US Air Force Wooden Test Rig
This massive structure is apparently a US Air Force test stand and is one of the world’s largest wooden structure. Military planes are parked on it and their resistance to things like lightning and EMP are tested (Or maybe they drive stunt cars really fast off the end for fun…). I couldn’t find much more information about this on the ‘net, so if you find any post it here.
Update: This website describes some of the other sights at Kirtland Air Force Base. Including rocket sled, crazy solar power experiments and more.
Thanks: Ned Hastings & Chris
I used to visit all these cool places at Sandia Natl Lab/Kirtland when I was a field engineer in New Mexico and these researchers used National Instruments products. COOL!! I even planned to post the photovoltaic solar array to this site and had just saved the link two days ago…but didn’t get it sent in in time. This solar array (http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=35.029821,-106.557630&spn=0.005761,0.006684&t=k&hl=en) is really cool. Each of the mirrors are controlled remotely and the photo cells are instrumented for remote measurement.
Thanks for the link to the website with the details…brings back fun memories!
It just goes to show what can be accomplished with time, effort, science, and a LOT of government funding.
Plane coming into land here:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
An unusual test area here:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
The mountains to the East also look like a weapons storage area (heavily fenced area, with bunkers at different levels).
The solar experiment info at:
http://www.sandia.gov/Renewable_Energy/solarthermal/NSTTF/index.htm
Can be seen here:
Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth
The “unusual test area” is actually a nuclear weapons underground storage area.
Info at http://cryptome.org/kumsc-eyeball.htm
I heard about a wood structure for EMP test. As it could not contains any magnetic materials, they had to use copper nails here it seems it is all wood.
Some more info on the Trestle Test Stand: http://www.cconstruction.net/history.htm
I work at Sandia near all of this stuff (in fact I’m within 1/4 mile of it all right now). The wood structure is ENTIRELY wooden (even the pegs holding it together). I don’t know much more about it other than what’s already been said. But, yes, it is used for EMP testing. It looks like an unfinished roller coaster to me.
The “unusual test area” isn’t used to store nuclear weapons, although it used to. (From what I hear there was also a bomb shelter for high gov’t officials, including the President). Now it’s just…. storage.
It’s funy that I came across this picture in my RSS feed today, I flew through ABQ yesterday, and was wondering what the weird looking structure was.
That’s called “Trestle”, and it’s been covered in detail in Aviation Week. Here’s one discussion, with pictures:
http://www.brookings.edu/FP/projects/nucwcost/trestle.htm
A full 3D model is available:
http://www.lasergeomatics.com/projects/KAFBTrestleProject.cfm
Trestle itself isn’t secret, just big.