Breaking: Plane crashes in Afghanistan

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- An airplane with 44 people on board has crashed in the mountains of Afghanistan, an Afghan government spokesman said Monday.

The plane was carrying 38 passengers and six crew members when it crashed en route from Kunduz to Kabul, said Raz Mohammad Alami of the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation.
Several non-Afghans were on the plane, which has not yet been found, said Zemarai Basharay, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry.

At least three of them were British nationals, according to a Foreign Office spokeswoman who declined to give her name in keeping with the office's typical practice.
The plane crashed near the Salang Pass, north of Kabul, he said. A meteorological agency reported hearing a huge sound there, and the government's minister of transport and aviation and his deputy went there to investigate.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force has sent a plane to the region, said spokesman Col. Wayne Shanks, but the search has been hampered by rain and adverse weather conditions.

In addition, the force sent two helicopters to the area, and others were on standby at Bagram Airfield and Kabul International Airport, the NATO-led force said.
While several plane crashes have occurred in Afghanistan in the past few years -- most of them military aircraft -- the last crash with fatalities occurred in September 2006, when a British Royal Air Force plane crashed about 12.5 miles (20 km) west of Kandahar, according to the website of the Aviation Safety Network, which maintains a database of crashes. Fourteen people were killed in that crash.

In 2005, 104 people were killed when Kam Air flight 904 struck a mountain while approaching Kabul in poor visibility, according to the network.

Does New Stealth Material Change JSF Game?

FORT WORTH — As the debate rages about Joint Strike Fighter life-cycle cost, Lockheed Martin officials are raising a previously unheard point to bolster their low-price claims — a new low-observability (LO) substance called fiber mat.

Lockheed officials avoided the need to use stealthy appliqués and coatings by curing the substance into the composite skin of the aircraft, according to Tom Burbage, executive vice president of F-35 program integration for the company. It “makes this airplane extremely rugged. You literally have to damage the airplane to reduce the signature,” he said in an interview with AVIATION WEEK. This top-fiber mat surface takes the place of metallic paint that was used on earlier stealthy aircraft designs.

The composite skin of the F-35 actually contains this layer of fiber mat, and it can help carry structural loads in the aircraft, Burbage adds. The F-35 is about 42% composite by weight, Burbage says, compared to the F-22 at 22% and the F-16 at 2%.

Lockheed Martin declined to provide further details on fiber mat because they are classified. But the disclosure of this new substance comes at a time when Lockheed Martin officials are arguing that maintenance costs for the F-35 will be lower than anticipated by operators.

Officials at the Pentagon are required to complete their life-cycle cost estimates for the Joint Strike Fighter by the end of the month to certify that the $328-billion program can move forward despite a major cost spike. However, this has been an issue of controversy. A U.S. Naval Air Systems Command study recently stated that 65 years of sustainment for the single-engine stealthy fighter could cost about $442 billion (in Fiscal 2002 dollars) more than planned.

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said in an interview this week with AVIATION WEEK that he feels maintenance numbers for the conventional takeoff and landing version are “manageable,” but he did not provide a number. A sustainment cost for all three variants is needed to proceed with Nunn-McCurdy certification after the 57% cost overrun.

Amid this debate, Lockheed Martin continues to claim that sustainment costs for F-35 will actually be lower than its predecessors. But the company’s argument faces the same challenge as its assertion that the Pentagon Cost Analysis and Program Evaluation (CAPE) office’s development and production estimates are inflated. Fundamentally, company officials say, Pentagon estimates on both points rely too much on data from legacy aircraft.

Schwartz, who represents the service that will eventually operate the preponderance of the Pentagon’s F-35 fleet, appears unsympathetic to Lockheed’s complaints about the estimates. “This is a show-me situation for the government, the program office and the contractor,” he says. “Notwithstanding what they think of the estimate, that is what we budgeted to. If they want to sell more airplanes, there is a clear path ahead.”

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Eco Airships of the Future!

CNN) -- How will we travel in the future?
Belgian architect, Vincent Callebaut thinks it might be like this -- floating from one place to another in giant eco-airships.

Called "Hydrogenase," the project combines engineering and biology and is inspired by biomimicry -- design inspired by nature's models and systems -- he says.
Clearly not someone lacking in imagination, Callebaut envisages his eco-airship towering 400 meters high, 180 meters wide and powered by a seaweed biofuel.

