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Fracking for natural gas concerns residents

2012-01-29T11:34:00.000-08:00

A new technique to extract lucrative hard-to-reach natural gas is causing earthquakes across Middle America, literally.
Hydraulic fracking - pounding streams of high pressure water and chemicals into rock formations to loosen gas deposits - has been hailed as a solution to the US's dependence on foreign petroleum. But residents of Ohio and other states worry the technology is moving the earth beneath them.
Susie Beiersdorfer was sitting in a deli in Youngstown, Ohio, on New Year's Eve, when she felt the 4.0 magnitude quake which made headlines across the US. "It felt like a truck hitting the side of a building," Beiersdorfer, a geologist who used to work in the energy industry, told Al Jazeera.
While this quake was one of the biggest to be linked to fracking and disposal of waste water from the process, it would not be the last. "They [state authorities] just released information on another quake that happened on January 13," she said.
In early January, the state government - which is responsible for regulating the industry - ordered the shutdown of five wells near Youngstown, after quakes rocked the area.
At least 11 earthquakes have been recorded around Ohio since March, causing controversy for the 177 deep well injection sites in the state which are being pumped full of nearly 37,000 barrels of toxic waste water daily.
Warning signs
"In the case of Youngstown, if we had reacted at the time of the first earthquakes, this well could have been stopped nine months earlier," John Armbruster, a professor of geology at Columbia University who has studied fracking, told Al Jazeera. "The earthquakes were there to provide a warning: Stop injecting."
A spokesman for D&L energy, the company which allegedly caused the problem by sending waste-water deep underground, told reporters there is no proof his company caused the quake.By altering underground rock formations, fracking can expedite and accentuate earthquakes which - under normal circumstances would happen in the next 100 or thousand years, he said. "There should be a long-term concern about earthquakes that can result in a situation like this."
"It is in the best interest of the community to allow the research process to play out," Vince Bevacqua, a company spokesman, told a press conference in mid-January. "The well that people are concerned about - rightly or wrongly - is offline and will stay offline until we have answers."
Kate Sinding, an attorney with Natural Resources Defence Council, said environmentalists are "concerned these seismic events could be exacerbating cracks and fissures which can serve as pathways for toxic waste water - really nasty stuff - which could migrate over time to impact drinking water."
Water problems
A study from The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published in May 2011, found that water samples taken closes to gas wells had on average 17 times more contaminants than normal.
In some cases, particularly in Western Canada, residents living close to gas installations have been able to light their tap water on fire because of contamination.
A draft study of drinking water in Wyoming, released by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in August, found clear links between fracking and water pollution.
"The way these earthquakes are trending is towards the northwest, where our source of drinking water is located," said Beiersdorfer, who has lived in Ohio for the past 18-years. "They [companies] are using two to eight millions gallons (seven to thirty million liters) for each well. There are documented fish-kills in our streams."
Larry Douglas Brown, a geologist at Cornell University, believes earthquakes linked to waste water are "a fairly rare occurrence" and that "risks have been magnified by a politicised environment".
Some water contaminates linked to extraction including "radioactive elements" and other "noxious stuff" have, however, "raised special concern", Brown told Al Jazeera.

View No fracking around: Protests against unconventional gas extraction in a larger map
Similar seismic events have hit the UK, where government regulators have been accused of "appalling complacency" by opposition politicians after earthquakes linked to fracking shook the city of Blackpool.
In the US, public opinion is mixed in the battle between job creation through energy exploitation and environmental protection.
Seventy-two per cent of Ohio voters want to see fracking stopped until more studies are done on its environmental and geological impacts, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on January 19. However, 64 per cent of voters think drilling should continue despite possible harms.
Health problems
"We really don't know what this technology means for the environment over the long-term," Sinding, the lawyer, told Al Jazeera. “Our primary concern is that the rush to develop these unconventional supplies is resulting in real health and environmental impacts because of a lack of appropriate safeguards at the state and federal level.”
People living near unconventional gas facilities have complained of skin rashes, headaches, neurological damage and other ailments, but data does not exist to conclusively link this anecdotal evidence to gas extraction.
A thorough study of the problem could cost upwards of $100m, officials from the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry told Abrahm Lustgarten, a reporter with the investigative site ProPublica who has covered the issue extensively.
While thorough data on the long-term effects on fracking does not exist, policymakers and energy companies are moving full steam ahead to increase extraction.
Natural gas, much of it unconventional and requiring hydraulic fracking "has the potential, at least, to cause a paradigm shift in fuelling North America's energy future", Cambridge Energy Research Associates, a consultancy, noted in a 2010 report.
Booming industry
Are we entering a Golden Age of Gas? wonders a special report from the International Energy Agency from 2011. The US alone possesses 2,074 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to numbers cited by America's Natural Gas Alliance, an industry lobby group.
"The combination of two technologies - horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing - made it possible to produce shale gas economically, and from 2006 to 2010 US shale gas production grew by an average of 48 per cent per year," the US Energy Information Administration noted in its 2011 Annual Energy Outlook.

South Africa faces concerns over fracking

Opposition to the process has, however, intensified along with extraction, even in economically troubled regions such as Ohio, which has seen its manufacturing base hammered by outsourcing and foreign competition in recent years.
"This shale [gas] boom does not have a safety net, for the workers or local infrastructure," Beiersdorfer said. "It's another example of industry coming here, extracting the resources, taking the profits out and leaving the devastation behind."
Like other environmentalists, she is happy that President Barack Obama recently issued a temporary block on the Keystone XL pipeline, which proposed to move massive amounts of unconventional oil from Canada's tar-sands through the US heartland.
Concerns about water contamination have led several jurisdictions, including the state of New York, France, the Canadian province of Quebec and Bulgaria to suspend or ban hydraulic fracking. Images of blue flames gushing from rural faucets, along with pipelines and drilling stations cutting through rolling fields entered the popular imagination with the release of the Oscar-nominated documentary film Gas Land.
"We are seeing a lot of litigation, where individuals are claiming their drinking water is being contaminated or they are otherwise facing health risks from gas development," Sinding said.
While earthquakes have garnered significant media attention, problems like water quality - which often are presented as a clash of numbers between various scientists - are harder for the press to explain. Contamination happens over time, rather than in sudden shifts of tectonic plates, so it can be harder for people to notice.
"With the attention this [earthquakes and problems linked to fracking] is getting now, I hope we don't just go back to business as usual," professor Armbruster said.

Syria's Military ramps up violence

2012-01-29T11:18:00.000-08:00

Gulf monarchies leaving Syria:

The announcement came as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said Syria had failed to implement Arab League decisions, and had failed to stop its violent crackdown, which has now been going on for 10 months.

Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, the prime minister of Qatar, warned Syria that the failure of the government to step down would lead to UN involvement.

This latest move comes days after the Arab League extended its monitoring mission in Syria for another month. But that mission now seems doomed.

The latest move by the Arab League was harshly criticised by the Syrian government.

So, has the Arab League mission in Syria failed? And what would it mean if the crisis in this country is internationalised?

