back door of 
the economic underground, has gone legit.
   "Barter wont save a failing business. But it can give ones that are surviving 
a real competitive edge, because it allows them to buy retail with their own wh-
olesale cost," says Stephen Friedland, president of Los Angeles-based BXI Inter-
national, which has more than 12,500 members and 75 branches. Founded in 1960, 
BXI was the first modern barter exchange and is still the largest of the nati-
on's estimated 400 trading networks.
   Typically, exchanges handle record keeping, expedite the flow of trades, and 
promote clients through directories and newsletters. In return, they take a 10- 
to 15- percent slice off the top of each trade. All transactions are now repo-
rted to the IRS, so bartering is no longer a convenient tax dodge.  
   People offer goods and services for "credits" or "dollars" that can be traded 
on barter exchanges. And those "trade dollars" can add up. For example, a gra-
phic designer used barter credits for a $20,000 down payment on a house, and a 
music teacher went on a photo safari in Kenya-courtesy of her local barter exch-
ange. Last year, New York's Lexington Hotel acquired a $150,000 computer system
in exchange for $300,000 worth of room credits. Since the Lexington always has 
vacant rooms , it's only real expense was paying housekeepers to tidy rooms.
   If you think your business could benefit from barter, check out the track 
record of a trade exchange before you join. Fond out how long the exchange has 
been around. Does the network have a directory of its members? Does it offer 
products and services you can genuinely? Can you trade leftover inventory or
services for items you would otherwise pay for in cash?
   A new state-of-the-art software system, UltraTrade, designed for superco-
mputers may ultimately even transform the way we do business. About 400 midsi-
zed companies in Southern California are already online with UltraTrade. If
all major U.S. companies used this trading system, experts estimate it would 
generate additional annual sales of $1.5 trillion. "We're on the edge of som-
ething unbelievable," says Bob Meyer, editor of BarterNews. "The day you can 
get anything you want on this exchange-which would require a critical mass of 
about 4,000 major companies-this will take off exponentially." and probably 
make the green stuff obsolete.

       Another informative news letter from CoB/\LT..

=============================================================================

	ARTICLE #8

Popular Science - Science Newsfront Section Vol 242. No. 3 March 1993

TYPED BY: The P/\NTHER TRSI-UMF

MACH 25 TRANSPORTER

About the size of a Mercury capsule, Lightcraft is powered by a laser beams
relayed down from satellites orbiting Earth.  Mirrors bounce the lasers to
a pulse-jet engine.

	Sometime early in 2010, a passenger might take off from Albany,
ride a one person craft into space, and touch down 45 minutes later in
Australia-all without burning an ounce of fossil fuel.  Lightcraft, a
concept vehicle designed by engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(RPI) in Troy, N.Y., will be powered by lasers of microwaves beamed to it
from satellites orbiting Earth.
	Leik Myrabo, head of the RPI design team working on Lightcraft,
says the vehicle will fill a niche: "Lightcraft will be a cheap, reliable
way to send individuals around the globe or into orbit.  Many of the
components of the system were first developed for the Strategic Defense
Initiative, and we are testing models of the craft and is engine right
now."
	Myrabo envisions a Lightcraft perched on its slender tripod landing
gear, waiting for a satellite-based solar power station to come into
position.  When it does, it will relay laser or microwave beams under the
vehicle, heating the air within a small area to 30,000 degrees K. At this
temperature, molecules of gases in the air explode, creating a series of
blast waves that propels the craft up through the atmosphere.
	When the craft reaches Mach 11 (8,000 mph) and 90,000 feet, it will
switch to magnetohydrodynamic propulsion. In the upper atmosphere, the air
is too rarefied to detonate, but there will still be enough propulsive
force to creative a shock wave as the craft zooms upward.  Two rings of
superconductive magnets and a laser-to-electric-power converter will
accelerate the glowing air plasma behind the shock wave, blowing it
backward to boost the craft to its  orbital velocity of Mach 25.  The
converter uses a small amount of liquid hydrogen-the only fuel LIghtcraft
carries.
	The RPI team has already tested the liftoff pulse-jet laser-powered
engine at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. The result:
performance equal to the jet engines of 1942. "We need to bring out
thrust-to-power ratios much higher," admits Myrabo, "but for the very first
test of a new design, we think this shows great promise." An unmanned
demonstrator could be tested within five years.