Eight compartments are housed inside a protective skin made of glazed canvas and carry fuel -- "bio-hydrogen," of course -- and passengers.
But this isn't just a floating theme park -- Callebaut envisions his airship helping with humanitarian missions or scientific studies as well as housing hotels and entertainment.

When it's not soaring to an altitude of 6,500 feet and reaching a top speed of 175 kilometers per hour, the airship is docked in a floating organic farm which recycles CO2. As with the airship, the farm is completely powered by renewable energy using solar panels and hydro turbines.
Callebaut's extraordinary plans for what he calls a "biotechnological prototype" are currently on display at the Future Pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China.

"Hydrogenase" is the latest in an impressive portfolio of ecologically influenced ideas of how the future might look.

In 2008 he drew up plans for a "floating ecopolis" aimed at saving climate refugees and in 2007 the "perfumed jungle" imagined the construction of a vast jungle on the central waterfront in Hong Kong.

Breaking: North Korea boats draw warning shots from South

(Reuters) - Two North Korean vessels crossed into the South's waters off the peninsula's tense west coast before returning when South Korea fired warning shots, military officers said on Sunday.

The area has been a site of military standoffs and is near where a South Korean navy ship sank in March after apparently being struck by a torpedo, killing 46 sailors.

South Korea has not officially blamed the North for the attack but officials have made little secret of their belief Pyongyang was behind the attack. An international team of investigators are expected to release their findings this week.

"Two patrol boats crossed on two separate occasions and warning shots were fired," said an officer at the South's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The apparent maritime border violation by the North's vessels come amid a deepening chill in relations between the rival Koreas, which remain technically at war under a truce that ended fighting in the 1950-53 Korean War.

South Korea's belief in the North's involvement in the sinking of its navy corvette Cheonan has been a source of friction between Seoul and Beijing, and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi tried to cool South Korea's exasperation when top diplomats from the two countries and Japan met this weekend.

In contrast to the aloof response shown by Yang the day before, Japan's Katsuya Okada was more sympathetic to the South when he met Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on Sunday in Gyeongju, the scenic ancient capital of Shilla, a Buddhist kingdom that ruled the peninsula in the first millennium.

"(Okada) expressed his high respect for our government's efforts to get to the cause through scientific and objective means under what can only be a truly difficult situation," a South Korean official said after their meeting.

"The two sides agreed (on) close cooperation in the response following the investigation into the Cheonan incident."

The Chinese foreign ministry on Saturday called for "calm and restraint" in dealing with the Cheonan sinking.

South Korea knows it cannot launch a retaliatory strike against the North without risking greater conflict and undermining its own economy, just recovering from the global financial slump.

But it does want international punishment of the North. That would likely mean even tougher sanctions by the United Nations, which would need China's support to take effect.

There is media speculation in South Korea that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Seoul later this month in a show of support over the sinking.

There was little formal discussions at the three-way meeting on how to resume the stalled negotiations with North Korea on compensating it in return for concrete steps to end its nuclear arms program.

South Korea and Japan said they would not sit at the table with the North if Pyongyang is found to be the culprit in the navy ship sinking. China hosts those talks, which also involve the United States and Russia and have been stalled since 2008.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

Cathay Pacific plane from HK escorted to Vancouver by F-18s

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Canadian fighter jets escorted a Cathay Pacific airliner incoming from Hong Kong to a safe landing in Vancouver International Airport on Saturday due to a potential security threat, a North American Aerospace Defense Command spokesperson said.

The Canadian Press news agency cited Canadian Defense department officials as saying there was a bomb threat aboard Flight CX838, but they could not provide details.
Television images showed the plane on an isolated stretch of tarmac, where it had been towed away from the main airport terminal.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said the passengers were safely taken off the plane and no one was injured.

Canadian F-18 Hornet fighter jets intercepted the plane and flew alongside it until it landed around 1:40 p.m. local time (4:40 p.m. Eastern time, 2040 GMT), drawing attention from people throughout Vancouver who heard the roar of the low-flying planes.

"As a precaution, NORAD fighters escorted the aircraft until it landed safely in Vancouver," said North American Aerospace Defense Command's Maj. Holly Apostoliuk.

Apostoliuk said the jets responded quickly from their base in Comox, British Columbia, once information on a potential threat was received.

They did not land with the airliner, and returned to their base.