"Russia is the only card left, if al-Assad loses this card he's finished. But I don't see any foreign intervention for the time being and this has been explicitly said by the British foreign minister. I don't think the West is ready to interfere. It is the task of the Syrians to carry on with their peaceful movement to achieve their goals. I don't think the majority of Syrians want to see the country destroyed by NATO. What we want is a radical change to finish with this regime."
Thabet Salem, a journalist and political commentator

Brazilian Police raid more slums near Sao Paulo

2012-01-23T22:25:00.000-08:00

Local news media showed images of burning vehicles on Sunday as riot police faced off with local residents armed with clubs, makeshift shields and motorcycle helmets.

Brazilian police have stormed a a sprawling settlement of landless workers near Sao Paulo in an attempt to reclaim the land.

The Globo TV network portal G1 cited local officials in Sao Jose dos Campos as saying 15 people had been detained and one injured in the raid on the Pinheiros settlement.

An estimated 5,500 people live in the settlement, built on private land that landless families took over some eight years ago. They recently lost a legal battle with the land's owner and were evicted.

In November, elite police units raided Rocinha, the largest slum in Rio de Janeiro, around 440 kilometres east of Sao Paulo.

*
Brazilian authorities have vowed to establish control over the country's slums and present an orderly face by the time the country hosts the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.

NBC Republican Debate - Romney attacks Gingrich

2012-01-23T22:18:00.000-08:00

US Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich have clashed in a bitter debate days ahead of the Florida primary in which both are vying for frontrunner status in the battle to challenge Barack Obama in November.
A newly aggressive Romney on Monday charged that Gingrich had "resigned in disgrace" from Congress after four years as House speaker, and subsequently worked as an "influence peddler" in Washington.
Gingrich shot back at his rival saying Romney's attacks were riddled with falsehoods and that his rival was not "telling the truth"."In the 15 years after he left the speakership, the speaker has been working as an influence peddler in Washington," said the former Massachusetts governor. "I think this is going to come down to a question of leadership."
"I don't want to waste any time on it," he said, "It is the worst kind of trivial politics".
The clash occurred in the opening moments of the first of this week's two debates before the January 31 Florida primary in which Gingrich, who won in South Carolina last week, has taken a lead over Romney, according to two new polls.
On his Iran policy, Romney said he would consider it an "act of war" if Iran was to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit route for global oil supplies.
"We want to show Iran" that closing the Strait or any action similar act, Romney said, "will be considered an act of war, an act of terror and America is going to keep the sea lanes open".
In the lead-up to the debate, Romney called on Gingrich to release his contract with Freddie Mac, the mortgage giant blamed for helping to cover up the depth of America's housing bubble which collapsed plunging the nation into recession, hitting Florida particularly hard.
Gingrich, who was paid some $1.6m in consulting fees for what he called his advice as a "historian" to the company, readily obliged, releasing his contract just hours before the debate.
Romney, a multimillionaire businessman once considered the presumptive nominee, has struggled to win over the Republicans' conservative base, which remains wary of his Mormon faith and his changing positions on key issues such as abortion and gay marriage.
For his part, Gingrich has tried to brush aside accusations of erratic, chaotic leadership in Congress when he was also hit by an ethics inquiry, as well as overcome questions over his marital infidelities.

US involvement in Cuba

As the two top Republican front-runners engaged in the heated debate, the other two Republicans still in the race, Christian conservative Rick Santorum and Texas congressman Ron Paul paled into the background."I don't like the isolationism of not talking to people ... the Cold War is over. ... We talked to the Soviets. We talk to the Chinese. ... I don't know why the Cuban people should be so intimidating."Paul, who was trailing with just eight per cent support in Florida, said he would like to see the Cuban people celebrate their own freedom without any US involvement.
He also denied that he was planning to run as a third-party candidate.
Santorum, who stood at the third place with 11 per cent support, put question for both Romney and Gingrich.
"My question to Governor Romney and to Speaker Gingrich, if you believe in capitalism that much, then why did you support the bailout of Wall Street, where you had an opportunity to allow destructive capitalism to work, to allow a failure of a system that needed to fail because people did things that in capitalism you pay a price?"
On Iran he said: "The bottom line is the theocracy that runs Iran is the equivalent of having al-Qaeda in charge of a country with huge oil reserves, gas reserves, and a nuclear weapon."

Returns of the Dragon - A look at Chinese Zodiac

2012-01-23T11:02:00.000-08:00

Acura NSX - The Future looks brighter for Honda

2012-01-23T08:11:00.000-08:00

Clean Slate

This latest approach shares virtually nothing with the company's last stab at an NSX successor. Previous ideas, notably those that called for a ten-cylinder engine to be placed ahead of the passenger compartment, have been discarded in favor of an approach officials believe is much more in line with Acura's brand identity.

As was the case with the original, the new NSX places its engine smack in the middle of its chassis. That engine will likely be a V-6, but that's where the similarities with the original car end. As was the case nearly two decades ago, Honda engineers view the car as a halo vehicle, one ideal for showcasing its engineering prowess and its latest and greatest technologies.

Subsequently, the NSX will utilize a form of the new hybrid Super Handling-AWD (SH-AWD) system. The V-6, likely a 3.5- or 3.7-liter, will drive the rear wheels by means of a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Unlike the current SH-AWD system, which would send power to the front wheels by way of a driveshaft and a mechanical differential, the NSX's front wheels will instead be powered by a pair of electric motors. As each motor is assigned to a wheel, the system has the ability to accelerate the outer wheel in a corner, creating a yaw moment that improves the car's ability to turn in and rotate. All told, the system could produce a net punch of about 400 hp.

Swoopy Styling
Of course, packaging that sort of technology in a plain wrapper wouldn't suffice for a halo car. Love it or hate it, the new NSX's sheetmetal will certainly turn heads. Despite borrowing the Audi R8's general proportions and stance -- i.e. wide track, cabin pushed close to the front axle, etc. -- the car has a visual identity all its own.

Acura's edgy design language takes center stage, but the beleaguered "beak" grille -- long a complaint of previous Acura designs -- is thankfully nowhere to be found. Thin LED headlamps give way to a panel that dominates the upper half of the grille. The car's side panels are relatively clean and unspoiled, interrupted only by a rather dramatic light kicker above the rocker panels and a character line that neatly folds into a pair of buttresses that wisp away from the roofline itself. A thin line of LEDs wraps itself into the rear fenders, runs the entire width of the rear fascia, and effectively serves as both brake lights and a center-mounted stop lamp. The display model we were shown lacked a full interior, but appeared to boast a waterfall instrument panel that evolved the twin cockpit theme used in the original NSX.

Although Acura's only showing the car in coupe form at this point, there are rumblings of a convertible variant, fueled in part by the appearance of a similar-looking roadster on the set of the forthcoming Avengers super hero movie. If approved for production, expect that car to differ only in terms of its decklid, rear fenders, and side character line.

Production Priorities
It's still unclear if the NSX will utilize its own architecture, or perhaps share its platform with another vehicle. It is, however, fairly certain to enter production. Officials tell us the development program is still in its infancy, but the car could enter series production as early as 2015.

Will a hybrid sports car scare off some purists? Perhaps. But it doesn't necessarily equate to a vehicle that's not enjoyable to drive. As was the case with the first NSX, engineers are striving for a balance between driving nirvana and daily tractability -- albeit this time with an ecological conscience thrown in for good measure.

