CALIFORNIA YANKEE

B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber Crash Video & Technical Report

Watch as a $1.4 billion B-2 Spirit bomber crashes and explodes on takeoff at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, February 23, 2008.

The crash was caused by water in the aircraft's sensors. Moisture in three port transducer units "distorted data introduced by a B-2 Spirit's air data system" which led to flawed information entering the bomber's flight control computers. The aircraft was reacting to inaccurate airspeed and a "perceived" negative angle of attack. This resulted in an "uncommanded 30 degree nose-high pitch-up on takeoff."

Major Ryan Link and Captain Justin Grieve, the aircraft's two pilots, were unable to regain control and safely ejected just as the aircraft stalled and its left wing impacted the ground. Link and Grieve both suffered injuries during ejection, with Grieve suffering compression fractures to his spine.

The report points to the inaccurate readings as contributing factors, adding that ineffective communication of critical information about a technique used to remove moisture from the sensors also contributed. It's possible that all the pilots had to do to avert the accident was turn on the pitot heat prior to performing air data calibrations. But the suggested technique was not part of checklist procedures.

It was the first-ever B-2 crash and followed 75,000 hours of loss-free service.

Red Alert - Threat Level Raised To Severe

The Associated Press reports the U.S. government has raised the threat warning to red, the highest level, for commercial flights from Britain to the United States in response to a terror plot in London:

"We believe that these arrests (in London) have significantly disrupted the threat, but we cannot be sure that the threat has been entirely eliminated or the plot completely thwarted," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in announcing that the threat level for flights from Britain to the United States has been raised to the highest "severe or red" level.

"To defend further against any remaining threat from this plot, we will also raise the threat level to high, or orange, for all commercial aviation operating in or destined for the United States," Chertoff said.

[. . .]

"Due to the nature of the threat revealed by this investigation, we are prohibiting any liquids, including beverages, hair gels, and lotions from being carried on the airplane."

It is believed to be the first time the red alert level in the Homeland Security warning system has been invoked, although there have been brief periods in the past when the orange level was applied.

Earlier, the BBC reported Scotland Yard foiled a terrorist plot to blow up planes in mid-flight from the UK to the US:

It is thought the plan was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on aircraft in hand luggage.

Police have arrested about 18 people in the London area after an anti-terrorist operation lasting several months.

Security at all airports in the UK has been tightened and delays are reported. MI5 has raised the UK threat level to critical - the highest possible.

According to MI5's website, critical threat level means "an attack is expected imminently and indicates an extremely high level of threat to the UK".

Passengers will not be allowed to take any hand luggage on to any flights in the UK:

Only the barest essentials - including passports and wallets - will be allowed to be carried on board in transparent plastic bags.

Sky News reports the terrorists plotted to blow up as many as 20 planes over UK and US cities using liquid explosives that might be missed during the x-ray screening of such luggage.

With news like this, and Hezbollah trying to infiltrate the U.S., one can't help but wonder about things like the Egyptian students who went missing after entering the country.

Mark Noonan has it right:

It is either fight these people until we have secured total victory, or go down to total defeat. There's no middle road here - no way to negotiate our differences away.

More at Riehl World View, Protien Wisdom, In The Bullpen, and Ace Of spades HQ

Remembering PATCO

Yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration imposed new contract terms on U.S. air traffic controllers after 10 months of bargaining failed to produce a new agreement.

The new terms include lower starting salaries for new hires and new rules to boost worker productivity.
The FAA, under pressure to cut spending and operate more like a business, expects the contract terms to save nearly $2 billion over five years.

According to Reuters, relations between the FAA and controllers, at their lowest level since 1981 when President Ronald Reagan fired the thousands of illegally striking controllers who refused an order to return to work.

I was on the West coast visiting my family when the controllers went out on strike. I was very happy that President Reagan fired the illegal strikers, kept the planes flying, and enabled me to return to the East coast. I have always believed that working for the government is a privilege and that public servants should not have a right to strike.