=============================================================================

	ARTICLE #9

Popular Science: March 1993 Vol 242. No. 3

TYPED BY: The P/\NTHER TRSI-UMF

OUT OF THE BLACK: SECRET MACH 6 SPY PLANE

        Does the U.S. Air Force-or perhaps one of America's intelligence
agencies-have a new secret spy lane in action?  A growing body of evidence
suggests that the answer is yes.  A startling disclosure came recently when
Chris Gibson, a British oil engineer and highly trained aircraft-spotter,
produced a sketch that captured the shape and size of an unusual aircraft
he saw during daylight hours in August 1989, flying over his drilling rig
in the North Sea.  The expert eyewitness' drawing is the keystone that,
with other evidence, provides an understanding of a secret hypersonic
reconnaissance aircraft that is widely rumored to exist, but routinely
denied by U.S. officials.  Its nickname Aurora.

	Gibson-a former member of the disbanded Royal Observer Corps, a
group of volunteer aircraft spotters was able to estimate the strange
airplane's length and width by comparing it with the known dimensions of
the K-135 refueling tanker and two F-111 bombers flying alongside.  But it
wasn't until last year, when he came across a magazine illustration of a
hypersonic (faster than Mach 5) aircraft design, that Gibson suddenly made
sense of the sharp triangular silhouette he saw.

	Analysts believe that Aurora is an operational spy plane that
replaces the retired Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.  Like its predecessor,
Aurora costs several million dollars per flight and is send out only on
missions where the plane's sensors can gather vital information
unobtainable by satellite reconnaissance or other means.  

        It's plausible that Aurora was used to photograph Iraq during
Operation Desert Storm in an attempt to provide tactical intelligence to
ground-based military commanders.  Aurora's unique capabilities also equip
it for surveillance of nuclear proliferation.  The list of nations of
varying political complexions that covertly possess or are pursuing nuclear
arms capabilities includes India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, North Korea,
Pakistan, and South Africa.  Surprise visits by a reconnaissance aircraft
can give intelligence analysts clues-such as the presence of military
trucks at an ostensibly civilian plant-which wouldn't be left out in the
open when a spy satellite is scheduled to make its pass overhead.

	Aurora overflights of Russia have probably not occurred.  Such
missions would violate an agreement in place since a Lockheed U-2 spy plane
was show down over the Soviet Union in 1960.  It is likely, however, that
Aurora monitors the submarine-building programs of Russia, China, and other
nations from well outside their airspace using side-looking sensors.

        Gibson's North Sea sighting completes a puzzle that has obsessed
military-aircraft analysts for several years.  Consider the following
pieces of evidence hinting at the existence of something unacknowledged
that flies high and fast:

* In February 1990, the Air Force retired its SR-71 spy planes.  The
official reason was saving the $200 million to $300 million a year it cost
to operate the fleet of Blackbirds.  Reporters were told that the SR-71's
role had been taken over by advanced spy satellites.

* The money saved was less than 7 percent of the approximately $4 billion
the Air Force spends yearly on satellite reconnaissance-mere chicken feed
by Pentagon standards.  Keeping the SR-71s in reserve would have provided
cheap insurance against an unlucky string of satellite and rocket failures,
such as the ones that occurred in 1985-86'.

* The Air Force actually discouraged congressional attempts to reverse this
termination of its most glamorous aircraft mission.  Never in its history
had the flying service walked away from a manned mission without a fight.

* The pace of activity at the Air Force's top-secret Groom Lake test site
in the Nevada desert has increased dramatically in recent years, suggesting
the presence there of one or more secret aircraft programs.  By comparing
recent photos of the base with ones taken in the late 1970s, it's apparent
that several large new buildings were added during the 1980s.  Always
visible in the recent pictures are a number of charted Boing 737 airliners
that ferry workers in from other defense-industry towns such as Palmdale,
Burbank, or Edwards in Southern California, or from Nellis Air Force Base
in Nevada.

* Since mid-1991, unexplained sonic booms have periodically rattled
Southern California Officials at the United States Geological Survey, the
agency that monitors earthquake activity, no doubt irked the military with
their public statements that a very fast, high-flying aircraft was causing
the "airquakes" registering on their array of seismographs. 

* The Federation of American Scientist, a private Washington, D.C.-based
policy group, issued a report late last year on the likelihood that
unacknowledged military aircraft might exist.  The cautious review of
unclassified literature on the subject concluded that several new types of
aircraft may indeed be covertly flying around.  

