European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 21, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 6 a a a the stars and stripes tuesday August 21,1990 Box May help group solve mystery of Earhart flight fort Walton Beach Fla. Apr a Metal Box found in the South Pacific initially dismissed As junk May be a promising clue to the disappearance of Pilot Amelia Earhart say members of an organization trying to unravel the mystery. Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan vanished without a Trace 53 years ago while attempting to make an around the world bight. Tom Willi and Tom Gannon both retired military Biers living in this Florida Panhandle City used 1930s navigation techniques to plot Earhart a Likely course. They persuaded the International group for historic aircraft recovery or Tighary based in Wilmington del., to mount a $250,000 expedition last year to the Pacific atoll Nikuma Roro and nearby Mckean Island. Tighary a 28-Mcmbcr team returned with several items but the most intriguing is the aluminium Box now identified As a navigators Bookcase. The Box about i foot by 1 foot by 10 inches was buried in Sand on the atoll and discovered with someone using a Metal Detector. Gannon said he believes the Bookcase came from Earhart a plane. A a it a More than a promising Lead. Its a convincer a he told the Northwest Florida daily news. But Tighary a president Patricia thrasher was More cautious. A we Arentt ready to say a this is it Tada a a she said. A we can to do that until we see a photograph of it in the Earhart air plane or find somebody who says a yeah i installed one for  but we Are very excited about  a researchers have determined the Bookcase was manufactured by consolidated aircraft corp. Of san Diego for by Catalina flying boats used to resupply a coast guard navigation and communications base on now uninhabited Nikuma Roro during world War h. However Tighary reported in its August newsletter that wartime pays carried a later Model Bookcase and that the one found by the Earhart expedition had mounting holes and fixtures that a Are _ All wrong for installation in a by. The researchers have speculated that Noonan could have bought or borrowed a Bookcase from the Navy and modified it for use in Earhart a two engine Lockheed Electra. Early versions of the Bookcase were available Earhart in 1936 and 1937, thrasher said. Earhart and Noonan vanished in july 1937. The organization has been unable to find any Earhart photographs or official sketches of the Interior of the missing Electra. A the focus for photographers was always Earhart and that meant the cockpit not the Back of the aircraft where the navigators Bookcase would be been a she said. Thrasher said the group plans to return to Nikuma Roro in september 1991 to look for the missing plane with Remote underwater search equipment. A if its where we think the air plane is going to be Down about 2,000 feet a thrasher said. At least 13 killed in crashes of Small planes in 3 states by the associated press two Small planes plunged into the Ocean after a Southern California midair collision killing at least two people while bad weather was blamed in a Wisconsin air wreck that killed seven and a Montana crash that killed four. Divers were to resume work monday morning to recover remaining bodies off Long Beach Harbor in California after two bodies were found in the submerged wreckage of one plane sunday. The victims names were withheld until family could be notified. The seven people who died in the Watertown wis., crash late saturday were relatives including four children. Their plane crashed in a Cornfield shortly after Lak Colf and was discovered the next Day. Four people died sunday night in the Montana crash of a Lwin engine Jane at the Kah spell City Airport during a rainstorm officials said the plane flipped while trying to land in rain and heavy wind. Victims identities were not immediately available. It was not known what brought the two planes in California so close together sunday afternoon in mostly Clear skies but a witness said they appeared to be mane vering playfully As if intentionally dodging each other. A it was terrible really bad Quot said Frank Gennaro 44, of Downey Calif who was in a boat fishing when the planes collided. A it looked like they were trying to do some kind of acrobatics. They were trying to avoid each other and one plane chopped Oil the others  the two bodies recovered were in the cockpit of a Piper Turbo Arrow with one severed Wing in about 35 feet of water inside the Harbor authorities said. Wreckage of the other plane believed to be a four scat Cessna was thought to have been spotted outside the Harbor breakwater but divers could not get to it before the search was suspended because of diminishing underwater visibility said Long Beach fire department spokesman Bob Caldon. Wheels from Landing gear headphones and pieces of an air plane door were among wreckage scraps recovered by divers. It was not known How Many were aboard the second plane but All were believed to be dead officials said. Federal aviation administration officials said the planes were not in Contact with air traffic controllers at the time of the collision. The National transportation safety Board was investigating the separate crashes Faa officials said. In the Wisconsin crash the wreckage of the Piper Comanche sat unobserved in 