"The NSX will make the driver one with the car to enhance dynamic driving abilities without getting in the way," says Honda CEO Ito. "Like the first NSX, we will again express high performance through engineering efficiency - but even as we focus on the fun to drive spirit of the NSX, I think a supercar must respond positively to environmental responsibilities."

US Warships pass through Straight of Hormuz

2012-01-22T22:24:00.000-08:00

(CNN) -- Flanked by British and French ships, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier moved through the Strait of Hormuz without incident Sunday despite recent threats from Iran.

The U.S. Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement that the Lincoln "completed a regular and routine transit of the strait ... to conduct maritime security operations." The Lincoln is in the region with the USS Carl Vinson, giving the U.S. Navy its standard two-carrier presence there.

A British defense ministry spokesman, who was not named per policy, said Sunday that the "HMS Argyll and a French vessel joined a U.S. carrier group" going through the strait "to underline the unwavering international commitment to maintaining rights of passage under international law."

"Britain maintains a constant presence in the region as part of our enduring contribution to Gulf security," the spokesman said.

Several weeks ago, as the USS John Stennis left the Persian Gulf and headed back to the western Pacific, Iranian officials warned the United States not to send in another carrier.

"We have always stated that there is no need for the forces belonging to the countries beyond this region to have a presence in the Persian Gulf," Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi said in early January, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency. "Their presence does nothing but create mayhem, and we never wanted them to be present in the Persian Gulf."

Ramping up pressure on Iran

Tehran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, the only outlet to and from the Persian Gulf between Iran and the United Arab Emirates as well as Oman, as Iran faces increased scrutiny over its nuclear program and possible sanctions on its oil exports. The critical shipping lane had 17 million barrels of oil per day passing through in 2011, according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has responded by threatening to "respond" if Iran attempts to shut down traffic. He said that the U.S. naval and military presence in the region will not change and the current level is sufficient to deal with any situation that could arise.

"We have always maintained a very strong presence in that region," Panetta said earlier this month. "We have a Navy fleet located there. We have a military presence in that region. And ... we have continually maintained a strong presence in the region to make very clear that we were going to do everything possible to help secure the peace in that part of the world."

Syria rejects Arab League transition plan

2012-01-22T22:18:00.000-08:00

Syria rejects Arab League transition plan

Official source condemns initiative as "conspiracy" and violation of sovereignty, state TV reports.

BMW i8 to pack 590 lb-ft torque - M1 to follow

2012-01-22T15:20:00.000-08:00

Photographs taken on Alex Fraser Bridge in Delta, BC, Canada

Exterior and Interior

When BMW first announced it’s plans to put the Vision Efficient Dynamics into production, a company source said: "there will be less of the synthetic glass and more solid structure added to the final design." How can this be translated? The i8 will be built on an aluminum chassis which houses the powertrain and the passenger cell. This cell consists of high-strength, but extremely lightweight carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP). It will be built at BMW’s Leipzig plant starting 2013.

The car’s front will be defined by the now famous kidney grille and two large air intakes. The gullwing doors will be replaced by standard ones and the rear will get a quad exhaust system.

The Engine

For the interior we expect the usual M accessories: sports leather seats, a sports steering wheel, and different aluminum inserts.

The Vision Efficient Dynamics Concept was powered by a three cylinder turbo diesel power plant combined with two electric motors for a maximum output of 356 HP and 590 lb-ft of peak torque. For the i8, BMW will combine a 1.5 liter inline 3 engine with two electric motors with an output of 95 HP each. The final output will be in the 400 HP area.

BMW will offer both RWD and AWD versions, with the hybrid version being offered only as an AWD model. The engine will be mated to a new double clutch transmission and will sprint the future supercar from 0 to 60 mph in just 4 seconds. The company has promised a fuel economy of 58 MPG and an autonomy of 400 kilometers. The bad news, though, is that top speed will be limited to only 155 mph, but we’re sure tuners will have something to say about this.

As for the M version, it is rumored to be powered by an Inline 6 turbo engine or V8 engine with an output of 450 HP. The engine will be combined with two "supercaps" that will add a total of 100 HP each. And if you do a little math you’ll understand why we can’t wait to see the Project i Coupe when it goes into production.

When Can I Get One?

The BMW Project i Coupe will go on sale in 2013. In Germany, it is rumored to be priced between 125,000 and 175,000 euro (between $175,000 and $250,000 at the current exchange rates). BMW announced it will produce around 30,000 units within 5 years.

The Competition

The BMW project i Coupe will take on models like the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, the Audi R8 V10, and the Porsche 911 Turbo. All of them are German models and all develop more than 500 HP. Not to mention that all of them have prices bigger than any normal person can ever afford. So, for those out there who can actually afford one, we believe the final decision will be made depending on everyone’s likes and tastes.

Mitt Romney - Releasing personal tax returns to public

2012-01-22T15:05:00.000-08:00

Mitt Romney, the Republican US presidential candidate, has said that he will release his tax returns for the last two years this week.

Sunday's announcement comes as the one-time front-runner admitted talk surrounding his returns hurt him in this weekend's primary in South Carolina, where he lost to former house speaker Newt Gingrich.

"I will release my tax returns for 2010, which is the last returns which were completed, on Tuesday of this week," Romney said on the Fox News network. The former Massachussetts governor also said he would release an estimate for the 2011 returns, officially due in April.

"We made a mistake holding off as long as we did and it just was a distraction".
In a surprising upset, Gingrich won 40 per cent of the vote in Saturday's South Carolina primary, while Romney finished a previously unexpected second with 28 per cent.

Romney, who hails from a wealthy family and then went on to a financially successful tenure as co-founder of a private equity investment firm, is one of the wealthiest US presidential candidates in history.

In the announcement, he emphasized he was releasing two years of returns after Gingrich posted his returns for only 2010 on Thursday.

Gingrich and other Republican rivals attacked Romney in debates last week, asking why the former executive would not release his returns.

Romney had originally said he would release his records in April, when returns for all US tax-payers are due.

Romney's statement that he paid an approximate 15 per cent in taxes, below the national average for wage earners, but in line with those who derive wealth from investments, earned him criticism at a time when the economy is on the fore-front of American voters' minds.

Arab League directs al-Assad to give over power

2012-01-22T15:02:00.000-08:00

The Arab League has called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to delegate power to his vice president and for elections to be held under a "national unity government," the latest steps in a slow-moving diplomatic effort to end 10 months of bloody uprising.

The bloc's members agreed on Sunday to a political initiative that would call for a unity government and early elections to end the crisis, the Qatari prime minister said after a meeting of the 22-member body in Cairo.
The new plan envisions the "peaceful departure of the Syrian regime" and resembles the arrangement in Yemen, where Gulf nations convinced President Ali Abdullah Saleh to delegate power and leave the country, Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani said.
Al Thani said the League will ask the United Nations Security Council to support its plan for transition.
"After the establishment of the government of national unity, there has to be a referendum and preparation for new elections. The Arab League's Secretary-General is to send a new special envoy to Syria, and will call on the international community to support this national unity government to fulfill its functions," he said.
He also reiterated the Arab League's demands that the violence in Syria be brought to an end, that political detainees be released, that the Syrian military pull out of cities and that citizens be allowed to demonstrate peacefully.
The League has called on the opposition and government to being a new round of dialogue "within two weeks".
Al-Thani said that while the League was taking its case to the Security Council, it was not in favour of an international military intervention.
"We are looking into an Arab solution for this. We are not looking for a military intervention. The decision was by consensus, except Algeria which had some reservations. Lebanon has abstained, and we appreciate their situation there and we thank them for their cooperation," he said.
He also announced that the Arab League's observer mission in Syria would be extended, and that the observers would be given additional equipment.
Nabil ElAraby, the League's secretary-general, said that Syria had not fulfilled its obligations, and that is why the observers' mission was being extended.