Gibson's sighting now makes it possible to reconstruct the Aurora program's
history.  The spy plane was operational, or nearly so, by August 1989, just
before the Air Force parked its SR-71s for the last time.  Aurora would
have made its first flight by 1986 at the latest, following a development
effort that was launched in 1981.

	This analysis elicited denials by high officials involved in
defense and intelligence matters.  Ohio Democratic Sen. John Glenn asserted
that his sources in the intelligence community told him there was no such
aircraft.  "I think they're telling the truth," he said.

        Pete Williams, chief spokesman for the Bush administration's
Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney, gave a standard answer to a query about
Aurora. "If there were such a program, we wouldn't discuss it." Williams
explained that Pentagon policy says the same answer "must always be given"
to queries about secret programs-whether or not they actually exist-to
avoid revealing the truth.  Donald B. Rice, Bush's Secretary of the Air
Force, stated: "There's no program in the AIr Force, none anywhere else
that I know of.  It simply doesn't exist." To some observers the stridency
of Rice's response was puzzling.  Why didn't he simply utter the usual
Pentagon disclaimer?

	Black is the adjective most often applied to the hidden world in
which such engineering activities unfold.  In a 1985 Pentagon budget
document requesting production funds for 1987, a censor's slip let the line
item "Aurora" appear, grouped with the SR-71 and U-2 programs.  Even if
Aurora actually was the project's name at the time, it almost certainly
would have been changed after being thus compromised; "Senior Citizen" is
one new label that has been reported.  Rated by the Pentagon as an
"unacknowledged special-access program," the plane's existence and real
name are secret, and therefore deniable.

	Unconfirmed reports of Aurora's existence first surfaced in 1986,
and Popular Science conjectured about the airplane's likely design in the
November 1988 issue.  Now, fresh reports from secret-airplane hunters like
James Goodall, who heard and felt bone-shaking sounds coming from the Groom
Lake facility late in December, continue to flesh out the picture of Aurora
and the technology that makes it work.
	
	Armed with patience and braced for the occasional confrontation
with no-nonsense security patrols, resolute observers like Goodall trek
through the harsh Nevada desert to a mountainside overlooking desiccated
Groom Lake.  From several miles away-as close as they can get without
entering off-limits government land-the watchers can see the large air base
with its motley collection of hangars.  Some of the buildings are vast.
	
	Yet, like a mirage, the isolated facility with its six-mile runway
doesn't exist-officially, that is.  And its non-existence is longstanding.
A 1992 Lockheed Corp. paper on the early days of the U-2 program refers to
flight-testing at Groom Lake 35 years ago as having occurred merely at "a
remote location."
	
	For some, monitoring events on the dry lake bed provides the
excitement of pursuing a mystery.  Author and photographer Goodall, who has
been chasing classified programs for almost 30 years, is motivated by
enthusiasm for aircraft and a conviction that he's entitled to know how his
taxes are being spent.  His earwitness account indicated that the
airplane's propulsion system is unconventional, to say the least.  "We
heard Aurora from 18 miles away.  The sound is so intense that you feel it.
It was quite something else-a pulsing noise that you'll never forget."

	Aurora was almost certainly built by Lockheed's fabled Skunk Works,
now called the Lockheed Advanced Development Co. Of all known design
organizations, only the Skunk Works has the proven ability to manage large
programs incorporating breakthrough technology in total secrecy.  Analysis
of Lockheed's financial statements makes it possible to estimate Aurora's
price tag at abut $1 billion per aircraft.  At most, 10 to 20 of the new
spy planes have been built.

	A hypersonic prototype paved the way for Aurora.  In 1975, Lockheed
proposed a small hypersonic research aircraft that would be launched from
the back of an early version of the SR-71.  And a definitive survey of
Lockheed aircraft, published in 1982, stated that the company had already
flown a Mach 6 experimental craft.
	
	By the late 1970s the U.S. government probably had two main reasons
for going ahead with Aurora.  The first: improved Soviet surface-to-air
missile (SAM) systems posed an increasing threat to the SR-71, which flies
at Mach 3.2 (2,100 mph) and reaches altitudes above 80,000 feet.  By 1980,
two potent new Soviet antiaircraft weapons, the SA-10 Grumble and the SA-12
Gladiator/Giant, were under development, Both have a maximum altitude of
about 100,000 feet and feature advanced tracking and guidance systems.

