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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 24, 1961)
Progress in Several Fields of Air Safety Said Dangerously Lacking MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD, ORE. FRIDAY. MARCH 24, 1961 Washington - IUPD - A lead-, "Vastlv imnrnvorf r9Ha ,-. ing aviation research organiza- cue beacons have been devel tion warns bluntly that prog- oped and are used by some ress in several fields of air airlines. Yet tho nhcnioto safety is lagging dangerously The Guggenheim Aviation Safety Center at Cornell uni versity (N.Y.) listed the fields as: -More reliable altimeters. -Collision avoidance. -Crash fire protection. -Occupant protection. -Weather forecasting. -Approach and runway lighting. -Sea rescue apparatus. -Human factors. The center's report on 1960 air safety research projects blamed Congress for much of the lack of progress because of failure to appropriate suf ficient money. , Item by item, the report in cluded these research defic iencies and recommendations for correcting them: Altimetry "A continued effort and a strong one should be made to improve altimetry to the point where accuracy is unquestion ed." Collision Avoidance ". . . presumable dim .out look for the successful devel opment of an anti-collision de vice or warning indicator. The center hopes the FAA (Federal Aviation Agency) will con tinue its interest and adequate financial support for research and development of such a de vice. While it may not be of great value in highly congest ed areas, the device will be vitally important in uncon troled airspace and perhaps even on controlled airways . . . "The catastrophic conse quences of even one collision cannot be neglected. The cen ter hopes that the industry will not wait for the perfect device, but accept one that may be even partly successful. For example, since only eight per cent of a" collisions nn cur head-on, why wait for a system to eliminate the head on collision if another can he more immediately available which will alleviate the other 92 ner cent collision potential-Crash Fire Protection "A theoreticM svstem for preventing fire on impact has been in existence since 1954 yet "there has been litile progress in developing the hardware to applv these prin cinles to aircraft operation. The need is urgent. There also appears to be a serious lapse in fire prevention re search (such as) crash-resistant fuel tanks, fire-resistant com pounds, etc." Occupant Protection Sixty per cent of airplane accidents occur away from airports where assistance from rescue personnel is delayed or unavailable. Research is need ed on stronger seats, belts, doors, exits, floors and cabin structure. Weather Forecasting "It is hard to conceive of a single area . . . which would be of more immediate benefit to aviation . . . the FFA, mili tary and weather bureau have j combined on several excellent 1 programs . . . but Congress has delayed its approval of fi nancial support. There ap pears to be a need not only for more accurate area weath er but also on the local weather variations that occur in very small areas, such as drifting fogs over the ends of runways. Approach and Runway Lights "Budgetary limitations have prevented the FAA from Gibson girl" (S portable ra dio transmitter carried in life rafts) still is required although many consider it to be more of a hazard than a safeguard in the event of a ditching at sea. "Consideration of human factors in the design and oper ation of aircraft is now well recognized as a vital contribu tion to aircraft safety. There appear to be gaps between what is known and what is applied.'! The report, in obvious refer- Aviation Pioneer Starts N ew Career With Electronics well - known and recognized aids to facilitate the landing of aircraft, espec ially in marginal weather. Examples of these are high intensity approach lights, dual ILS (instrument landing sys tem), narrow-gauge and center-line runway lishts. The need for these devices has been known for many years, yet at the time of this rennrt only 23 airports are fully equipped. Since some 40 per cent of fatal accidents occur during the approach to a land ing, the need for such aids is obvious." Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.-IUPD -La Motte T. Cohu made a hit of sorts in the early days of the airplane when he crash ed a plane on a power line. He's been creating his own brand of fireworks ever since as an airlines pioneer and a builder of planes. Cohu, in his mid-60s, looks back on a long career during which he headed two airlines and bossed two of the nation's largest aircraft manufacturing companies. And he looks for ward to a new career as head of an electronics firm. Cohu got his first taste of flying when he was a student at Princeton university from which he graduated in 1917. "Flying was, just a sport in those days," he recalled in a UPI interview. "I used to sneak off from Princeton to Lawrenceville to take flying lessons. First pop out of the box my instructor and I hit a high tension wire. We black ed out Lawrenceville. I hadn't been up a half minute when the engine coughed a few times and we sat on the wire. We were scratched up a bit hut not seriously hurt." Direct Approach Cohu learned to take the direct approach to problems when he became president of American Airways, the prede cessor to American Airlines. We have four divisions," he said, "and they weren't working well together. I had an idea. I issued some really crazy instructions to the di vision