Comments on: US Air Force Wooden Test Rig

By: John Nagle

John Nagle — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 02:42:41 +0000

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.

By: William C Bonner

William C Bonner — Sat, 11 Jun 2005 15:20:57 +0000

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.

By: John S.

John S. — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 14:16:40 +0000

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.

By: L . Lerusse

L . Lerusse — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 05:54:21 +0000

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

By: PapaPenguin

PapaPenguin — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 02:26:39 +0000

The “unusual test area” is actually a nuclear weapons underground storage area.

Info at http://cryptome.org/kumsc-eyeball.htm

By: PapaPenguin

PapaPenguin — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 01:30:23 +0000

The solar experiment info at:

http://www.sandia.gov/Renewable_Energy/solarthermal/NSTTF/index.htm

Can be seen here:

Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

By: PapaPenguin

PapaPenguin — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 00:33:26 +0000

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).

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 23:58:32 +0000

It just goes to show what can be accomplished with time, effort, science, and a LOT of government funding.

By: Gretchen

Gretchen — Wed, 08 Jun 2005 23:46:10 +0000

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!