	The second reason for building Aurora was that satellites alone are
not the best solution to reconnaissance requirements.  While they take
superb pictures, satellites also have inherent limitations.  They follow
fixed, predictable orbits, which make their appearance no surprised to a
shrewd adversary.  Although earthbound controllers can command satellites
to fire thrusters to adjust their orbits, this ability is strictly limited
by a finite on-board fuel supply.  In addition, because it is difficult to
supply the amount of power needed to operate an all-weather radar, most
satellites carry only daylight or low-light cameras.

	Although they cost several hundred million dollars apiece, spy
satellites last, on average, only five years before they are dumped into
the atmosphere and replaced.  And it is difficult to increase surveillance
quickly in a crisis unless a stockpile of reserve satellites and launchers
is kept ready-as the former Soviet Union once did.
	
	Aircraft are much more flexible.  They can be dispatched exactly
where and when they are needed, and they can be fitted with day, night, or
bad-weather sensors, depending on conditions in the target area.

	An analysis of Aurora's three-dimensional shape can be extrapolated
from its 75-degree swept triangular outline.  The aircraft corresponds
almost exactly in form and size to hypersonic reconnaissance aircraft
studied in the 1970s and 1980s by McDonnel Douglas, according to Paul
Czysz, now a professor of aerospace engineering at St. Louis University.
	
	Czysz worked on hypersonics while at McDonnel Douglas, including
the company's proposal for the National Aerospace Plane program, and is an
acknowledged expert in the field.  Efficient hypersonic planes "are
basically air-breathing propulsion systems," he says.

	Like the SR-71, Aurora has a crew of two.  Flying it is quite
unlike piloting a conventional aircraft.  There is little if any outside
view, because a normally angled windshield causes too much drag and gets
too hot.  For these reasons, Aurora may have a retractable windshield used
only for takeoffs and landings; at other times, the windshield would be
covered by a heat shield.
	
	Aurora's pilot is really a mission manager, monitoring the aircraft
and its systems and following the course of the flight on large-format
video displays.  his or her most important function is to cope with the
unexpected: shifts in upper-atmospheric temperature, weather developments
over the target area or refueling zone, or problems with the plane's
mechanical or electronic systems.
	
	The RSO supervises a battery of sensors.  The most important is a
synthetic-aperture radar (SAR), a side-looking instrument that takes a
sequence of snapshots of the target as the aircraft moves and complies them
into a single radar image that is as sharp as if it had been acquired using
an antenna hundreds of feet wide.  The best SAR images are classified, but
have been described as "near-photographic," allowing different types of
land vehicles to be easily distinguished from more than 100 miles away,
regardless of clouds or smoke.
	
	In clear weather, Aurora uses daylight and infrared cameras for
ultra-detailed work.  And unlike a satellite, the craft can be scheduled to
make its reconnaissance passes at the golden hour for covert imaging: early
morning, when the low sun provides even illumination and long shadows that
highlight features on the ground, before heat-induced haze forms.
	
	A phased-array antenna built into Aurora's upper surface-near the
tail end, where aerodynamic heating is minimal-allows the airplane to
transmit real-time or near-real-time imagery to the Pentagon's satellite
network.

	Aurora uses ramjet engines, because no other type can work as
efficiently at the speeds the plane travels.  in its simplest form, a
ramjet is a pinched tube that slows, compresses, and heats the incoming
supersonic airstream before adding fuel to it, producing enormous thrust
from the hot gas expanding out the exhaust nozzle.  However, the
compression process also generates tremendous drag.  The ramjet designer's
challenge is to keep the level of drag from canceling out the slim margin
of thrust that propels the aircraft.

	One way to make a ramjet engine efficient is to stretch it along
the entire length of the vehicle.  In a hypersonic ramjet aircraft, the
underside of the forward body is a ramp that initially compresses the air
before it enters the inlet ducts, and the curved underside of the afterbody
guides the expansion of the exhaust gas.

IT'S A LIFTING BODY

	The compressed air underneath the body serves a second purpose: It
holds the airplane up.  At Mach 6, conventional wings would be superfluous
appendages creating horrendous drag.  Accordingly, the tips of Aurora's
delta platform are mainly there to provide stability and control.
	
	The basic problem with ramjets is that they don't work at all
unless the aircraft is moving quite fast, and they are not very efficient
at speeds less than Mach 2.5. Therefore, Aurora needs some other system to
reach this speed.