Libyan Attack on NTC

2012-01-21T08:15:00.000-08:00

Around 200 protesters frustrated with the pace of reforms in Libya have attacked the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi, witnesses say.
At least one grenade was thrown as the attackers broke through the gate and into the compound housing the council's offices on Saturday, but there were no reports of casualties.
Residents in Benghazi have been protesting for nearly two weeks, with some demanding transparency and justice from the country's new leaders.

Newt Gingrich leading South Carolina Polls

2012-01-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

Newt Gingrich, the Republican White House hopeful, was leading in at least four opinion polls, as polling stations opened at 07:00 local time (12:00GMT) in the US presidential primary in South Carolina.

In surveys taken before voting began, Public Policy Polling said that 35 per cent of registered Republicans in the southern state supported Gingrich, a former congressman and House of Representatives speaker, over the previous front-runner, Mitt Romney, who received 29 per cent of the support.The two candidates are both trailed by the former Pennsylvania senator, Rick Santorum, and the former congressman, Ron Paul.
Another survey, the Palmetto Poll, showed Gingrich leading in South Carolina with 32 per cent, Romney on 26 per cent and 20 per cent undecided.

Code 130R, Chevy's new 20K rear wheel drive sports car

2012-01-21T07:52:00.000-08:00

Is Chevrolet Serious About Its $20,000, Rear-Wheel-Drive Sports Car?

January 18, 2012 / By David Zenlea

Chevrolet's stand at the Detroit auto show provided an intriguing if confusing look into the bow-tie brand's sport compact strategy, from the mild -- a slightly modified version of the Sonic due out later this year -- to the wild -- a Lamborghini Gallardo knock-off called the Tru 140S, which would ride on the same platform as the Cruze.

The most tantalizing possibility, though, is the Code 130R, a four-seat, rear-wheel-drive coupe that would cost around $20,000. Far fetched? Not necessarily.

"We know how we'd do it," said GM North America president Mark Reuss.

We think we know, too. The key is found about 100 feet away from the Chevy stand in the form of the 2013 Cadillac ATS. The 3-series fighter employs a new, lightweight rear-wheel-drive platform known as Alpha. Though Reuss and the engineers behind the Alpha platform stress they are "focused on just Cadillac," they add that it's also flexible and scalable.

"We've got an architecture where we've...done a lot of things right and so, yes, there are other opportunities that we're investigating," said Alpha lead engineer Dave Masch. He said there's no fundamental issue with using this architecture for smaller vehicles, though the Code 130R, with its ultra-short overhangs, is hardly a production-ready concept.

The ATS's more expensive elements, like aluminum front strut towers and magnesium engine mounts, can be exchanged for cheaper steel with relative ease, Reuss says. Even then, any car built on the platform would benefit from the extensive focus on weight savings that went into designing the architecture. For instance, the engineers set up the suspension geometry with a mind toward using the thinnest hardware possible, including smaller fasteners than GM has used in the past. The concept was described as featuring the 1.4-liter turbo four-cylinder found in the Cruze and Sonic paired with GM's eAssist technology. A production version also might also offer a version of the ATS's 2.0-liter turbo. Any larger engines would overlap with the Camaro, which is also likely to move to this platform.

So, Chevrolet can build the Code 130R or something like it. But why would it? The answer is that GM has something of a youth problem. Like every company, it's desperate to attract the so-called "millennials," those 11-30 year olds who will become the bulk of the car buying market within the next fifteen or so years. But GM created another hurdle for itself by killing its two most youth-oriented brands, Pontiac and Saturn. The average Chevy buyer is 55. The Cruze has attracted some young buyers and the new Sonic will certainly attract more. But neither of those are the sort of affordable halo car -- think Kia Soul, Hyundai Veloster, or Mini Cooper -- that will grab a young buyer's attention and build brand loyalty.

A front-wheel-drive product like the Tru 140S might be an easier solution and would more directly compete with the likes of a Veloster. But that too may be a reason to do something different, something distinctly American.

"Anyone can build a 140S. The 130R can only be built by GM, Ford or Chrysler," says auto analyst Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics. And though Chevrolet already has a distinctly American, rear-wheel-drive coupe in the Camaro, Hall argues it's "boxed into a corner" that will prevent it from ever becoming small enough or cheap enough to become a viable option among young buyers. "[Chevrolet] can use a second rear-wheel-drive coupe," he says.

The next step is for Chevrolet to tour the two concepts around the country in search of youth feedback, though Reuss says he will make sure his opinion counts as well -- "I will weigh in, you can bet on that." If the Code 130R gets the nod, it would probably appear sometime around 2015.

Jon Huntsman calls it quits

2012-01-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

Huntsman, a former ambassador to China and governor of Utah, announced the decision in South Carolina on Monday, ahead of this week's primary election, adding that he was endorsing current front-runner Mitt Romney.
Jon Huntsman has suspended his campaign from the race for the Republican nomination in the upcoming US presidential election.
"Today, I am suspending my campaign for the presidency. I believe it is now time for our party to unite around the candidate best equipped to defeat [President] Barack Obama," he told supporters.
"Despite our differences and the space between us on some of the issues, I believe that candidate is governor Mitt Romney."

A-12 Blackbird and Operation Oxcart - CIA's incredible spy plane project

2012-01-14T19:22:00.000-08:00

CIA Spy Plane: Lockheed A-12 Blackbird
Project Oxcart - Project BLACK SHIELD Partial CIA Files, Flight Logs and

Some of the 2,347 pages of CIA files. Memos, reports, correspondences and manuals covering the development of the Lockheed A-12 Blackbird, its testing, and its missions, archived on CD-ROM.
The Lockheed A-12 was a reconnaissance aircraft built for the Central Intelligence Agency by Lockheed's famed Skunk Works, based on the designs of Clarence "Kelly" Johnson. The A-12 was produced from 1962 through 1964, and was in operation from 1963 until 1968. The single-seat design, which first flew in April 1962, was the precursor to both the Air Force YF-12 interceptor and the famous SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft. The final A-12 mission was flown in May 1968, and the program and aircraft retired in June of that year.

An A-12 Blackbird under construction, 1964

One spring day in 1962 a test pilot named Louis Schalk, employed by the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, took off from the Nevada desert in an aircraft the like of which had never been seen before. A casual observer would have been startled by the appearance of this vehicle; he would perhaps have noticed especially its extremely long, slim, shape, its two enormous jet engines, its long, sharp, projecting nose, and its swept-back wings which appeared far too short to support the fuselage in flight. He might well have realized that this was a revolutionary airplane; he could not have known that it would be able to fly at three times the speed of sound for more than 3,000 miles without refueling, or that toward the end of its flight, when fuel began to run low, it could cruise at over 90,000 feet.

