World/Nation
the Battalion Friday, Nov. 11, 1988 Page
texas-
Pentagon admits to using Stealth jet fighte
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S.
Air Force has been flying a “Stealth” ra
dar-evading jet fighter for seven years,
and now has about 50 of the planes at an
isolated base in Nevada, the Pentagon
acknowledged Thursday.
Partially lifting a veil of secrecy that
has enveloped the plane from its birth,
the Pentagon and Air Force released a
photograph of the unusual aircraft but
declined to discuss its capabilities. The
limited disclosures were made now be
cause the Air Force needs to start flying
the craft in daylight, a spokesman said.
The Pentagon said the plane had been
declared operational and ready for war
time missions in October 1983, but that
it first flew in June 1981.
The Stealth fighter is officially known
as the F-l 17A, Dan Howard, the Penta
gon’s chief spokesman, said.
somewhat resembles a sting ray — black
or dark blue with no exterior markings.
The cockpit is located far forward in a
nose that comes to a sharp point, with
what appears to be gun barrels or air
speed probes sticking out.
The plane features a “V” tail atop a
fuselage that ends in a rectangle, appar
ently completely encompassing the two
engines that power the plane. The air in
takes for the engines appear to be fitted
tightly into the sides of the fuselage, just
below the cockpit.
The swept-back wings would suggest
the plane is capable of flying at superso
nic speeds, but the Air Force declined to
discuss the matter. Military sources have
said the plane is designed for sneak
ground attacks and not air-to-air dog-
fighting.
The Air Force has ordered 59 of the
planes and 52 of them have been deliv
ered, Howard said. Three of the planes
have crashed and two pilots have been
killed, the Air Force added.
To protect its secrecy, the plane has
been flown only at night. But the Air
Force needs to start flying the plane dur
ing daylight if it is to integrate the squad
ron’s war plans with other units, Howard
said.
Howard and Air Force officials de
clined to discuss how much the program
cost. Nor would they offer information
on the plane’s dimensions or general ca
pabilities, the materials from which it
was constructed, or the major subcon
tractors involved.
without being detected on rad!
ating confusion with unexpm
ing runs.
The plane is built by the Lockheed
Corp. at a tightly guarded plant in Bur
bank, Calif., the Air Force said.
According to military sources, the
planes are kept at a high state of read
iness for use as “aerial shock troops,”
capable of slipping behind enemy lines
The sources said the decision
the plane was prompted in p®
scheduled Nov. 22 unveilinptf
Stealth bomber. The bomber!
built with more recent and
technology than the fighter, soi
little reason to continue tt
fighter, the sources explained.
Official calls early Hitler years ‘glorious
“It has been operational since October
1983 and is assigned to the 4450th Tacti
cal Group at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.
The aircraft is based at the Tonopah Test
Range Airfield in Nevada. ”
The photograph released by the Penta
gon depicts a relatively small, swept-
wing plane with a flat underbelly. It
BONN, West Germany (AP) — The president
of parliament called the early years of the Hitler era
a “glorious” time for many Germans, triggering a
walkout during the government’s solemn cere
mony Thursday marking the Kristallnacht.
The remarks by Philipp Jenninger led to de
mands for his resignation by members of the oppo
sition Greens and Social Democrats, who were
among about 50 who marched out of the hall dur
ing the nationally televised speech to parliament.
Jenninger’s address threatened to overshadow
West Germany’s carefully planned ceremonies
marking the 50th anniversary of the Kristallnacht,
the night the Nazis began their first organized push
against the Jews.
Among the guests at the government’s ceremony
Thursday was West German Jewish Community
leader Heinz Galinski.
Social Democrat chairman Hans-Jochen Vogel
later wrote to Jenninger and said the parliament
president had shown a disturbing lack of judgment
in his speech. Vogel said he and other Social Dem
ocrats were filled with shame and sorrow over
what Jenninger had done.
