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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 0004.PDF
WORLD NEWS Stealth secrets for sale LOS ANGELES A Northrop employee work ing on the United States Air Force Advanced Technology Bomber programme has been arrested for allegedly attempting to sell data on the "Stealth" bomber. On December 18 Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrested Thomas Patrick Cavanagh, 40, of Downey, California. Cavanagh was arrested at the Hyatt Hotel, City of Commerce, near Los Angeles city centre after exchanging ATB data for $25,000. The data included blueprints, technical manuals, and drawings, all of which were stamped "Secret". FBI agents tell Flight that all the data is "crucial to the ATB project". An FBI's affidavit placed before Judge Joseph Reichman says that Cavanagh was driven by a need for money and by marital problems. Judge Reichman ordered Cavanagh to be held without bail at Terminal Island Federal prison, pending re-arraign ment on January 7. Before his arrest Cavanagh was twice met by FBI agents posing as Soviet intelligence agents. On December 10 in a tape-recorded meeting he told them: "It's simple, you get the cash and I give the information". On December 12 at the Bellflower Hotel Cavanagh turned over the ATB material. On the third meeting on December 18 he was arrested after giving the FBI agents more ATB information. FBI director William G. Webster expres sed surprise at how easy it was for Cavanagh to obtain the information. The FBI investigation of Cavanagh started in early December, after Cavanagh twice tried to contact Soviet intelligence agents in Washington D.C. and in San Francisco. Cavanagh, whose job description has not been released, has held "Secret" clearance at Northrop Advanced Systems Division's Pico Rivera plant since 1982, and had applied for security upgrading to "Top Secret" level last August. The Pico Rivera plant employs 6,000 people, with another 4,000 working elsewhere on the ATB project, now thought to be in the prototype production stage. Northrop is estimated to have received $1,000 million in 1984 for ATB funding. This is the fifth US espio nage case to come to light recently. "We have more people charged with espionage than ever before in our history," the FBI tells Flight. These include Karl Koecher; a CIA employee caught spying for Czechoslovakia; Richard Smith, from US Army Intel ligence, who spied for the USSR; Alice Michelson, an East German spying for her country; and Richard Miller, an FBI agent spying for the USSR. Javelin goes operational BELFAST ~ The Shorts Javelin shoulder- fired anti-aircraft missile has been fired in training for the first time by an operational unit of the British Army. The first unit to be equipped with the missile is the 46th Air Defence Battery of the 2nd Field Regiment, serving with the British Army of the Rhine. With an effective range in excess of 4km against jet aircraft, and more against helicopters, the missile provides wider cover than Blowpipe (which it will replace) while retaining the earlier missile's ability to tackle targets head on. A Shorts Javelin is fired by the first unit of the British Army to become operational with the missile — Jiff* •Hft •-H, L —- 4 5 -Mi* *£iillili Javelin is said to be easier to guide to its target than Blowpipe, using the launcher's built-in stabilised sighting system. This pro vides manual target tracking plus automatic missile guid ance through a solid-state TV camera which locks on to the missile's flares. Digital out puts from the camera are fed to a microprocessor which generates signals to close the angular error between the TV-tracked missile and the optically tracked target. The resulting guidance signals are transmitted to the missile by radio. Delta pilots fly both ATLANTA A Delta Air Lines crew have successfully demonstrated their dual Boeing 757/767 pilot type-rating by flying a 767 in revenue service from Atlanta, Georgia, to Seattle and a 757 back to Atlanta. Although the crew had completed a four-hour "differences course", neither Capt Malcolm Simpson nor first officer Phil Glen had flown a 757 before. US Federal Aviation Administration officials were on board the flight, together with Delta's vice-president flight operations, C. A. Smith, and members of the US aviation press. The FAA gave its approval last July for pilots trained on either of the types to be rated for both. All those pilots type-rated on one of the two have now passed flight examinations to fly the other twinjet. BA sale moves back LONDON ~ The stockmarket flotation of British Airways cannot now go ahead on the projected date of February 14. The prospec tus has not been published; neither has there been any advertising campaign to publicise the sale. BA will not comment on the subject of a launch date, and the Department of Transport will say only that it had never promised February 14, only the first half of this year. FLIGHT International, 5 January 198
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