China's stealth jet -J-20

On Jan 12, 4:52*pm, Daryl Hunt wrote:
On 1/12/2011 3:13 PM, Andrew Swallow wrote:



On 12/01/2011 18:11, Jim Wilkins wrote:
On Jan 12, 8:31 am, wrote:
...
Not sure how true it is BUT I live about a mile from Filton
and in an
area where there were a lot of people who worked on the
project. When
new neighbours moved in next door about ten years ago they
started
stripping wallpaper and found a thin wire similar to a radio
aerial
running round the picture rail of a back bedroom...........
One of the
previous owners was an aircraft engineer.
--
Malcolm

That sounds like an old shortwave antenna, not one for VHF or UHF
aircraft or military bands.
http://www.hamuniverse.com/shortwaveantenna.html

jsw

Shortwave can reach spy central near Moscow.

Andrew Swallow

Or just about anywhere else. *I doubt if it was monitored then as
it is now looking for code words to trigger. *I doubt they had
the capability unless there was a huge room full of people
involved each listing on a different freq.

Used to be that way. Pfc's with a tape recorder were cheap.

Il 12/01/2011 20:24, Malcolm ha scritto:

I have an update anyway - spoke to my neighbour about an hour ago and
mentioned this thread. He told me that after a visit from some security
people they said they thought likely that it dated from WWII. The BAC
works at Filton were of course involved in producing the Bristol
Blenheim and Bristol Beaufighters as well as repairing damaged aircraft
so it is quite possible that the aerial was something to do with
espionage then. Who knows.

*Really* who knows... AFAIK, WWII brit radio counterintelligence was on
par with WWII radio intelligence, implying that if was actually a german
clandestine radio, surely ended rather short-lived, and not discovered
50 or so years later; I also strongly suspect that this "is a WWII
thing" official interpretation is much more of a CYA than a cover-up....

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

I have an update anyway - spoke to my neighbour about an hour ago and
mentioned this thread. He told me that after a visit from some security
people they said they thought likely that it dated from WWII. The BAC
works at Filton were of course involved in producing the Bristol
Blenheim and Bristol Beaufighters as well as repairing damaged aircraft
so it is quite possible that the aerial was something to do with
espionage then. Who knows.

What makes you think it was a transmitting aerial??
It was very common in the early days of radio to have external aerials
for receivers, quite often down the garden, but also around a room,
often on the picture rail. It just sounds like a 'neat' installation
that was discovered.

Jeff

On 01/12/2011 07:01 PM, Malcolm wrote:
In , Andrew Swallow
writes
On 11/01/2011 18:53, Dan wrote:
{snip}


Let them steal a chip design with a built in flaw such that it can be
remotely commanded to cause major system failure. Essentially one could
get the Red Chinese to construct an airplane with a built in bomb.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

The danger with that one is that our own aeroplanes have the save flaw.

Andrew Swallow

Not necessarily. Remember Concorde and Concordski? There were strong
rumours that the Russians had agents who acquired plans/details for
Concorde. The two aircraft were certainly fairly similar. The UK
and/or French got wind of it and fed in some duff data. Hence the crash
and demise of Concordski.

Not sure how true it is BUT I live about a mile from Filton and in an
area where there were a lot of people who worked on the project. When
new neighbours moved in next door about ten years ago they started
stripping wallpaper and found a thin wire similar to a radio aerial
running round the picture rail of a back bedroom........... One of the
previous owners was an aircraft engineer.

There were a host of stories about Eastern European/Russian spying in
the late 'seventies/early 'eighties.

The one I remember best was the one about the house inhabited by Russian
construction workers that overlooked the Baldock DTI (Now Ofcom) radio
station and where they are supposed to have found a ton of clever
equipment when the occupiers decamped one dark night.

As the site has no intelligence function it seems a strange target when
RAF Chicksands and the 'elephant cage' was just up the road...

Oh, no proof of anything was ever published...

--
William Black

"Any number under six"

The answer given by Englishman Richard Peeke when asked by the Duke of
Medina Sidonia how many Spanish sword and buckler men he could beat
single handed with a quarterstaff.

On 01/13/2011 04:22 AM, Daryl Hunt wrote:

I doubt they had the capability
unless there was a huge room full of people involved each listing on a
different freq.

SIGINT agencies used to employ thousands of radio operators...

--
William Black

"Any number under six"

The answer given by Englishman Richard Peeke when asked by the Duke of
Medina Sidonia how many Spanish sword and buckler men he could beat
single handed with a quarterstaff.

On Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:31:00 +0000, Malcolm wrote:

In article , Andrew Swallow
writes
On 11/01/2011 18:53, Dan wrote:
{snip}


Let them steal a chip design with a built in flaw such that it can be
remotely commanded to cause major system failure. Essentially one
could get the Red Chinese to construct an airplane with a built in
bomb.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

The danger with that one is that our own aeroplanes have the save flaw.

Andrew Swallow

Not necessarily. Remember Concorde and Concordski? There were strong
rumours that the Russians had agents who acquired plans/details for
Concorde. The two aircraft were certainly fairly similar. The UK
and/or French got wind of it and fed in some duff data. Hence the crash
and demise of Concordski.

Uhm, no - not even close.
The Tu 144 has a configuration closer to the Lockheed L-2000 design for the
U.S. funded SST than the Concorde.
The Tu-144 loss at the Paris Air Show was due to maneuvering the airplane
outside of its known limits, leading to both a loss of control and engine
stall/stagnation due to the airflow through the inlet system being disturbed.
( Whether the airplane was being maneuvered too aggressively by the
pilot to put on a good show or to avoid an Armee de l'Air Mirage is in
some dispute, but is ultimately irrelevant.)
What led to the Tu 144 being dropped out of what passed for commercial
service in the U.S.S.R was its poor operating economy.


Not sure how true it is BUT I live about a mile from Filton and in an
area where there were a lot of people who worked on the project. When
new neighbours moved in next door about ten years ago they started
stripping wallpaper and found a thin wire similar to a radio aerial
running round the picture rail of a back bedroom........... One of the
previous owners was an aircraft engineer.

Why would the Soviets try to steal secrets about the (Very nice but never
viable - much too short ranged for proper international airline use)
Concorde when there was much better supersonic cruise technology
to go after? (XB-70, A-12/SR-71, SCAT, LES)


--
Pete Stickney
Failure is not an option
It comes bundled with the system