As preliminary work began inside Lockheed in the late 1950s, to develop the successor to the U-2, the designs were nicknamed "Archangel", after the U-2 program, which had been known as "Angel". As the aircraft designs evolved and configuration changes occurred, the internal Lockheed designation changed from Archangel-1 to Archangel-2, and so on. These nicknames for the evolving designs soon simply became known as "A-1", "A-2", etc. The A-12 was Lockheed's 12th design in this development of the U-2 successor. However, many documents, and references to individual craft, use Clarence Johnson's preferred name for the plane, "the Article".

PARTIAL DOCUMENTS ON THE CD-ROM

CIA A-12 FILES

437 pages of CIA files composed of reports, correspondences, memoranda, reports and background studies concerning the A-12. Files date from 1959 to 1991. Highlights from the files include: A 1959 memo details the organization and delineation of responsibilities of Project Oxcart. A 1962 report details the measures for keeping Project Oxcart secret and pre-planned cover stories for various contingencies that might expose the project. A 1962 memorandum of conversation between Director of Central Intelligence John McCone and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, mention is made of President John Kennedy's position on flying manned aircraft over the Soviet Union. A 1963 report covers how wide and where knowledge of the existence of the Oxcart has spread. Accident reports concerning crashes Of A-12 Oxcarts. Accounts of briefings made to President Johnson on the development of the Oxcart A-12. A report on efforts to get the YF-12A prepared to break speed records as promised by President Johnson. A 1966 special national intelligence estimate, covers the possible reaction by China if the Oxcart flies over its territory. Summaries of Black Shield missions in which the Lockheed Oxcart A-12 flew over China, North Vietnam and North Korea. The files include three formally secret CIA histories in which CIA historians tell the story of the Oxcart A-12.

CIA A-12 MANUALS

FLIGHT CHARACTERISTICS: Configuration Effects, Stability Characteristics, High Angle of Attack Conditions, Spins, Control Effectiveness, Single Engine.

ALL WEATHER OPERATION: Ice and Rain, Turbulence and Thunderstorms, Cold and Hot Weather Procedures, Night Flying.

CIA BLACK SHIELD MISSION REPORTS

558 pages of Lockheed Oxcart A-12 Black Shield mission reports. The nine reports date from 5/31/1967 to 1/26/1968. They cover reconnaissance fly-overs of North Vietnam, China, Laos, and North Korea.

Missions over China concentrated on military installations, urban complexes, basic services, storage, urban complexes, electronics/communications, air installations and naval/port facilities.

Missions flown over North Vietnam concentrated on surface-to-surface missile equipment, surface-to-air sites, electronics/communications, industry, basic services, naval/port facilities, storage, CBR warfare and urban complexes.

Missions over North Korea concentrated on missiles, air installations, military installations, electronics/communications, industry, basic services, ports and harbors, storage and urban complexes. CIA Black Shield Mission BX6847 sought information concerning the USS Pueblo.

OXCART aircraft on the ramp at Groom Lake Area 51 in 1964.
There are ten aircraft in the photo; the first eight are OXCART
machines, and the last two are Air Force YF-12As

HISTORY OF THE A-12

The U-2 dated from 1954. When its development began under the direction of a group headed by Richard M. Bissell of the CIA. Before the U-2 became operational in June 1956, CIA project officials had estimated that its life expectancy for flying safely over the Soviet Union would be between 18 months and two years. After overflights began and the Soviets demonstrated the capability of tracking and attempting to intercept the U-2, this estimate seemed too optimistic. By August 1956, Richard Bissell was so concerned about the U-2's vulnerability that he despaired of its ability to avoid destruction for six months, let alone two years. By the autumn of 1957, Bissell had collected so many ideas for a successor to the U-2, that Bissell asked the Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles for permission to establish an advisory committee, which became known as the Land Committee, to assist in the selection process. Bissell also felt that the support of a committee of prominent scientists and engineers would prove useful when it came time to ask for funding for such an expensive project.

The two most prominent firms involved in the search for a new aircraft were the Lockheed Corporation, which had designed the successful U-2, and Convair which was building the supersonic B-58 "Hustler" bomber for the Air force and also working on an even faster model known as the B-58B "Super Hustler". Early in 1958, Richard Bissell asked officials from both firms to submit designs for a high-speed reconnaissance aircraft. During the spring and summer of 1958, both firms worked on designs and concepts without government contracts or funds.

Following extended discussions with Bissell on the subject of a supersonic successor to the U-2, Lockheed's Kelly Johnson began designing an aircraft that would cruise at Mach 3.0 at altitudes above 90,000 feet. On 23 July 1958, Johnson presented his new high-speed concept to Land's advisory committee, which expressed interested in the approach he was taking. At the same meeting, Navy representatives presented a concept for a high-altitude reconnaissance vehicle that examined the possibility of developing a ramjet-powered, inflatable, rubber vehicle that would be lifted to altitude by a balloon and then be propelled by a rocket to a speed where the ramjets could produce thrust. Richard Bissell asked Johnson to evaluate this concept, and three weeks later, after receiving more details from the Navy representatives, Kelly Johnson made some quick calculations that showed that the design was impractical because the balloon would have to be a mile in diameter to lift the vehicle, which in turn would need a wing surface greater than one-seventh of an acre to carry the payload.

In September 1958, the Land committee met again to review all the concepts then under consideration and to narrow out the few that were most practicable. Among the concepts rejected were the Navy's proposal for an inflatable, ramjet-powered aircraft, a Boeing proposal for a 190-foot-long hydrogen-powered inflatable aircraft, and a Lockheed design for a hydrogen-powered aircraft (the CL-400). The committee examined two other Kelly Johnson designs at this meeting, a tailless subsonic aircraft with a very-low-radar cross section (the G2A) and a new supersonic design (the A-2) and did not accept either one, the former because of its slow speed and the latter because of it dependence on exotic fuels for its ramjets and it overall high cost. The committee approved the continuation of Convair's work on a ramjet-powered Mach 4.0 "parasite" aircraft that would be launched from a specially configured version of the B-58B bomber. The design was termed a parasite because it could not take off on its own but needed a larger aircraft to carry it aloft and accelerate it to the speed required to start the ramjet engine. The Convair design was called the FISH.

Two months later, after reviewing the Convair proposal and yet another Lockheed design for a high-speed reconnaissance aircraft (the A-3), the Land committee concluded in late November 1958 that it would indeed be feasible to build an aircraft whose speed and altitude would make radar tracking difficult or impossible. The committee, therefore, recommended that DCI Dulles ask President Eisenhower to approve further pursuit of the project and to provide fund for additional studies and tests.

On 17 December 1958, Allen Dulles and Richard Bissell briefed the President on the progress toward a successor to the U-2. Also present were Land and Purcell from the advisory committee, Presidential Service Advisor James Killian, and Air Force Secretary Donald Quarles. DCI Dulles reviewed the results to the U-2 missions to date and stated his belief that a successor to the U-2 could be used all over the world and "would have a much greater invulnerability to detection"

Bissell then described two competing projects by Lockheed and Convair, noting that the chief question at the moment was whether to use air launch or ground takeoff. The next phase, he added, would be detailed engineering, at the end of which it was proposed that 12 aircraft be ordered at a cost of about $100 million. With funding for the proposed new type of aircraft now available, Richard Bissell asked Lockheed and Convair to submit detailed proposals.