	There are two clues to the way Aurora's designers solved the
low-speed propulsion problem.  The team for the X-30/National Aerospace
Plane (NASP), though tight-lipped about the "accelerator" portion of the
NASP engine design, has indicated that it functions as a ducted rocket in
parts of its operating cycle.  The second clue is that Aurora has been
associated with two unusual noises: very-low-frequency pulsing sounds and
an extremely loud roar on takeoff.

ROCKET-ASSISTED RAMJETS

        The surging or pulsing sound is associated with a class of
standstill-to-hypersonic "combined-cycle" propulsion systems invented in
the late 1950s and shrouded since then by obscurity rather than security
(see The Combined-Cycle Ramjet Engine).  Czysz, who studied combined-cycle
engines for hypersonic aircraft while at McDonnell Douglas, say that their
performance is remarkable.  "they go like scalded rabbits," he says.
	
	According to Dr. Fred Billig at the Applied Physics Laboratory of
Johns Hopkins University, who experimented with the combined-cycle engine
in the 1960s, one of the attractive features of this engine is that it
delivers high thrust per unit of frontal area, a drag-reducing
characteristic helpful in pushing efficiently past the sound barrier.  Most
important, the combined-cycle engine can recover energy that most engines
throw away.  by using cold fuel to cool the airplane's structure and
engines, for example, the system converts heat into mechanical energy used
to supercharge the ramjet and generate additional thrust.

SUPER-COLD FUEL 

	Even though Aurora is 80 to 90 feet long, which is about 20 feet
shorter than the SR-71, it could weigh more-as much as 170,000 pounds when
fully loaded.  A clear two-thirds of its total mass would be fuel.
	
	Choosing the right fuel was crucial to Aurora's design.  Because
various sections of the craft will reach cruising-speed temperatures
ranging form 1,000 degrees F to more than 1,400 degrees F, its fuel must
both provide energy for the engines and extract destructive heat from the
airplane's structures.  This is done on the SR-71, but at hypersonic speeds
even an exotic kerosene, such as the special high-flashpoint JP-7 fuel
used by the Blackbird, cannot absorb enough heat.  The solution for Aurora
is a cryogenic fuel-a cold liquefied gas.

	The best candidates identified so far are methane and hydrogen.
Liquid hydrogen provides more than twice as much energy and absorbs six
times more hear per pound than any other fuel.  The snag is its low
density, which means bigger fuel tanks, a larger airframe, and more drag.
While liquid hydrogen is the fuel of choice for a spacelaunch vehicle that
accelerates quickly out of the atmosphere, studies have shown that liquid
methane is better for an aircraft cruising at Mach 5 to Mach 7.

	Methane (natural gas) is widely available, provides more energy
than jet fuels, and can absorb five times as much heat as kerosene.
Compared with liquid hydrogen, it is three times denser and easier to
handle-inflight refueling has been studied and poses no problems.
	
	Aurora can fly at subsonic speeds because its entire body, which
has a great deal of area, is a lifting surface.  Also, its sharply swept
leading edge-like the Concorde's wing-generates a powerful vortex at
nose-high flight angels, which clings to the leading edge and boost the
body's lift.  Unencumbered by aerodynamic freeloaders such as a
conventional fuselage, Aurora's shape is structurally efficient.  It packs
a lot of fuel and useful equipment into a relative small volume that saves
weight and minimizes friction drag.

	The spy plane's airframe may incorporate some stealth technology,
but it hardly needs it.  Hypersonic aircraft are actually much harder to
shoot down than a ballistic missile.  Although a hypersonic plane isn't very
maneuverable in the traditional sense, its velocity is such that, within
tens of seconds, even a gentle turns puts it miles away from a SAM's
projected interception point.  So why bother with stealth?

FLYING IN THE GOVERNMENT'S BLACK WORLD

	The Pentagon's "black world" isn't a mirror-military running
parallel to the familiar one.  Rather, it is a submerged network of covert
activities distributed throughout the armed services and other agencies.
It size can be gauged from unclassified Pentagon budget documents, which
include accurate total figures but conceal individual black programs by
labeling them with code names or burying them within other categories.

	This hidden ocean of funds for research, development, and
production of secret equipment amounts to $16 billion of the Pentagon's
$254 billion 1993 budget.  When operations costs are included, the black
budget's estimated annual total comes to a staggering $35 billion.

