Alrighty, if you like, have a go at this one.
Last night (night of Friday Aug 21 to morning of Staurday Aug 22, 2010)
I find myself in an old warehouse-type of storage building; large, open interior space, wood structure, concrete floor.
It is during the daylight hours; possibly late morning to early afternoon.
I am with a group of people, there are maybe 6-10 of us, I recognize some of them as folks I used to work with when I was part of an aerospace
development organization many years ago. (See some of my prior posts on this subject)
We are all really happy to be in this warehouse. We are looking for something and this place is kind of a treasure trove of old and "forgotten"
military and scientific "high Tech".
The general feeling we all share is that we have at our disposal the parts, plans, test data, prototype designs, and maybe even an assortment of spare
parts sufficient to build a significant portion of an SR-71 aircraft.
Somehow, this boon relates to our efforts to build a private spacecraft, and represents an opportunity for us to "leap frog" possibly years of
research, and millions of dollars in R&D relating to hyper-sonic flight at extremely high altitudes.
I lift the end of a dusty old canvas tarp, and I pick up a large bolt with a nut attached. The bolt-head is a good 2 inches across, and the nut and
bolt-head both, are at least 1 inch thick. Both are a whitish metal and together they weigh less than one pound. There appears to be the capital
letter "R" in raised metal on the top of the bolthead. Noticing this, I put the bolt and nut in my trouser pocket.
As I am about to re-join the rest of the group, I notice an old drawing on age-yellowed paper. It is a very rough pencil sketch of what appears to be
a precursor to what we now know as the SR-71 Blackbird.
This version appears to be much closer in lineage to the Flying Wing aircraft, also developed by Northrup. In fact, it most closely resembles the
"Blended-Wing-in-Fuselage" designs recently shown by Boeing, but much flatter and more angular.
I leave the drawing (in fact, I hide the drawing under some other old papers) and re-join the rest of the group who have gathered in another part of
the building, which appears to be a, now disused, cafeteria or mess area, for a late afternoon lunch
And then I awake.
Have at!