By the summer of 1959, both firms had completed their proposals. In early June, Lockheed submitted a design for the ground-launched aircraft known as the A-11. It would have a speed of Mach 3.2, a range of 3,200 miles, an altitude of 90,000 feet, and a completion date of January 1961. Kelly Johnson had refused to reduce the aerodynamics of his design in order to achieve a greater anti-radar capability, and the A-11's radar cross section, although not great, was substantially larger than that of the much smaller parasite aircraft being designed by Convair.

The Convair proposal called for a small, manned, ramjet-powered, reconnaissance vehicle to be air launched from one of two specially configured B-58B Super Hustlers. The FISH vehicle, a radical lifting body with a very-small-radar cross section, would fly at Mach 4.2 at 90,000 feet and have a range of 3,900 miles. Two Marquardt ramjets would power its Mach 4.2 dash over the target area. Once the FISH decelerated, two Pratt & Whitney JT-12 turbojets would bring it back to base. The ramjet exit nozzles and wing edges would be constructed of Pyroceram, a ceramic material that could withstand the high temperatures of very high speeds and would absorb radio frequency energy from the radar pulses. Convair stated that the FISH could be ready by January 1961.

Convair's proposal depended on two uncertain factors. First and foremost was the unproven technology of the ramjet engines. At the time, no aircraft in existence could carry a large, ramjet-powered aircraft into the sky and then accelerate to sufficient speed for the ramjet engines to be ignited. Since ramjet engines had only been tested in wind tunnels, there was no available data to prove that these engines would work in the application proposed by Convair. The second uncertain factor was the B-58B bomber that was supposed to achieve Mach 2.2 before launching the FISH above 35,000 feet. The version of the B-58 was still in the design stage.

Convair's proposal suffered a major setback in June 1959, when the Air Force canceled the B-58B project. Conversion of the older, slower B-58A into the supersonic launching platform for the FISH was ruled out by the high cost and technical difficulties involved. Moreover, the Air Force was unwilling to part with two aircraft from the small inventory of its most advanced bomber. Even had the B-58B program not been canceled, the FISH proposal would probably not have been feasible. Convair engineers had calculated that the added weight of the FISH would prevent the B-58B from achieving the speed required to ignite the parasite aircraft's ramjet engines.

The Convair proposal was therefore unusable, but the Lockheed design with its high radar cross section was also unacceptable to the Land committee. On 14 July 1959, the committee rejected both designs and continued the competition. Lockheed continued to work on developing a design that would be less vulnerable to detection, and Convair received a new CIA contract to design an air-breathing twin-engine aircraft that would meet the general specifications being followed by Lockheed.

Following recommendations by the Land committee, both Lockheed and Convair incorporated the Pratt & Whitney J58 power plant into their designs. This engine had originally been developed for the Navy's large, jet-powered flying boat, the Glenn L. Martin Company's P6M Seamaster, and was the most powerful engine available. In 1958 the Navy had canceled the Seamaster program, which left Pratt & Whitney without a buyer for the powerful J58 engine.

Although the Land committee had not yet found an acceptable design, it informed President Eisenhower on 20 July 1959 that the search was making good process. Concerned about the U-2's vulnerability to detection and possible interception and aware that the photo satellite project was encountering significant problems, the President gave his final approval to the high-speed reconnaissance aircraft project.

By the late summer of 1959, both Convair and Lockheed had completed new designs for a follow-on to the U-2. Convair's entry, known as the KINGFISH, used much of the technology developed for the F-102, F-106, and B-58, including stainless steel honeycomb skin, planiform wing design, and crew capsule system, which eliminated the need for the pilot to wear a pressurized suit. The KINGFISH had two side-by-side J58 engines inside the fuselage, which significantly reduced the radar cross section. Two additional important design features that contributed to a small radar return were fiberglass engine inlets and wings whose leading edges were made of Pyroceram.

Lockheed's new entry was much like its first, but with several modifications and a new designator, A-12. It too, would employ two of the powerful J58 engines. Lockheed's major innovation in reducing radar return was a cesium additive in the fuel, which decreased the radar cross section of the afterburner plume. This improvement had been proposed by Edward Purcell of the Land committee. Desiring to save weight, Kelly Johnson had decided not to construct the A-12 out of steel. Traditional lightweight metals such as aluminum were out of the question because they could not stand the heat that would be generated as the A-12 flew at Mach 3.2, so Johnson chose a titanium alloy.

On 20 August 1959, Lockheed and Convair submitted their proposals to a joint Department of Defense, Air Force, and CIA selection panel. The two aircraft were similar in performance characteristics, although the Lockheed design's specifications were slightly better in each category. The Lockheed design was also preferable in terms of overall cost. In the vital area of vulnerability to radar detection, however, the Convair design was superior. Its smaller size and internally mounted engines gave it a smaller radar cross section than the Lockheed A-12.

Some of the CIA representatives initially favored the Convair KINGFISH design because of its smaller radar cross section, but they were eventually convinced to support the Lockheed design by the Air Force members of the panel, who believed that Convair's cost over-runs and production delays on the B-58 project might be repeated in this new project. In contrast, Lockheed had produced the U-2 under budget and on time. Another factor favoring the A-12 was security. Lockheed had experience in running a highly secure facility (the Skunk Works) in which all of the key employees were already cleared by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The CIA selected Lockheed's A-12 over a Convair proposal called KINGFISH.

Despite its vote in favor of the Lockheed proposal, the selection panel remained concerned about the A-12's vulnerability to radar detection and therefore required Lockheed to prove its concept for reducing the A-12's radar cross section by 1 January 1960. On 14 September 1959, the CIA awarded a four-month contract to Lockheed to proceed with anti-radar studies, aerodynamic structural tests, and engineering designs. This research and all later work on the A-12 took place under a new codename, Project OXCART, established at the end of August 1959 to replace its more widely known predecessor, Project GUSTO.

By mid-January 1960, Lockheed had demonstrated that its concept of shape, fuel additive, and non-metallic parts would reduce the OXCART's radar cross section substantially. Richard Bissell, however, was very upset to learn that the changes had led to a reduction in the aircraft's performance, which meant it would not be able to attain the penetration altitude he had promised to President Eisenhower. Kelly Johnson then proposed to reduce the aircraft's weight by 1,000 pounds and increase the fuel load by 2,000 pounds, making it possible to achieve the target altitude of 90,000 feet. Afterward, he noted in the project log: "We have no performance margins left; so this project instead of being 10 times as hard as anything we have done, is 12 times as hard. This matches the design number and is obviously right". Johnson, "Archangel log", 21 January 1960.

These changes satisfied Bissell, who notified Johnson on 26 January that the CIA was authorizing the construction of 12 of the new aircraft. The actual contract was signed on 11 February 1960. Lockheed's original quotation for the project was $96.6 million for 12 aircraft, but technological difficulties eventually made this price impossible to meet. Recognizing that fabricating an aircraft from titanium might involve unforeseen difficulties, the CIA included a clause in the contract that allowed costs to be reevaluated. During the next five years, this clause had to be invoked on a number of occasions as the A-12's costs soared to more than double the original estimate.

