----------------- FORT WORTH, Texas, Oct 3 - Lockheed Martin Corp said Friday it has been awarded a Naval Air Systems Command contract to study a variety of concepts for naval uninhabited fighters. The initial contract is expected to be completed within six months and is valued at $100,000. The company said it will be defining a family of uninhabited naval strike aircraft concepts that could provide the ability to launch from a variety of naval surface ships as well as ballistic- missile submarines. Lockheed Martin said it will define a short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) concept, a vertical attitude takeoff and landing (VATOL) concept, and a submarine-launched VATOL concept. The VATOL configuration would accomplish launch and recovery vertically using a jet-powered or rocket assisted lift. The study will include aircraft launch and recovery directly from decks, pads or elevators, or VATOL operations from alongside or off the stern of the ship. The VATOL and STOVL configuration will be capable of operation from various types of air-capable surface ships including destroyers, cruisers, small-deck amphibious ships and carriers. The third and most revolutionary configuration is a VATOL concept that would launch from the ballistic missile tubes of a submarine and be recovered on land or surface ships, Lockheed said. The uninhabited naval strike aircraft concepts will be based on missions for attacking high-value fixed targets or for suppressing enemy air defenses within a range of 600 miles, it said. 10-03-97 ---- --- DB 1.39/004487 * Origin: Volunteer BBS (423) 694-0791 V34+/VFC (1:218/1001.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EE500010 Date: 10/04/97 From: JIM SANDERS Time: 06:56am \/To: ALL (Read 0 times) Subj: News-778 Helicopter crashes in Caspian Sea, killing 21 MOSCOW --- October 3, 1997 10:45 p.m. EDT -- A large passenger helicopter ferrying oil workers to Azerbaijan plunged into the Caspian Sea, killing 21 people, a Russian news agency reported Friday. One person survived. The Russian-built Mi-8 helicopter crashed near the Gyuneshli offshore oilfield Thursday. The survivor was hospitalized in serious condition after being rescued from the craft, Azerbaijani oil official Gadir Aliyev told the Interfax news agency. The victims were working on a project to deliver Caspian Sea oil to an international consortium beginning later this month. Despite low accident rate, airline body warns of 'weekly' crash prospects ----------------------------------------------------------------- GENEVA -- The global airlines body IATA warned on Friday that in 12 years there could be an air disaster once a week unless the in- dustry takes urgent action to cut back an already low accident rate. With news of crashes hitting the front pages of newspapers and television screens with such regularity, officials are concerned the public in the early part of the 21st century might abandon air travel in droves. "An accident will occur every week in 2010 if current (traffic) growth and accident rates continue," said a statement from IATA, the Geneva and Montreal-based International Air Transport Association. The challenge for the industry is to reduce the present crash rate for modern, technologically advanced Western-built jets -- around 25 crashes a year -- by half, IATA Director General Pierre Jeanniot said recently. With air traffic expected to double over the next 12 years, a weekly crash -- or around 50 a year -- will be statistically inevit- able, if the current rate is not reduced, he said. "An accident will occur every week in 2010 if current (traffic) growth and accident rates continue." ---International Air Transport Association Yet the proportion of accidents to the number of flights and passengers carried is already the lowest since international com- mercial aviation first took off on a large scale with an earlier generation of aircraft in the 1950s. "The question is, how do you cut what is already a relatively low accident rate?" said IATA spokesman Tim Goodyear. The issue -- and IATA's program to tackle it -- is to be a key item on the agenda for the annual general meeting of the body's 250 member carriers in Amman, Jordan, next month. IATA officials point to figures showing that the steady intro- duction of new aircraft with sophisticated equipment over the past 20 years has brought a sharp decline in the accident and passenger death