Back in the 1984 I was flying over the top of this every day with students going out to learn to fly in the mountains at high altitude. Below us was the largest all wood and no metal platform in the world.
I had a chance to re think the whole thing and it really was a work of considerable thought. In the photo you'll see a B-52 on the test platform. What distinguishes this from other large wooden structures is the fact that it has NO materials other than wood. It would interfere with the testing process.
The aircraft on the platform weighed in about 180 000 pounds.
ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was the codename for a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Laboratories near Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[1]
ATLAS-I was the largest NNEMP (Non-Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse) generator in the world, designed to test the radiation hardening of strategic aircraft systems against EMP pulses from nuclear warfare. Built at a cost of $60 million, it was composed of two parts: a pair of powerful Marx generators capable of simulating the electromagnetic pulse effects of a high-altitude nuclear explosion (HANE) of the type expected during a nuclear war, and a giant wooden trestle built in a bowl-shaped arroyo, designed to elevate the test aircraft above ground interference and orient it below the pulse in a similar manner to what would be seen in mid-air.[2]
Trestle is the world's largest structure composed entirely of wood and glue laminate.[3]
I had a chance to re think the whole thing and it really was a work of considerable thought. In the photo you'll see a B-52 on the test platform. What distinguishes this from other large wooden structures is the fact that it has NO materials other than wood. It would interfere with the testing process.
The aircraft on the platform weighed in about 180 000 pounds.
ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was the codename for a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Laboratories near Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[1]
ATLAS-I was the largest NNEMP (Non-Nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse) generator in the world, designed to test the radiation hardening of strategic aircraft systems against EMP pulses from nuclear warfare. Built at a cost of $60 million, it was composed of two parts: a pair of powerful Marx generators capable of simulating the electromagnetic pulse effects of a high-altitude nuclear explosion (HANE) of the type expected during a nuclear war, and a giant wooden trestle built in a bowl-shaped arroyo, designed to elevate the test aircraft above ground interference and orient it below the pulse in a similar manner to what would be seen in mid-air.[2]
Trestle is the world's largest structure composed entirely of wood and glue laminate.[3]
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