	New construction at the Air Force's secret Groom Lake test facility
in Nevada, and the number or workers being flown to and from there in
recent years, suggests that a decent chunk of this invisible money is being
directed toward several unacknowledged, large-scale aircraft or missile
projects under way at the remote site.

	The Air Force has hidden major aircraft programs before on two
occasions.  A giant Lockheed airplane called the CL-400 was the U-2 spy
plane's intended replacement Code-named Suntan, the Mach 2.5 aircraft was
to be powered by radical hydrogen fueled engines.

	Lockheed had virtually completed the first four aircraft before
Suntan was canceled in 1958 due to technical snags.  The project cost $250
million in fat 1950's dollars.  Not one word leaked out about Suntan until
20 years later, when Lockheed started talking about liquid hydrogen as a
future aircraft fuel.

	Suntan was replaced by a CIA project for a Mach 3 spy plane called
Oxcart.  After Lockheed was selected to build the plane, it was renamed the
A-12.  It first flew in April 196 from Groom Lake, which was made into a
fully equipped base supporting A-12 flight testing and the CIA's dozen
operational planes.

	The Air Force subsequently ordered 30 SR-71 reconnaissance-strike
aircraft derived from the A-12 prototype.  The existence of the SR-71 was
disclosed in a 1964 statement by President Lyndon Johnson.  But the CIA's
A-12s flew secretly until mid-1968, and they were not revealed to the
public until 1982.  Through a combination of tight security and
disinformation, the A-12 program was concealed for 23 years.  Now ask
yourself: Would your government lie to you?

        In "Mystery Aircraft" a report released last year, the Washington,
D.C. based Federation of American Scientists (FAS) concluded that two or
more types of secret airplanes are likely to exist.  Bases on an extensive
analysis of unclassified Pentagon and corporate financial documents,
technical papers, and a range or news reports, the study favors the view
that some of the reported aircraft are prototypes, while at least one may
be in regular service.

        "It is probable that at least one high-speed, high-altitude
experimental air vehicle is currently undergoing flight tests," or may
possibly have achieved operational statue, the report states.  The craft
could manned or unmanned, it notes, fitting either the general description
of a Mach-4 to Mach-6 Aurora or a faster Mach-8 "exotic propulsion
aircraft" using pulse-detonation or external-combustion technology to reach
hypersonic cruise speed.  

	The "doughnuts on a rope" exhaust contrail photographed last year
in Texas might be the product of a pulse-detonation type of engine, which
combusts its fuel in intermittent bursts.  An aircraft using external
combustion at high speeds would fit the description of a vehicle dubbed
"The Pumpkin Seed".  According to the FAS study, "there is also the
possibility that the possibility that SR-71 follows is hidden in plain"
within the National Aerospace Plane (NASP-also known as the X-30) project,
which is aimed at developing an air-breathing hypersonic craft that can
climb into low-Earth orbit from a runway in a single stage.  Knowledge
about propulsion and high-temperature structures gained in the NASP program
may have proven applicable to a Mach 6 to Mach 8 aircraft now flying.

	As many as a few dozen examples of a subsonic stealthy
reconnaissance aircraft called the TR-3A or "Black Manta," probably built
by Lockheed, may currently be in production or operational, the FAS analysts
say.

	Finally, it is highly probable that some one-or two-of-a-kind
stealth aircraft prototypes exist, the study concludes.  Such aircraft would
be built to test concepts intended the B-2 bomber, the TR-3A, the Navy's
canceled A-12 stealth attack plane (no relation to the SR-71's
predecessor), or other aircraft.  These planes could account for the number
of different mysterious aircraft described in sighting reports.

	Putting aside the romance sifting clues about secret airplanes
possessing wondrous characteristics, the authors of the FAS report raise a
broader fundamental question: With the Cold War behind us, what's the
effect of continuing to support such vast and costly secret defense
activities?

	The hard-nosed answer is provocative: "Secrecy tends to obstruct
technological development by inhibiting communication of useful
information, increasing costs, generating public mistrust, and all too
often promoting fraud and abuse," the study says.  "It is being used to
protect controversial programs from public awareness, more than from
hostile intelligence services."

	Recent major examples of secrecy masking incompetence include the
B-2 Stealth bomber program, which has been shot through with cost overruns
and performance shortcomings, and the disgraced Navy A-12 program, which
was killed after billions of dollars of misguided expenditures.