managers. Two of them went along with me and the two others told me, in effect. I was a crazy so-and-so. I fired the two 'yes men' and kept the two others and the company began to operate properly." One of the division man agers who told off Cohu was C. R. Smith, now president of American Airlines. Cohu was later president of Trans World Airways which evolved out of the old Trans continental Air Transport (TAT). He then became presi dent, of Convair and board chairman and general man ager of Northrop Aircraft, Inc. Jack Northrop, founder of the company which bears his name, was way ahead of his time in aircraft design, ac cording to Cohu. "He's rcsnonsible for most of the advances in design to day," said Cohu, "wing flaps, the delta wing and many others." Built Norlhrup Cohu began from scratch with the Northrop organiza tion and when he left it hid been built uo to the noint where there were lfi.000 em ployees. He has a seeminglv endless supplv of stories about his experiences and fondly re ,llc Viic Hirfpt nnnrnnrh solu- in-1 tion to many problems There was the early day problem of Inst passenger bag gage for instance. "I solved that one," said Cohu. "I called a meeting of all station managers at Albu querque. They arrived the night before and I called the first meeting for 7:30 in the morning. Get 'em out early, you know. They showed up -but most of them needed shaves and wore riirtv shirts. I'd seen to it that their bag gage was missing. We had a lot more efficiency in keeping track of baggage after that." At Convair. he nulled 'ho LA MOTTE T. COHU A Long Career same sort of a stunt. They were having an inordinate amount of trouble with wiring in planes, the push buttons to summon stewardesses and that sort of thing. Cohu had an electrical panel set up in a room and called in a group of men who worked on the panels. He pushed a button and smoke poured from the panel. Every one ran out of the room. "I had the fire department standing by," Cohu chuckled. "When these people came back into the room after the smoke cleared, I said to them, "How would you like to have that happen while you were in a plane? We didn't have very much trouble after that." Decided to Retire About four years ago, Cohu decided to retire to his home high on a hill in Rancho Santa Fe, about 25 miles north of San Diego. ...- . .. "There are too many air craft companies," he growled by way of explanation. "There's not enough business for one of them." "I fooled around," he said, "as president of the Com munity Chest and that sort of thin?. Then a banker friend of mine got me interested in this eleclronics nlant in San Diego. T Dut a little money into it. First thing T knew I was back in business." As board chairman of Cohu Electronics. Inc., he sliM main tains his direct approach. "I got my people together a while back and asked them whv we were In business." he said. "Some of them said to produce closed circuit tele vision systems, computers and all that. After they finished. I told them, 'No, you're all wrong. The only reason we're in business is to me money. These things are iust a way to make monev.' This is some thing you've rot lo emphasize with your engineers. A design enginner never designs any thing (hat he doesn't believe couldn't be done a little bet ter. They don't realize that timo is money. You've got to call a halt some place." Cohiij who has been at the controls of almost every type of plane made, has not lost his interest in aviation despite his current preoccunation with electronics and government contracts in connection with missile systems such as the Titan and the the Polaris. He was asked what was the latest plane he had flown. "A 707." he replied bright ly, "but I think that's the last nlanp I'll ever flv." I IS 900 North Riverside Chocolate & Vanilla R0STY TAKE A GALLON HOME ONE OF OUR HAMBURGERS . . . AND ONE OF OUR MILK SHAKES Make A Complete Meal Earnic PHONE SP 3-3067 Watts Id; ence to the labor feud between the pilots' and flight engi neers' unions, suggested that "with cockpit management, an ever - increasing requirement In air safety, personnel rela tions among crew members should be cooperative rather than unfriendly." It also criticized the tech niques of accident investiga tion, commenting that "there seems to be a tendency to use hearings to defend one's Inter est instead of uncovering facts." Not Enough Jurors In Multnomah Court A 3 Portland-tUPi-For Multnomah county 36 years i other counties, has had ' He wrote to District Judge the wrong number of jurors in ,,' . ' i eluded Van Hoomissen uisirict court cases, con- Van Hoomissen was right. He said others checked it and concurred. At least that's the impres sion readied alter a legislator i made a query and judges and Pensioner, 98, Credits The county, like the rest of the state, has been seating six jurors in District Court. Rep. George Hoomissen (D Portland) was researching a bill which would permit con viction in criminal cases by vote of five out of six District Court jurors. He said statutes indicated that juries in Multnomah County District Courts must i be twice as large as those in 'Luck' for Longevity Chicago - H'PII r-. A 98-year-old pensioner who retired in 1928 after 34 years with U.S. Steel said Wednesday he couldn't explain his longevity. "I really don't know," Henry Edwin Bach said. "I en joy living. I've smoked for 110 years and I still take an oc casional cigar. I guess I'm lucky." Don Stathos, insuror MALL BLDG. 1005 E. 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