rates since the early 1960s. From a high of 1,800 deaths for every million travelers carried on scheduled international flights in 1962, the figure has dropped to an average of well under 100 a year over the past decade, they say. In 1995, there were 17 aircraft losses -- excluding planes built in the old Soviet Union or China -- eight of which involved fatali- ties, killing 383 passengers and 39 crew. ...the proportion of accidents to the number of flights and passengers carried is already the lowest since international commercial aviation first took off on a large scale with an earlier generation of aircraft in the 1950s. In 1996, when there were 11,711 Western-built jet aircraft in commercial service worldwide which flew 30 million hours, there were 19 losses -- of which 12 involved fatalities leaving a total of 1,189 passengers and 97 crew dead. These included a collision over New Delhi between a Saudi Arab- ian jumbo jet and a Kazakhstan airliner in which almost 350 people died and the still unexplained explosion on a Boeing 747 after take- off from New York, which killed all 230 people on board. Jeanniot, former chief of Air Canada , told a Vancouver sympos- ium in August that IATA's mission was to reduce the loss of planes by 50 percent by the year 2004. IATA, he said, was "not engaged on some desperate bid to make an unsafe industry safe, but on a quest, an unrelenting mission, to make what is a very safe industry even safer." If the weekly crash prediction became a reality "and if people's awareness of one incident had not begun to fade before the next one occurred" he said, the industry would rapidly lose credibility and the public's confidence. "Perception is reality, and if the public perceives us as being unsafe they could decide to avoid flying by the millions," Jeanniot declared. ------------ --- DB 1.39/004487 * Origin: Volunteer BBS (423) 694-0791 V34+/VFC (1:218/1001.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EE500011 Date: 10/04/97 From: CHARLES MIELKE Time: 11:56am \/To: ELVIS HARGROVE (Read 0 times) Subj: News-673 EH>Wasn't that the ship that quite often made you think you'd had a minor EH>explosion in the engine room? You mean the F-102? Yes, it would get compressor stalls ranging from a series of rapid chugs to full fledged "explosions in the engine room". First time I ever got one, it scared the heck out of me - not because of the noise, but because I had automatically associated compressor stalls with engine damage and the subsequent complete engine failure. The USAF used to have a magazine called Flying Safety, and they would print narrative summaries of major accidents. In the 50s and 60s, F-100s were experiencing beau coup engine failures, and the summaries would read "compressor stall, engine failure, ejection". This was the cause of my misconception. Turns out that it was the other way around. Engine failure of some sort would be accompanied by compressor stalls, in the F-100. Compressor stalls were quite common, with no damage to the engine, in the F-102, because of airflow problems due to duct design, and were usually associated with high altitude, and low airspeed, often occurring when the pilot maneuvered the aircraft in such a way as to further disrupt the airflow. EH> I'm not really all that familiar with the EH>Century series airplanes except for what Frank Walters has said about EH>them. He of course thought the Six Shooter was the best of them. (But EH>then he was addmittedly predjudiced....) Never heard of the Six Shooter - was that the F-86? I flew the E and F models, which were simply variants of the F-86A, at Nellis. The F-86Hs at Nellis were equipped with the 20mm. I guess it was the cannon, but I've forgotten the nomenclature. The A-7 resembled the F-86, and carried the 20 mm cannon, Gatling gun, M61A1A. I also flew the F-86L, which was the radar scope equipped interceptor. The F-86A, E, F, and H also had radar, but no scope. It was used purely for radar range inputs to the optical gunsight. EH>Back when I was flying aerobatics, seriously, I was making my daily EH>bread by fixing electronic game machines in bowling alleys and skating EH>rinks. Some of the kids playing those things had the damndest reflexes EH>I'd ever seen. We had one particular game which used a joystick to EH>'fly' the player's game piece through mountains and 'other' obstacles. EH>Those kids could zing through there at full bore. Heck, I