----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]----
Well there ya go boys!! CBS has got its sights set on General Aviation. That disclosure about Fiberglas aircraft is pure bunk. I would use a more colorful term, but this is a family gathering I am told. Wayne Mike Dean wrote: > ----[Please read http://ercoupers.com/disclaimer.htm before following any advice in this forum.]---- > > A report from CBS news: > > Hiding In Plane Sight · Fiberglass Plane Made From Kit Can Evade Radar Detection > > SEBASTIAN, Fla., Jan. 22, 2002 > > (CBS) The Velocity airplane is visible to the eye, but to America's best radar system it is virtually invisible. And that, says U.S. law enforcement, makes the near stealth Velocity a tool for smugglers. > > Joe Bendig, the director of U.S. Customs' state of the art radar center says the system has a problem finding small fiberglass aircraft like the Velocity. > > "The radar pretty much gets absorbed by the skin. The only thing we really pick up is the engine, which is metal," he said. > > Until last spring, reports CBS News Correspondent Wyatt Andrews, no one in law enforcement thought the Velocity to be much of a factor in drug smuggling. But then came a joint U.S.-Mexico drug crackdown the DEA called Operation Marquis. > > In the process of making some 300 drug arrests, the DEA says it learned that Arturo Beltran Leyva, a man the U.S. calls one of Mexico's top drug transport chiefs, owned five Velocities. > > "We've made our Mexican counterparts aware of this Velocity aircraft," said Rod Benson of the DEA. > > He says most drug smuggling by air happens with metallic planes visible to radar. > > The planes skirt the U.S. shoreline, or land in Mexico just short of the U.S. border, with the drugs then loaded onto vehicles of every type you can imagine - even school buses. > > Benson says so far, invisibility is mostly used by smugglers inside Mexico. > > "It's not just one transportation organization. We've identified others that have dabbled and are beginning to look at these Velocity aircraft to move their drugs." > > As for Velocity the company, it's based in two hangars in rural Florida and the plane is a mail order kit that is shipped in boxes to hobbyists who assemble it. > > The company is not under suspicion and its Vice President Scott Baker calls invisibility a coincidence. > > "There's nothing about the aircraft that was designed with the idea of hiding from radar and none of our marketing whatsoever speaks to stealthness." > > Even now, after the Sept. 11 terror attacks with military radar planes blanketing the border, officials admit Velocity would be tough to find. Until America's multi billion-dollar border radar can spot fiberglass, it can be beaten by an airplane built in a garage. > > ©MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. > -- Mr. D. Wayne Woollard, CPBE AIM: DWWoollard ICQ: 124132836 "Why fly a Spam can when you can have fun and fly an Ercoupe?" ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aVxiLm.aVzvvT Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