6-foot-High com until a search Pilot spotted it from above. The search was launched when the wife of the downed planets Pilot reported him overdue. There were showers lightning and Thunder in the area late saturday. The plane was being used for a Short flight authorities said. A we done to know Why anyone would take a plane up in that weather a said Jefferson county sheriffs Deputy Michael Sullivan stateside prison inmates Volunteer for service in saudi Arabia Sebring Fla. Up a Call them the dirty dozen plus two. Fourteen state prison inmates including one serving a life sentence for murder have offered to Volunteer for military service in the Sands of saudi Arabia. All the Dye re asking in return is a decent burial if they re killed or a Pardon if they survive. The inmates at the Cross City correctional institution spelled out their offer in a letter to president Bush saying that serving in the . Deployment to the Middle East would a restore some of the lost Honor we have inflicted on ourselves and this  no one in authority appears to be seriously considering the offer. A White House spokeswoman laughed when told about it. A it sounds like they be been watching too Many movies Quot said Bob Macmaster a spokesman for the Florida department of correction recalling the 1967 movie a the dirty dozen a in which a group of murderers rapists and other criminals Are sprung from a military prison for a dangerous world War ii  makes headlines with 1945 newspaper Brownwood Texas apr Marion Smith was putting a new roof on Howard Payne University a Mims auditorium in May 1945 when he was distracted by newsboys Yelling a extra a on the Street below. Smith was 18 and about to be drafted for world War ii. What he found when he climbed Down changed his life and set into motion what became a reunion of sorts. The bold headline on the Brownwood bulletin screamed a nazis quit a and it was followed by a slightly smaller headline a unconditional surrender ends War in  Smith went Back on the roof Laid the paper Down and placed shingles Over it. A i remember thinking that if and when the roof was redone someone would find the newspaper a he said. Smith was recently Given the Job of reproof my the auditorium and he found the old newspaper. A the funny thing is that it Wasny to where i had remembered putting it a he said. He said the discovery thrilled the roofing Crew. A it also pleased me to know that at 63, in a still roofing Quot Smith  in Law who ran a fkr a Campaign Dies at 62 new York apr Stephen e. Smith who married into americans most illustrious political family and managed brother in Law John f. Kennedy a presidential Campaign has died at age 62. Smith who died in his Home sunday after a Long illness was married to the former Jean Kennedy. He was administrative chief of the Kennedy Campaign in i960 and also ran several family businesses and advised the Kennedy family on finances. Boeing shows off b-2 stealth factory to Public Seattle apr hoeing co. Opened its High Security h-2 factory for the Fust time sunday to reporters and employees families  some of the exotic structures that go into the top secret stealth bomber. Company officials also warned that if Money Lor the bomber is curtailed several thousand employees would be fired Oer the next two years. The 450,000-Square-foot Complex just South of the City is one of the world s largest plants for working with composite materials the plastic and Graphite fabric used for the trying Wing bomber. Among the gear hoeing repealed Sun Day was the worlds largest autoclave a 90-foot-Long, 25-foot-diameter oven for curing huge aircraft parts some at 350 degrees under High pressure. Boeing held its b-2 family Day to give workers a Chance to show their relatives what they do said Dale Shel Thom b-2 program manager for Boeing defense amp space group. A press tour was added last week because Boeing wanted to defend the endangered defense program Shellhorm said. A we read Loo Many of your editorials and opinions that say that an investment in b-2 is poorly placed. We who do it believe that the a peace dividend is what we be been getting All these  he said. The b-2 has been criticized in Congress because of its Price in a Lime of huge spending deficits and a diminishing soviet threat. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney wants to buy 75 of the planes for $61.1 billion Down from the original plan to get 132 Tor $75.4 billion. A House proposal would limit the Purchase to the 15 planes now m production at a Cost of $27 billion. Thought s a subcontractor Boeing makes most of the components Quot Bat shaped aircraft. It makes Thi Wing surfaces the Center of the in outer a amp acini yes me Center part of the plane Ati of the cockpit the Landing gear weapons system fuel system and the e electronics to get the aircraft a bombs to their targets. Other major subcontractors include Ltd which makes inboard sections of the wings where the engines and Landing gear Are general electric w hich supplies the two engines and Hughes aircraft co., which provides electronics. Northrop builds the cockpit and nose puts All the parts together at its Palmdale Cali factory and does the flight testing. The b-2 is a Long Range bomber designed to Fly deep into enemy territory without being detected. It can carry Niobe Lirati 40,000. Pounds of explosives including up to 16 nuclear weapons or conventional bombs. >0