
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 4, 1994                   TAG: 9412050070
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MATHEWS                                 LENGTH: Medium

POLICE-PLANE DREAM TAKING OFF

Former Navy pilot Allan Carpenter thinks it's time that crime fighters turned to the air, and he's helping develop an ultralight aircraft that just may fit the bill.

The Air Cam Enforcer will have a wingspan of 36 feet, weigh about 755 pounds and fly at up to 90 mph.

Carpenter, president of Lo-N-Slo Airsports in Mathews, has taught ultralight flying to hundreds of people. But for three years, he has devoted most of his time trying to create a practical plane for police to use.

Although the twin-engine ACE is still on the drawing board, Carpenter said its prototype is being used for photographic work. Lockwood Aircraft Corp. of Sebring, Fla., designed and built the prototype for the National Geographic Society.

Carpenter said the plane will include a special police package: a radio, siren and spotlights. It also will have a heated, enclosed cockpit.

About two years ago, Carpenter began working on a single-engine ultralight police plane. In February 1993, he demonstrated it successfully to 28 southeastern Virginia law enforcement officials and military leaders, but no one was willing to invest money in the concept.

Carpenter abandoned the single-engine design when he learned about the twin-engine Air Cam. He contacted its designer, Phil Lockwood, and shared his ideas for a police patrol plane.

``I told him, `This is exactly what I'm looking for.' Then he started incorporating my ideas and requirements into the design,'' Carpenter said.

Ben Rogerson, a Norfolk police captain who has spent 10 years researching a low-cost plane for police work, thinks it has merit.

``It would do everything we had hoped,'' Rogerson said. ``This is a tremendously cost-effective machine.''

Carpenter said the plane would cost about $65,000 to build and equip, compared with $250,000 and higher for a helicopter or conventional fixed-wing plane.

It will cost about $25 an hour to operate, compared with $150 and higher for other planes and helicopters, he said.

Powered by two 75-horsepower gasoline engines, the plane can fly as slow as 40 mph and can ascend to more than 1,500 feet. It also will be equipped to land on water.

``We can do just about anything a helicopter can do, except land vertically,'' Carpenter said.

by CNB