	The sentiment expressed by FAS is gathering broad support in
Congress and elsewhere.  Its message to the Pentagon is this: Unjustified
secrecy is anti-democratic.

PUMPKIN SEED

        Reports of a brightly glowing aircraft moving rapidly across the
night desert sky at high altitudes may be attributed to the use of external
combustion.  The exotic hypersonic propulsion method involves igniting fuel
released from ports girdling the plane's flattened, diamond-shaped body.
Exhaust expands in the conical area defined by its shock wave to produce
thrust.  Turbojets provide propulsion at low speeds.  Here, an exotic
propulsion demonstrator is seen as it transitions from a turbojet-type
accelerator to external-burning powers.  In theory, control at high speeds
could be provided by modulating the fuel flow to the propelling nozzles.
This aircraft may be unpiloted.

MOTHERSHIP

	Observers in California's Mojave Desert have reported sighting a
large aircraft resembling both the SR-71 and the XB-70, a 1960s Mach 3
bomber prototype. A flat area atop the plane's aft fuselage appears to
server as a mounting point for an unknown object-hence its nickname, "The
Mother Ship." Piggyback payloads could include an air-launched satellite
delivery vehicle, an antisatellite weapon, or a high-speed aircraft lacking
a low-speed propulsion system.  A vehicle of this kind could operate
discreetly from inland sites, and fly to overwater areas before
accelerating to maximum speed and launching its upper stages into orbit or
ultra-high-altitude flight.  Engineers familiar with aircraft structure
aerodynamics, and stealth design assisted in developing the drawing.

TR-3A BLACK MANTA
	
	Somewhat bigger and much quieter than the F-117A stealth attack
plane, a stealthy reconnaissance aircraft identified as the TR-3A may
already be in service, according to a report by the Federation of American
Scientists.  The subsonic, unarmed Black Manta's likely role would be to
loiter unobserved as far as 100 miles from its target, taking pictures and
conducting electronic eavesdropping.  Its mission is similar to that of the
U2-R, a version of the veteran spy plane still in use, but the Black
Manta's likely role would be to loiter unobserved as far as 100 miles from
its target, taking pictures and conducting electronic eavesdropping.  Its
mission is similar to that of the U-2R, a version of the veteran spy plane
still in use, but the Black Manta's likely role would be to loiter
unobserved as far as 100 miles from its target, taking pictures and
conducting electronic eavesdropping.  Its mission is similar to that that
of the U-2R, a version of the veteran spy plane still in use,  but the
Black Manta's targets would probably be unaware of its presence.  A small
fleet of Mantas (perhaps 20 to 30) may have been produced by Lockheed or
Northrop.


=============================================================================
	New interesting texts concerning topics ranging from UFO and
        Government coverups to Disease and Computer related information
	is on it's way in the next upcoming issue of the UMF Text Mag..
=============================================================================
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 Another file downloaded from:                                NIRVANAnet(tm)

 &TOTSE                510/935-5845   Walnut Creek, CA         Taipan Enigma
 Burn This Flag        408/363-9766       San Jose, CA                Zardoz
 realitycheck          415/666-0339  San Francisco, CA    Poindexter Fortran
 Governed Anarchy      510/226-6656        Fremont, CA             Eightball
 New Dork Sublime      805/823-1346      Tehachapi, CA               Biffnix
 Lies Unlimited        801/278-2699 Salt Lake City, UT            Mick Freen
 Atomic Books          410/669-4179      Baltimore, MD               Baywolf
 Sea of Noise          203/886-1441        Norwich, CT             Mr. Noise
 The Dojo              713/997-6351       Pearland, TX               Yojimbo
 Frayed Ends of Sanity 503/965-6747     Cloverdale, OR              Flatline
 The Ether Room        510/228-1146       Martinez, CA Tiny Little Super Guy
 Hacker Heaven         860/456-9266        Lebanon, CT         The Visionary
 The Shaven Yak        510/672-6570        Clayton, CA             Magic Man
 El Observador         408/372-9054        Salinas, CA         El Observador
 Cool Beans!           415/648-7865  San Francisco, CA        G.A. Ellsworth
 DUSK Til Dawn         604/746-5383   Cowichan Bay, BC         Cyber Trollis
 The Great Abyss       510/482-5813        Oakland, CA             Keymaster

                          "Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
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