The 56-year-old conservative talked at length
about the positive feelings of many ordinary Ger
mans early on in the Hitler dictatorship, but with
out giving counterbalancing comments.
“Didn’t Hitler bring to reality what (Kaiser)
Wilhelm II had only promised, that is to lead the
Germans to glorious times?” Jenninger said.
“Wasn’t he chosen by Providence, a Fuehrer such
as is given to a people only once in a thousand
years?
“For the fate of the Germans and European
Jews, Hitler’s successes were perhapsn;;
fateful than his crimes and misdeeds,"]
said. “ The years from 1933 to 1938,eve
distant retrospective and in the knowledpj
followed, still are a fascinating thingli
throughout history there was hardlyap
Hitler’s triumphal procession during i
years.”
Jenninger then cited such events as kj
the Saarland, Austria and part of CzccIb
into the Third Reich, as well as the I
Olympics in Berlin.
Physicists hope super collider
will help explain matter origin
Reagan initiates
amiable transitioi
&
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Physicists
hope the superconducting super collider
will help them explain the very origin of
matter itself and perhaps lead them to
their holy grail: a single theory that
unites all the forces of nature, from grav
ity spanning galaxies to the mysterious
bonds that hold the proton together.
The first task of the collider, if it is
built, may be a search for the Higgs par
ticle, named after Peter Higgs of the Uni
versity of Edinburgh in Scotland, the sci
entist who first postulated its existence.
Scientists say this subnuclear particle
should emerge from proton-proton colli
sions 20 times more powerful than any
thing possible today. Finding it would be
a giant step forward in understanding na
ture.
The super collider, a 53-miles around
machine, will be the first atom smasher
able to concentrate in a small volume of
space the energy density that must have
existed in the theoretical big bang theory
origin of the universe. The Energy De
partment on Thursday selected a site near
Dallas for the giant machine, even
though Congress has not yet decided to
build it.
The current picture of nature, called
the standard model, is tantalizingly in
correct — but nobody is sure just where
it goes wrong. At very high energies, the
theory predicts certain particle interac
tions will occur with greater than 100
percent probability — which is an im
possibility.
Modifications to fix up the standard
model almost always requires extremely
energetic collisions for their experimen
tal tests.
A recent example of theory-testing on
which the collider will build is the dis
covery of the so-called W and Z particles
at the CERN particle accelerator in Ge
neva, Switzerland, in 1983, predicted by
the “electroweak” theory. This shows
the fundamental identity of the familiar
forces of electricity and magnetism and
the weak forces responsible for some
forms of nuclear radioactivity, including
the reactions respnsible for the sun’s en
ergy.
It is the W and Z particles that carry
the unified “electroweak” force, just as
it is the familiar photon or particle of
light that carries the electromagnetic
force.
Though the masses of the W and Z
particles could be estimated in advance
as roughly 90 times that of the proton,
there is no way to calculate the mass of
the Higgs particle. But scientists say
there should be an upper limit of about
1,000 times the mass of the proton.
All mass is equivalent to energy,
shown in the famous “E = MC squared”
relationship first developed by Albert
FFA changes title
to exclude farmers
Einsten. That is, the energy of any parti
cle is equal to its mass times the speed of
light squared.
It’s convenient to speak of mass in
terms of “electron volts,” the energy ac
quired by an electron falling through a
voltage. Electrons in the filament of a
flashlight bulb are accelerated through
three electron volts.
The mass of a proton at rest is a little
less than a billion electron volts.
The total collision energy must be
around 40 trillion electron volts to create
a particle of 1 trillion electron volts. The
world’s most powerful accelerator, at
Fermi Lab in Chicago, can produce two
trillion electron volts, whereas the super
collider is designed to generate 40 tril
lion electron volts.
Other possible tasks for the super col
lider:
of power to Busli
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The
Future Farmers of America has voted
to take “farmers” out of its name be
cause the word was hurting recruit
ing.