From the very beginning, it was clear that Lockheed could not test the OXCART aircraft at its Burbank "Skunk Works" facility, where the runway was too short and too exposed to the public. The ideal testing site would be far removed from metropolitan areas, away from civil and military airways, easily accessible by air, blessed with good weather, capable of accommodating large numbers of personnel, near an Air Force installation, and having a runway at least 8,000 feet long. But no such place was to be found.

After considering 10 Air Force bases programmed for closing, Richard Bissell decided on the Groom Lake facility, commonly known as Area 51. Although its personnel accommodations, fuel storage capacity, and runway length were insufficient for the OXCART program, the site's remote location would greatly ease the task of maintaining the program's security, and a moderate construction program could provide adequate facilities. Construction began in September 1960; a C-47 shuttle service ferried work crews from Burbank to Las Vegas and from Las Vegas to the site.

The new 8,500 foot runway was completed by 15 November 1960. Kelly Johnson had been reluctant to have a standard Air Force runway with expansion joints every 25 feet, because he feared the joints would set up undesirable vibrations in the speedy aircraft. At his suggestion a 150-foot wide longitudinal section, each 150 feet long but staggered was used instead. This layout put most of the expansion joints parallel to the direction of aircraft roll and reduced the frequency of the joints.

Additional improvements included the resurfacing of 18 miles of highway leading to the base so that heavy fuel trucks could bring in the necessary fuel. The need for additional buildings on the base was met by the Navy. Three surplus Navy hangers were dismantled, moved, and reassembled on the north side of the base, and more than 100 surplus Navy housing buildings were also transported to Groom Lake, Nevada. All essential facilities were ready in time for the forecast delivery date of the first A-12 on 1 August 1961.

The first A-12, known as Article 121, was assembled and tested at Burbank during January and February 1962. After development and production at the Skunk Works, in Burbank, California, the first A-12 was transferred to Groom Lake test facility, commonly known as Area 51.

Since it could not be flown to the Groom Lake facility, the aircraft had to be partially disassembled and put on a specially designed trailer that cost nearly $100,000. The entire fuselage, without wings, was crated and covered, creating a load 35 feet wide and 105 feet long. To transport this huge load safely over the hundreds of miles to the site, obstructing road signs were removed, trees were trimmed, and some roadblocks had to be leveled. The plane left Burbank on 26 February 1962 and arrived two days later.

Lockheed test pilot Lou Schalk took the A-12 on its shakedown flight. On 25 April 1962, Schalk took "article 121" for an unofficial unannounced flight, which was an old Lockheed tradition. He flew the craft less than two miles at an altitude of about 20 feet and encountered considerable problems because of the improper hookup of several controls. These were promptly repaired and on the next day, 26 April, Schalk made a 40-minute flight. After a beautiful takeoff, the aircraft began shedding the triangular fillets that covered the framework of the chines along the edge of the aircraft body. The lost fillets, which had been secured to the airframe with epoxy resin, had to be recovered and re-affixed, a process that took the next four days.

The first official flight occurred on 30 April. Once the fillets were in place, the OXCART's official first flight took place, witnessed by a number of Central Intelligence Agency officials. This official first flight was also the first flight with the wheels up. Piloted again by Schalk, the OXCART took off at 170 knots and climbed to 30,000 feet. During the 59 minute flight, the A-12 achieved a top speed of 340 knots. Kelly Johnson declared it to be the smoothest first test flight of any aircraft he had designed or tested. On 2 May 1962, during the second test flight, the OXCART broke the sound barrier, achieving a speed of Mach 1.1.

Four more aircraft, including a two-seat trainer, arrived at the testing site before the end of the year. During the second delivery on 26 June 1962, the extra-wide vehicle carrying the aircraft accidentally struck a Greyhound bus traveling in the opposite direction. Project managers quickly authorized payment of $4,890 for the damage done to the bus in order to avoid having to explain in court why the OXCART delivery vehicle was so wide.

On October 5, 1962, with the newly developed J58 engines, the A-12 flew with one J75 engine, and one J58 engine. During 1963 these J58-equipped A-12s obtained speeds of Mach 3.2. Also, in 1963, the program experienced its first Blackbird loss. The first A-12 crash occurred on 24 May 1963, when a detachment pilot, realizing the airspeed indication was confusing and erroneous, decided to eject. The pilot was unhurt, but the plane was destroyed when it crashed near Wendover, Utah. A cover story for the press described the plane as an F-105. All A-12s were grounded for a week while the accident was investigated. The malfunction was found to be caused by ice that plugged up the pitot-static tube used to determine airspeed.

In June of 1964, the last A-12 was delivered to Groom Lake. A total of 18 aircraft were built through the A-12 program production run. Of these, 13 were A-12s, three were YF-12A interceptors for the Air Force (not funded under the OXCART program), and two were M-21s. One of the 13 A-12s was a dedicated trainer aircraft with a second, higher seat.

The YF-12 program was a limited production variant of the A-12 OXCART spy plane designed for the CIA and first flown in 1962. Lockheed was able to convince the U.S. Air Force that an aircraft based on the A-12 would provide a less costly alternative to the recently cancelled North American Aviation XF-108, since much of the design and development work on the YF-12 had already been done and paid for. Thus, in 1960 the Air Force agreed to take the 11th through 13th slots on the A-12 production line and have them completed in the YF-12A interceptor configuration. The main changes involved modifying the aircraft's nose to accommodate the Hughes AN/ASG-18 fire-control radar originally developed for the XF-108, and the addition of a second cockpit for a crewmember to operate the fire control radar. The nose modifications changed the aircraft's aerodynamics enough to require ventral fins to be mounted under the fuselage and engine nacelles to maintain stability. Finally, bays previously used to house the A-12's reconnaissance equipment were converted to carry missiles.

Two more A-12s were lost in later testing. On 9 July 1964, article 133 crashed while landing when a pitch-control servo device froze, rolling the plane into a wing-down position. Ejecting from a altitude of 129 feet, the pilot was blown sideways out of the craft. Although he was not very high off the ground, his parachute did open and he landed during the parachute's first swing. Fortunately he was unhurt, and no news of the accident filtered out of the base. Eighteen months later, on 28 December 1965, article 126 crashed immediately after takeoff because of an improperly wired stability augmentation system. As in the previous crash, the pilot ejected safely, and there was no publicity connected with the crash. An investigation ordered by Director of Central Intelligence John McCone, determined that the wiring error had resulted from negligence, not sabotage.

The A-12 made its first long-range, high speed flight on 27 January 1965. The flight lasted 100 minutes, with 75 minutes of which were flown at speeds greater than Mach 3.1, and the aircraft covered 2,850 miles at altitudes of between 75,600 and 80,000 feet. By this time, the OXCART was performing well. The engine inlet, camera, hydraulic, navigation, and flight-control systems all demonstrated acceptable reliability.

Nevertheless, as the OXCART began flying longer, faster, and higher, new problems arose. The most serious of these problems involved the aircraft's wiring. Continuing malfunctions of the inlet controls, communications equipment, ECM systems, and cockpit instruments were often attributable to wiring failures. Wiring connectors and components had to withstand temperatures above 800 deg. F, structural flexing, vibration, and shock. Such demands were more than the materials could stand. Not all of the OXCART's problems could be traced to material failures, however, and CIA officials believed that careless maintenance by Lockheed employees also contributed to malfunctions.