had to EH>throttle back just to stay alive! EH>I sure wanted to take some of those kids out to the airport and EH>introduce them to aerobatics. With reflexes like that, just THINK what EH>they could've done! I seriously believe that these games are good training for future pilots, to help develop the near ATARI skills needed to fly the things and "center the dot", and like that. The A-7 was dual service use, Air Force and Navy. I, of course, never made a carrier landing, but after flying the JetFighter 1 and 2 simulators, I think I could make a real carrier landing in the A-7. The GIB would need lotsa guts. EH>-> We had a guy in our outfit that didn't like the EH>-> Aeronautical Charts - he carried a Texaco road EH>-> map. EH> I probably would have too. Old habits die hard.... Well, you know, I'm sure, what IFR REALLY means, don't you? .. --- * SLMR 2.1a * - Once you've made all the mistakes, you're an expert. --- WILDMAIL!/WC v4.12 * Origin: The Looking Glass * Greer, SC * (864) 848-1961 * (1:3639/2.0) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EE500012 Date: 10/04/97 From: JAY HANIG Time: 05:31pm \/To: CHARLES MIELKE (Read 0 times) Subj: News-750 30 Sep 97 16:28, Charles Mielke wrote to Jim Sanders: CM> I have heard of several cases, maybe quite a few, where CM> the co-pilot was quite deferential to the Captain rather CM> than speaking up when he should have. CM> Timidity in a co-pilot is NOT a desirable trait. I can recall being trained by the Chief Pilot of the part 135 operation I worked for when I was upgrading into the C-402. This old gent lived to fly.... had a somewhat unsuccessful USAF career (to others standards) because he passed up certain assignments that would have advanced his career in order to stay in flying slots. He was an incredible pilot, but he set some very high standards. He was somewhat less than affectionately known as Col. GD. I always dreaded flying with him because if you did something he would have done differently, the first thing you'd notice is his fingertips dancing in his lap. Shortly after that would come a deafening blast of verbal abuse that would leave you shaking. We used to joke about how his pilots would exit his cockpit with their hair looking like they'd been riding a motorcycle sideways. Not what you'd call an atmosphere conducive to learning..... Anyway, there I was, making screwup after screwup, waiting for the inevitable ax to fall. I couldn't concentrate because I was waiting for the roasting to begin. I see his fingers starting to tap his lap.....at last he starts in on me.....but only for a moment. I exploded, pulled off my hood and headset and slung them in his face with considerable force. He looked surprised, told me to take him home, and didn't say another word. Naturally, the whole flight back to Rock Hill, I just *knew* I was going to be canned. FWIW, I flew the C-402 better than I'd flown it up until that time and made a squeaker of a landing. He didn't say a word. Well, he didn't fire me. We went up a couple more times in the 402 and then he signed me off. And I never had him verbally abuse me again. To tell you the truth, I think he saw that I had murder in my heart and that he was very close to experiencing the ejection seat. :) I tell you, when I rode with less experienced pilots, I made it a point *not* to abuse them, thought I did have exacting standards: "Did they clear us to 8,020 feet?.....Get back down there." Jay --- GoldED/386 2.50+ * Origin: If It's Not Boeing, I'm Not Going. (1:379/41.5) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EE500013 Date: 10/05/97 From: ELVIS HARGROVE Time: 09:11am \/To: CHARLES MIELKE (Read 0 times) Subj: News-673 -> Never heard of the Six Shooter - was that the F-86? Nah, the F-106. Frank was fond of it to some extreme! -> I seriously believe that these games are good training -> for future pilots, to help develop the near ATARI skills -> needed to fly the things and "center the dot", and like that. I totally agree. It also developes a visual input sense which uses peripheral vision to its best advantage. -> JetFighter 1 and 2 simulators, I think I could make a real -> carrier landing in the A-7. The GIB would need lotsa guts. Hee Hee! Whatta they call that net he can use if he needs to 'depart' his station? Chicken net? Takes brass ones to stand there and watch tons of airplane bearing down on you.... -> Well, you know, I'm sure, what IFR REALLY means, don't you? Yep! I follow roads. ^..