Delegates at the 61st annual con
vention of the Future Farmers of
America voted with little debate
Wednesday to rename the group the
National FFA Organization.
FFA is open to students interested
in agriculture or related fields, such
as agricultural economy, farm equip
ment technology and agribusiness.
FFA officers and U.S. Education
Department advisers to the organiza
tion had recommended the name
change to help stop a 23 percent de
cline in membership since the mid-
1970s.
The FFA has some 416,000 active
members nationwide.
Local chapters will be permitted to
use the old name if they prefer.
The organization’s 113-member
legislative body also voted to strip the
words “vocational agriculture” from
the FFA symbol, constitution and by
laws and replace them with the words
“agricultural education. ”
Backers said the new terminology
is more comprehensive and reflects
changes in agriculture.
The delegates also voted to offer
FFA membership, now confined to
high school and college students, to
seventh and eighth graders.
• Electrons, muons, taus and neutri
nos all appear to be simple geometric
points instead of collections of smaller
particles. The super collider may be able
to see if this is true.
• If there is a Higgs particle, is it
made of smaller particles? Some theories
give it structure and postulate the exis
tence of forces inside it analagous to
those inside the proton.
• Another theory called “supersym
metry” predicts several Higgs particles
and accounts for all forces, including
gravity, while giving a partner particle to
every known particle. This theory says
particles are made of “superstrings” of
fantastically small dimensions instead of
geometrical points.
• In the standard model, a proton
should decay spontaneously, once in a
rare while. All attempts to spot such de
cay have failed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President
Reagan took the first steps toward an
amiable transition of power to Presi
dent-elect George Bush by leaving
instructions for Cabinet officers and
other political appointees to turn in
their resignations by Inauguration
Day,Jan. 20.
The new president and the old met
with White House chief of staff Ken
neth Duberstein Thursday and later
attended a Cabinet meeting as Bush
began the work of assembling his ad
ministration.
The president-elect also met with
Craig Fuller and Bob Teeter, leaders
of his transition office, before flying
off to a long weekend of fishing in
Florida.
Vice President-elect Dan Quayle
also met with Bush’s transition team.
The transition office officially
opens for business on Monday, but
the telltale signs already were in place
in a rented suite of offices a few
blocks from the White House. Secu
rity guards erected metal detectors
and a desk was set up at the entrance
where a volunteer collected resumes
from job-seekers.
The vice president made his first
Cabinet appointment on Wednesday,
naming campaign chairman James A.
Baker III secretary of state. Bush has
told reporters he wants to name the
balance of his Cabinet sooner rather
than later, but he has set no timetable.
Reagan and Bush were applauded
as they walked together into a Cab
inet meeting. White House spokes
man Marlin Fitzwater quoted Reagan
as saying, “We don’t even argue
over which side of the table:
on.
But for all the friendliness.!
Reagan reminded his men, “Wi
still in charge until Jan. 20 an;
still responsible for making dec;
of the government.”
Bush on Wednesday proi
brand new team when he takes
But Treasury Secretary Ni
Brady, Attorney General Dick
burgh and Education Secretary
Cavazos all have been mentioiiiii!
possible holdover appointments
The outgoing Gov. John Sum
New Hampshire, who is viedi
likely to receive a major posu
new administration, set his
high. He told reporters in
Hampshire that he would turni 1
offers to be secretary of educate:
energy, but White House cliiti:
staff “isn’t on my ‘no list.”’Sue|
who campaigned energetically
Bush and was instrumental intiis
ical victory in the New Haraps*
primary last February, said he to:!
been offered any post.
The rumor mill was working at
speed on day two after the election
The names spit out included ft
Sen. John Tower of Texas;
Rep. Jack Edwards of Alabam:
former National Security
Brent Scowcroft for the
defeated Maryland Senate c;
Alan Keyes, a former diplomaU
possible ambassador to the Unit
Nations and defeated Ohio Sell
candidate George Voinovich, Cldj
land’s mayor, for housing and
development.
Stand
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