Air Force Looking For Alternative To Oil-Based Fuel

The New York Times reports that the U.S. Air Force will test blending traditional crude oil-based jet fuel with a synthetic liquid made first from natural gas, and, eventually, from coal:

By late this summer, on the hard lake beds of the Mojave Desert, where the Air Force tests its most secret and high-performance aircraft, a lumbering B-52 is scheduled to take off in an experiment in which two of the giant bomber's engines will burn jet fuel produced not from crude oil but from natural gas. The plane's six other engines will burn traditional jet fuel — just in case.

The Air Force uses half of the fuel consumed by the U.S. government. The Air Force's share amounted to 3.2 billion gallons of aviation fuel in fiscal year 2005.

The Air Force consumed 3.2 billion gallons of aviation fuel in fiscal year 2005, which was 52.5 percent of all fossil fuel used by the government, Pentagon statistics show. The total Air Force bill for jet fuel last year topped $4.7 billion.

If the experiments with the synthetic fuel works, the Air Force planes to buy 100 million gallons in the next two years.

According to the Times, oil prices above $40 to $45 per barrel make a blend with synthetic fuels a cost-effective alternative to oil-based jet fuel.

The experimental fuel is being supplied by Syntroleum Corporation, which has provided synthetic fuel for testing by the Departments of Energy, Transportation and Defense since 1998.

The cost per gallon of the test fuel will be expensive. Syntroleum can produce 42 gallons of synthetic fuel from 10,000 cubic feet of natural gas. The raw materials cost about $70. but if the military moves ahead with using the synthetic fuels, the Syntroleum technology could be used by factories elsewhere to produce the same 42 gallons of fuel from just $10 worth of coal.

The Air Force is working with the Automotive Tank Command of the Army, in Detroit, and the Naval Fuels Laboratory. The research could result in a common synthetic fuel for the entire military.

One hundred gallons is a mere drop in the bucket of the 3.2 billion gallons used by the Air Force last year. But it is certainly a step in the right direction.

C-5 Cargo Plane Crashes

The Associated Press reports A C-5 cargo plane crashed near Dover Air Force Base early Monday. There was no immediate word on fatalities.

The plane, the military's largest, went down about 6:45 a.m., said Allen Metheny, assistant director in the state Department of Public Safety.

[. . .]

The plane broke into three pieces, with the cockpit separated from the fuselage and a wing shattered. It wasn't immediately clear whether the plane was taking off or landing when it crashed.

There have been six previous C-5 crashes since 1970. One involved hundreds of infants during Operation Baby Lift:

On April 4, 1975, a C-5A (No. 68-0218) carrying 328 people (including 17 crew members), crashed immediately after takeoff from Saigon-Tan Son Nhut Airport, Vietnam. The aircraft was en route to Luzon Island-Clark Field, Philippians. One hundred and fifty-five people died, including five crew members and many Vietnamese children and 38 American women.

Laser Injures Airliner Pilot

A pilot flying a Delta Air Lines jet was injured by a laser that illuminated the cockpit of the aircraft. The incident as the airliner approached Salt Lake City International Airport last week. According to the Washington Times the plane's pilots reported that they saw a laser beam inside the cockpit.

The Transportation Security Administration is investigating, trying to determine the cause of the incident.

This not the first time an airliner pilot has been exposed to a laser while flying:

John Mazor, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association, said commercial pilots have been exposed to laser illumination.

"The Air Line Pilots Association has received reports in the past of incidents where lasers penetrated cockpits and, in at least one case, caused injury," Mr. Mazor said.

Several years ago, a pilot flying into a Western airport was hit by a light from a laser light show. The causes of the other incidents are not known, he said.

Military pilots have also been subjected to laser light:

In one case, Naval Lt. Cmdr. Jack Daly and Canadian helicopter pilot Capt. Pat Barnes suffered eye injuries hours after an aerial surveillance mission to photograph a Russian merchant ship that had been shadowing the ballistic- submarine USS Ohio in Washington state's Strait of Juan de Fuca.

During congressional testimony in 1999, Cmdr. Daly warned of laser threats to pilots:

"Numerous documented cases regarding the use of lasers against aircraft, civilians and military personnel exist, as well as does an all-too-lengthy list of the injuries that have resulted from the accidental and intentional misuse of these devices," Cmdr. Daly told a House Armed Services subcommittee.