^ --- FidoPCB v1.5 beta-'j' * Origin: BOO! Board Of Occult, Rio Grande Valley Texas (1:397/6) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EEA00000 Date: 10/04/97 From: UWE WOLFRAM Time: 09:17pm \/To: JIM SANDERS (Read 0 times) Subj: Re: dayton (whale) Hi Jim! JS> > Hope to see a picture of it someplace someday. JS> JS> I have two pics in .GIF format and one in .JPG JS> JS> IF you can receive attached files by E-Mail, I can send JS> all three copies. I need your E-mail address and JS> picture format that you can view..... My EMail is routed through an Internet-Fido-Gateway, so I don't know if mail attachments will work. Let's give it a try and send me the smallest of the three pics - I'll leave you a note on success. JPG and GIF is alright. Since I already have to deal with quite an amount of spam I don't see a problem to publish my EMail-address here :-) uwo@zaphod.infox.com Thanx Uwe --- CrossPoint v3.02 R * Origin: to fly or not to fly, that is not the question (2:2453/30.205) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EEA00001 Date: 10/04/97 From: JIM SANDERS Time: 11:27am \/To: RICHARD BRICE (Read 0 times) Subj: Re: aps-42 RICHARD, In a message dated 10-02-97 you wrote ... > Bendix APS-42, yes. Worked great when you didn't need it but when you > did it seemed there was something wrong with it. That's the difference > between vacumn tubes and transistors. I set up the school teaching that piece of equipment, helped write the manuals and was OIC of the section for a bit... We only had vacuum tubes at that time... You should have worked on a tube type Q-23 or Q-24.. They would work on the ground and then go out when you climbed above 8,000... We had Q-23s in the back end of B-25 for training and Q-24s in T-29s. > States. I happened to be at ABQ (Kirtland AFB) which was a joint > military/civilian airport, and still is. Been in there with my Piper Arrow from Florida. Carried a cooler of fresh Gulf shrimp to my son and his wife. Then we would have a shrimp feast. :) > The terrain between Reno and Sacremento for a person not route qualfied > would be a killer. I flew out of Mather twice as permanent party and three times as a student. Struck by lightening while making a bomb run on Tonapah range.. In a B-50, it struck the nose 12 inches from my nose as I made the run. I guess that Tonapah range is is now what they call Groom Lake area. Some real rocks between there and Sacamenyo... I hated to see Mather close and give the base to the derelicts.. > me enough for me to worry about loosing the job. I suppose I have had > about every kind of threat thrown at me. Mostly we'll get you > transferred. My response, "have at it." Sound a bit like me after I retired... Alway, "I need a Florida fishing trip..." -=* Jim Sanders *=- === * MsgView V1.13 [R028] * Where were you when the blivot hit the Ball Turret? --- DB 1.39/004487 * Origin: Volunteer BBS (423) 694-0791 V34+/VFC (1:218/1001.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EEA00002 Date: 10/04/97 From: JIM SANDERS Time: 11:27am \/To: CHARLES MIELKE (Read 0 times) Subj: Re: news-673 CHARLES, In a message dated 10-02-97 you wrote ... > We had a guy in our outfit that didn't like the > Aeronautical Charts - he carried a Texaco road > map. Aerocharts often did not have some items.... I ooften used a Gulf road map to help locate the SAC RBS train... The hard to ever find was one at the arsenal located at Milan, Tennessee... The first 21 aircraft missed it by 5 miles as a town was omitted from the sectional. :( Good old Gulf had it... -=* Jim Sanders *=- === * MsgView V1.13 [R028] * ....he will fly the fighters, like daddy use to do! --- DB 1.39/004487 * Origin: Volunteer BBS (423) 694-0791 V34+/VFC (1:218/1001.1) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 196 AVIATION Ref: EEA00003 Date: 10/04/97 From: JIM SANDERS Time: 11:27am \/To: BILL WUNSCH (Read 0 times) Subj: Re: news-753 BILL, In a message dated 10-01-97 you wrote ... > That's what is really said??? And every light airplane is a Piper > Cub... I seldom try to interpret this news... But I do like to pass it on to those that do not get it. Our TV and daily rag skips or gives a bad report.. -=* Jim Sanders *=- ... Singing, Zoot Suits, Parachutes and Wings of silver, too === * MsgView V1.13 [R028] * --- DB 1.39/004487 * Origin: Volunteer BBS (423) 694-0791 V34+/VFC (1:218/1001.1)