European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 26, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 4 b the stars and stripes thursday March 26, 1992 options weighed on plane de icing by the new York times Washington a . Airlines Are increasingly worried by recent crashes that May have been caused by ice on aircraft wings but All the possible solutions appear to pose further problems. Federal and airline officials May be forced to reconsider their positions because of sundays crash of a us air Jet in new York in which Wing ice May have been a Factor. Aircraft wings usually stay ice free while aloft because engine exhaust gases at nearly 300 degrees fahrenheit Are forced through hollow sections of the wings. But piping in the same hot air while the plane is on the ground risks structural damage to the Wing because there is Little wind to carry away the heat. Ice is most serious when it forms on the wings of planes waiting to take off aviation safety experts said. This is because ice disrupts the flow of air across a wings upper and lower surfaces impairing lift. Airlines have traditionally relied on washing planes at Airport Gates with a hot liquid the consistency of water which quickly runs off the plane. But As air travel has increased and the lines of aircraft awaiting Takeoff lengthen on the runways airlines have become concerned that ice May form again while planes wait. The two responses to this problem have been to Spray the planes again just before they take off or to Start using a thicker de icing liquid. Some airlines Are equipping areas near runways with giant devices resembling car washes which use the less thick liquid known As Type i de icing fluid. But the Federal aviation administration is leery of the idea said Fred Farrar a spokesman for the Agency. A the closer you get heavy fixed objects to a runway the More Chance you get of a plane hitting them a he said. Another problem is that Type i do icing fluid is made from the same poisonous substance As Antifreeze Navy rigged radar standards Gao report says Washington a the Navy evaded Pentagon standards and approved radar hammers designed to protect fighter planes even after the equipment failed repeated tests congressional investigators said tuesday. The general accounting office found that the hammers designed to shield f-14 and f/a-18 fighters from enemy detection failed 43 times. The Gao said the Navy then altered its criteria allowing the hammers to pass. A by excluding the software failures the Navy circumvented the defense departments testing standards and failed to recognize the Adverse impacts of software problems experienced with other electronic warfare systems similar to the radar hammers the Gao said. The defense department had no comment on the report. The Gao said the defense acquisition Board approved additional production of the hammers although they were aware of the failures. The Board told the Gao that other tests including developmental flight tests and contractor tests using modified software had reasonably assured its members that problems had been corrected. The hammers have a tattered past dating to the summer of 1989, when the defense acquisition Board approved $420 million to Start production despite the fact that the equipment had failed reproduction testing. The Pentagon envisions spending $9 billion on the program. By december 1989, the air Force dropped out of the program leaving the Navy to develop the systems alone. At the same time defense Secretary Dick Cheney killed the program but Deputy defense Secretary Donald j. Atwood or. Succeeded it resurrecting it a Short time later. A worker at la Guardia Airport in new York de ices a Delta shuttle plane monday. For cars. Communities near Many airports have objected to the Prospect of the fluid draining into the ground water. About a dozen airports Are now using a thicker deicing fluid known As Type ii fluid said Joseph Lee of Arco chemical. Type ii fluid which is not poisonous is the main deicing solution now used in Europe. But it requires the installation of expensive new pumping equipment because the current de icing pumps destroy the Complex molecules in Type ii fluid that allow it to cling to a Wing like a gel Only to blow away As soon As the plane accelerates Down the runway. Atlantis lifts o t from Kennedy Center in Florida on tuesday. Drowning caused 18 us air deaths from wire reports new York a eighteen of the 27 people killed in the crash of us air flight 405 on sunday night died of drowning the new York medical examiner said tuesday raising the possibility that the survival rate might have been much higher had the plane not tumbled into Flushing Bay Twenty four people survived the crash including John j. Rachuba the co Pilot whom investigators were scheduled to interview wednesday afternoon. On tuesday National transportation safety Board investigators continued sifting through mangled wreckage of the Fokker f28 4000, which was moved to a hangar at la Guardia Airport in a flatbed tractor trailer Convoy that resembled a funeral procession. The Board is looking at several factors in the Accident including the possibility that a thin Sheet of ice coated the wings As the plane awaited Takeoff. Other possible causes such As Wing flaps set improperly or engine trouble appeared to fade. John Lauber the Board member heading the investigation said evidence found in the wreckage indicated that the flaps were set at 18 degrees the proper setting for takeoffs on runways a a contaminated by Snow and slush. Flaps Are sections hinged to the wings that Aie usually used to increase lift or drag. Federal investigators also Are looking into whether the pilots followed procedure and checked for ice on the wings of their jetliner shortly before Takeoff. None of the four passengers interviewed by National transportation safety Board officials reported that the Captain or the co Pilot walked Back through the Cabin to look at the wings. Experts say it is difficult if not impossible to Check the aircraft swings for ice from the cockpit especially on a snowy night with poor visibility. Aurora video beamed to Earth by astronauts Sion and the first devoted to atmospheric research. Coupled with research being done simultaneously on the ground it is expected to yield the most detailed look at the atmosphere yet. All but one of the 13 scientific instruments in the cargo Bay a an ultraviolet Telescope to probe galaxies a Are studying Earth. A we really look Forward to bringing you an awful lot of science a lot of interesting information about Earth and our atmosphere and our environment for All the folks on Earth a astronaut Byron Lichtenberg said. The four scientists aboard the shuttle will take turns operating two of the instruments an Electron beam gun for generating artificial auroras and a camera to record the atmospheres colourful response to the beams. Scientists Hope the experiments will help them understand natural Aurora and the effects of solar Energy on weather communications and spacecraft technologies. Space Center Houston a Atlantis astronauts on wednesday beamed Back to Earth images of vibrating streamers of Light from an Aurora and filmed the glowing charged particles the space shuttle leaves in its Wake. The shuttle and its seven member Crew blasted off tuesday from Cape canaveral Fla on an eight Day Mission to study Earth a fragile Ozone layer and other aspects of the atmosphere. The 10-minute Black and White video of the Aurora showed the irregular strands of Light that appear in Polar regions when charged particles from solar magnetic storms collide with particles in Earth supper atmosphere. Astronauts described flying Over at least two More of the natural displays. A a we be just got everybody oozing and aching a payload commander Kathryn Sullivan said wednesday morning. Atlantis flight is the 46th shuttle mis Dod denies trying to bail out Mcdonnell Douglas Washington a the defense department had no plan to bail out Mcdonnell Douglas corp., the Pentagon a spokesman said tuesday but acknowledged that the department is still investigating. A there was no bailout. There was no secret payment a spokesman Pete Williams said. A there was no plan to bail out Mcdonnell  Williams was responding to questions about a report published in the los Angeles times that the Pentagon devised a secret plan in 1990 to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in unusual payments to Mcdonnell the maker of the c-17 cargo transport and the military a largest contractor. The spokesman said defense department officials knew that the company was having Cash flow difficulties and that an air Force working group Drew up six options to help the contractor. However the options weren to pursued Williams said. A the spokesman contended that such actions were proper. He argued that the department should consider a contractors financial status and provide help permitted by Federal regulations to save taxpayer dollars. However critics of the Pentagon s relations with the giant contractor have questioned whether such discussions should More properly include congressional oversight. Rep. John Conyers jr., d-mich., has asked department officials to determine whether a secret plan existed How much Money was provided and who approved such a plan. In one report the Pentagon inspector general has said some payments to Mcdonnell Douglas for work on the c-17 were made  Williams said the inspector general Isnit done with his work but the spokesman said he was barred from knowing the focus of the probe