He noted that incidents of lasers being directed at commercial airliners during takeoff and landings have raised fears that "this in fact may be a new form of terrorism."

Ailiner Defense Sucessfully Tested

Laurence Simon, at The Command Post, informs us about a successful test of the Flight Guard airliner defense system. Haaretz reports:

Monday's test was supervised by the air force and involved a Boeing 737 owned by Elta, an IAI company, on which the three main elements of the system were mounted: the radar, a control center and special infrared flares, which are invisible to the naked eye. The Elta-made radar spotted the Strella SA7 the moment it was launched - though it was a virtual launch - and the control system launched the flares. The virtual s chased after the flares as they flew away from the plane, which continued on its flight path.

Last October, before I was a contributor to The Command Post, I posted that El Al, Israel's national airline, has installed the Flight Guard anti- system on some of its airliners. I don't understand why this product isn't being installed on all ailiners. I'm sure it's expensive, but it won't cost the ailines as much as having an airliner brought down by an evil doer using a shoulder fired missle.

Private Space

CNN reports that on June 21, Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne will attempt another first for a private spacecraft - reach 100 an altitude of kilometers.

SpaceShipOne and its pilot are to be carried by a jet called the White Knight to an altitude of about 50,000 feet. The craft will then separate from the jet and glide for several seconds before its rocket engines are ignited. In 80-seconds SpaceShipOne will reach Mach 3, three times the speed of sound, and into space. It will cruise for three minutes beyond Earth's atmosphere.

In Scaled Composites' news release Burt Rutan states:

Since Yuri Gagarin and Al Shepard’s epic flights in 1961, all space missions have been flown only under large, expensive Government efforts. By contrast, our program involves a few, dedicated individuals who are focused entirely on making spaceflight affordable. Without the entrepreneur approach, space access would continue to be out of reach for ordinary citizens. The SpaceShipOne flights will change all that and encourage others to usher in a new, low-cost era in space travel.

This flight won't win the X-Prize. That $10 million will be awarded to the first team that privately finances, builds and launches a spaceship, able to carry three people to 100 kilometers (62.5 miles), returns safely to Earth, and repeats the launch with the same ship within 2 weeks. There are over 20 teams competing for the X-Prize, but SpaceShipOne has made the most progress.

Private Space Flight Moves A Step Closer

Reuters reports that the Federal Aviation Administration issued a license for a commercially sponsored suborbital manned flight to Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites.

With the license Scaled Composites' is free to begin test-flying SpaceShipOne at the edge of space, an altitude of about 60 miles.

SpaceShipOne broke the sound barrier on its first powered flight on Dec. 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers historic flight over Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. In a more recent unpowered flight SpaceShipOne featured a thermal protection system, suggesting that more powered flights will occur soon.

Scaled Composites is competing in the X Prize, a privately run contest to send a reusable craft carrying three people on a suborbital round-trip reaching an altitude of 62.5 miles. The first group to accomplish that and repeat the feat within two weeks will be awarded $10 million.

Twenty-seven contestants representing seven countries have already registered for the X Prize contest, modeled on the $25,000 Orteig Prize that Charles Lindbergh claimed by flying solo from New York to Paris in 1927.

UPDATE: SpaceShipOne, in its second powered flight, reached an altitude of 105,000 ft. and a speed of approximately Mach 2.

"105,000 feet down, 223,000 feet to go!" exclaimed an excited onlooker, as he watched the ship fly overhead.

UPDATE II: At VodkaPundit Will Collier sums up the licensing of SpaceShipOne nicely, posting Heinlein would be proud.

Chasity Belt Set Off Airport Security Alarm

Kevin Aylward, at Wizbang, brings a new issue to our attention.

USA Today reports that a Woman's chastity belt set off an airport security alarm in Athens.

According to USA Today the woman was allowed to fly on to London on the pilot's responsibility.

The woman needs to investigate an all plastic model that won't set off airpot alarms.

Maybe the TSA could hire the Athens airport security screeners. The TSA doesn't even detect stun guns or knives.