Nick said:

>Seriously, this proposal, if taken to completion, could see that long-neglected Hangar at your
>workplace getting a new lick of paint, especially if NASA gets stuck with one of them as a "test model"...

Actually Nick, since we had you over at our place, we've moved to Sunnyvale and are now within walking distance of Hanger-1. It's a mixed blessing being so close to Moffett Field. It's nice being close to work but sometimes it can be a bit noisy. A month ago there was this hotshot F-18 pilot doing "touch and goes" out of Moffett Field. He must of have been about 300 feet over my house and going Mach 0.9999 (I envy those guys). I enjoyed watching him flyby but still wished he'd have his fun over someone else's house.

Concerning Hanger-1: NASA Ames inherited Hanger-1 along with the rest of Moffett Field when the Navy left. Hanger-1 is a venerable building and significant in the history of aviation. Hanger-1 was also painted and repainted for many decades with leaded paint and contaminated with all sorts of nasty stuff, e.g. PCBs, asbestos, you name it. This is par for Moffett Field which is a Super Fund site mainly due to ground water pollution from nearby defunct microchip fab plants and pollution from decades of use by the Navy. There was briefly some talk about tearing down Hanger-1. Naturally there was a collective gasp of dismay from almost everybody who works at Ames or lives nearby. Fortunately it was determined that tearing down Hanger-1 would cost almost as much as restoring it (the wreckage would have been toxic waste and expensive to dispose of). About a week ago, the roads around Hanger-1 were closed off. Hanger-1 is now surrounded with large cranes and all sorts of heavy equipment. Hanger-1 is currently undergoing restoration (Hurray!!). It was about time too. Hanger-1 was getting really tatty with rust stains forming, etc. They wouldn't even allow us to go inside anymore because of the alledged pollution (silly nonsense). The interior of Hanger-1 is actually quite beautiful (It's the closest thing that we have to a cathedral in aerospace). The first thing one notices when going inside Hanger-1 is the sound of bird calls. The place is a giant aviary and home to many wild birds, e.g. swallows, pigeons, etc. I hope the restoration effort doesn't scare away the birds.

Concerning the Lockheed blimp: Lockheed has been pushing the idea of using a blimp as a military communications platform for over 20 years. The idea is about as idiot now as it was back then. Let's think about this for a moment: We want to make our millitary Command Control and Communications dependant upon something that is slow, impossible to hide and easily destroyed by a low cost sea launched missile or RPV. We want to use this sort of technology to replace present day military communications satellites which are destructable only through advanced ballistic missile technology coupled with nuclear weapons. Sure, yeah right..... Our tax dollars at work.

Gary