ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 3, 1996 TAG: 9609030168
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MIAMI
SOURCE: Associated Press
A bomb explodes, severely damaging one wing of a passenger plane, but an on-board computer immediately adjusts the engine thrust and flaps and the jet lands safely.
On another aircraft, flames erupt in the cargo hold. Because of a special foam insulation, the fire is contained and all lives are saved.
The technologies that will allow planes to resist such catastrophes are already in testing and could be available by decade's end. But they won't come cheap. To offer safer flights, airlines may have to sacrifice valuable cargo space and pay top dollar.
``The bottom line is cost ... but what we are really talking about is protecting the flying public,'' said William Hassler of Galaxy Scientific Corp., an Atlantic City, N.J., company that makes luggage containers it says are bomb-proof.
The Clinton administration is urging faster approval of safety inventions since the July 17 explosion of TWA Flight 800 off New York's Long Island and, two months earlier, the ValuJet disaster in the Florida Everglades. In late July, President Clinton directed his new Aviation Safety and Security Commission to make recommendations on airline security, air-traffic modernization and oversight of aviation safety by early September.
The commission chairman, Vice President Al Gore, promised swift patent consideration for devices that improve safety.
``One thing is clear: New technology is giving terrorists new opportunities,'' Gore said. ``We need to make sure that those fighting terrorism can keep pace, with the best tools available.''
Airline officials are skittish about discussing the new technologies, especially the high costs. A security scanner that can detect plastic explosives is being tested in Atlanta and San Francisco. Each machine costs more than $1 million.
Much of the progress being made in aviation security stems from recent tragedies:
* The new luggage containers aim to withstand bombs stronger than the one that brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
* When the hydraulic controls failed on a DC-10 in 1989, a United Airlines pilot compensated by manipulating engine speed and fuel flow. Although 112 people died during an emergency landing at Sioux City, Iowa, 184 survived. NASA said its ``neural net'' computer program performs similarly, with the ability to compensate for different catastrophes.
* A Miami researcher has developed a spray-on foam he believes may strengthen old metal, resist fire and even contain explosions when applied inside the fuselage.
Milton Torres, an engineering professor at Florida International University, began his work in 1988 after the roof of an aging Aloha Airlines 737 ripped off, sucking a flight attendant out to her death.
Torres said his creation, a liquid polymer he calls PantherSkin, can lengthen a plane's life by slowing the development and spread of cracks and fissures.
Investigators believe ValuJet Flight 592 was brought down by fire after oxygen canisters exploded in the cargo hold. Investigators estimated temperatures reached 1,100 degrees Fahrenheit; Torres said PantherSkin can withstand 3,000 degrees.
``We could have saved lives,'' Torres said. ``I could have given them 25 minutes to land the plane. All they had was six or seven.''
The plane, which had just left Miami International Airport, was about 15 miles from the nearest airport, Opa Locka.
The chief drawback to PantherSkin and similar products is the difficulty of retrofitting planes. The spray-on polymer adds appreciable weight - Torres and the FAA disagree on how much - and would tend to embed control lines in the foam.
An invention closer to going aloft is the bomb-proof luggage container.
Three versions are being pursued: One totally contains the blast, a second vents it out a panel in the side of the plane, and the third vents the force of the blast into surrounding containers.
Galaxy Scientific makes the last version with a hybrid aluminum and fiberglass. Its containers ``were tested by the FAA [and] withstood bomb blast forces larger than those that brought down Pan Am 103,'' company spokesman Hassler said.
The most sophisticated safety advancement under development is the computer being tested by NASA and McDonnell Douglas Corp. The computer, by learning from every experience, allows a plane to adapt to drastically altered situations.
The software is being tested with a modified F-15 fighter jet that can simulate the drag from a gaping hole in the fuselage or a torn-off portion of a wing.
In less than a second, the software adjusts engine thrust, hydraulics and stabilizers to keep the plane flying so the pilot can land.
``It behaves a little like a bird would do if it was injured,'' NASA computer scientist Chuck Jorgensen said.
``The bird would use anything it has left to compensate,'' he said. ``We would like to give people as much of a chance as we can - and not just against terrorists but in any accident.''
LENGTH: Medium: 96 linesby CNB