Concerned that Lockheed would not be able to meet the OXCART's schedule for operational readiness, the Office of Special Activities' Director of Technology met with Kelly Johnson on 3 August 1965 to discuss the project's problems. Johnson not only assigned more top-level supervisors to the project but also decided to go to the base and take charge of the OXCART's development himself. His presence made a big difference, as can be seen in his notes in the project log: "I uncovered many items of a managerial, materiel and design nature.... I had meetings with vendors to improve their operation.... Changed supervision and had daily talks with them, going over in detail all problems on the aircraft.... Increased the supervision in the electrical group by 500%.... We tightened up the inspection procedures a great deal and made inspection stick. It appears that the problems are one-third due to bum engineering.... The addition of so many systems to the A-12 has greatly complicated the problems, but we did solve the overall problem."

By 20 November 1965, the final validation flights for OXCART deployment were finished. During these tests, the OXCART achieved a maximum speed of Mach 3.29, an altitude of 90,000 feet, and sustained flight time above Mach 3.2 of 74 minutes. The maximum endurance test lasted six hours and 20 minutes. On 22 November, Kelly Johnson wrote to the head of the Office of Special Activities, stating, "The time has come when the bird should leave its nest."

Three years and seven months after its first flight in April 1962, the OXCART A-12 was ready for operational use. It was now time to find work for the most advanced aircraft ever conceived and built.

Although the OXCART had been designed to replace the U-2 as a strategic reconnaissance aircraft to fly over the Soviet Union, this use had become doubtful long before the OXCART was ready for operational use. The U-2 Affair of 1960 made Presidents very reluctant to consider overflights of the Soviet Union. Indeed, Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy had both stated publicly that the United States would not conduct such overflights. In July 1962, Secretary of Defense McNamara told DCI McCone that he doubted that the OXCART would ever be used and suggested that improvements in another overhead reconnaissance program would very likely eliminate the need for the expensive OXCART program. Strongly disagreeing, McCone told McNamara that he had every intention of using OXCART aircraft to fly over the Soviet Union.

McCone raised this issue with President Kennedy in April 1963, at a time when the nation's chief overhead reconnaissance devices were experiencing a great number of failures and the intelligence community was clamoring for better photography to confirm or disprove allegations of the existence of an anti-ballistic missile system at Leningrad. Unconvinced by McCone's arguments for OXCART overflights, President Kennedy expressed the hope that some means might be devised for improving other methods instead.

In the months after the Cuban Missile Crisis the A-12 was never deemed suitable for use over Cuba. As the OXCART's performance and equipment continued to improve, there was renewed consideration of deploying the aircraft overseas, particularly in Asia, where US military activity was increasing. On 18 March 1965, DCI McCone, Secretary of Defense McNamara, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Vance discussed the growing hazards confronting current aerial reconnaissance methods.

In the summer of 1965, after the United States had begun introducing large numbers of troops into South Vietnam, Southeast Asia became another possible target for the OXCART. Because the continued use of U-2s for reconnaissance missions over North Vietnam was threatened by the deployment of Soviet-made surface-to-air missiles, McNamara asked the CIA on 3 June 1965 whether it would be possible to substitute OXCART aircraft for U-2s. The new DCI Adm. William F. Raborn, replied that the OXCART could operate over Vietnam as soon as it passed its final operational readiness tests.

Project BLACK SHIELD, the plan for Far East operations, called for OXCART aircraft to be based at Kadena airbase on Okinawa. In the first phase, three planes would be flown to Okinawa for 60-day periods, twice a year, an operation which would involve 225 personnel. Later there would be a permanent detachment at Kadena. In preparation for the possibility of such operations, the Department of Defense spent $3.7 million to provide support facilities and real-time secure communications on the island by early autumn 1965.

There the matter remained for more than a year. During the first half of 1966, DCI Raborn raised the issue of deploying the OXCART to Okinawa at five separate 303 Committee meetings but failed to win sufficient support. The JCS and PFIAB supported the CIA's advocacy of OXCART deployment. Top State and Defense Department officials, however, thought that the political risks of basing the aircraft in Okinawa-which would almost certainly disclose it to the Japanese-outweighed any gains from the intelligence the OXCART might gather. On 12 August 1966, the divergent views were presented to President Johnson, who upheld the 303 Committee's majority opinion against deployment for the time being.

With operational missions still ruled out, proficiency training remained the main order of business. This led to improvements in mission plans and flight tactics that enabled the detachment to reduce the time required to deploy to Okinawa from 21 days to 15. Records continued to fall to the OXCART. On 21 December 1966, a Lockheed test pilot flew an A-12 for 16,408 kilometers over the continental United States in slightly more than six hours, for an average speed of 2,679 kilometers per hour (which included in-flight refueling at low speeds as low as 970 kilometers per hour). This flight set a record for speed and distance unapproachable by any other aircraft.

On December 28, 1966, the decision was made to terminate A-12 operations by 1 June 1968.

On 5 January 1967, an A-12 crashed after a fuel gauge malfunctioned and the aircraft ran out of fuel short of the runway. The pilot ejected, but was killed, when he could not become separated from the ejection seat. To preserve the secrecy of the OXCART program, the Air Force informed the press that an SR-71 was missing and presumed lost in Nevada. This loss, like the three preceding crashes, did not result from difficulties caused by high-speed, high-temperature flight but from traditional problems inherent in any aircraft.

A proposal was made to have Project Black Shield use the OXCART to collect tactical rather than strategic intelligence. The cause was apprehension in Washington about the possible undetected introduction of surface-to-air missiles into North Vietnam. When President Johnson asked for a proposal on the matter, the CIA suggested that the OXCART be used. While the State and Defense Departments were still examining the proposal's political risks, DCI Richard Helms raised the issue at President Johnson's "Tuesday lunch" on 16 May. Helms got the President's approval, and the CIA put the BLACK SHIELD plan to deploy the OXCART to the Far East into effect later that same day.

In May of 1967, A-12s were flown to Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan and the BLACK SHIELD unit was declared operational. The airlift of personnel and equipment to Kadena began on 17 May 1967, and on 22 May the first A-12 flew nonstop to Kadena in six hours and six minutes, A second aircraft arrived on 24 May. The third A-12 left on 26 May, but the pilot had trouble with the inertial navigation system and communications near Wake Island. He made a precautionary landing at Wake, where a pre-positioned emergency recovery team was located. The problem was corrected and the aircraft continued on its flight to Kadena on the following day.

By 29 May 1967, 13 days after President Johnson's approval, Black Shield was ready to fly an operational mission. On 30 May, the detachment was alerted for a mission on the following day. Mel Vojvodich flew the first Black Shield operation, over North Vietnam. As the takeoff time approached, Kadena was being deluged by rain, but, since weather over the target area was clear, flight preparations continued. The OXCART, which had never operated in heavy rain, taxied to the runway and took off.

The first BLACK SHIELD mission flew one flight path over North Vietnam and another over the demilitarized zone (DMZ). The mission was flown at Mach 3.1 and 80,000 feet and lasted three hours and 39 minutes. While over North Vietnam, the A-12 photographed 70 of the 190 known surface-to-air sites and nine other priority targets. The A-12's ECM equipment did not detect any radar signals during the mission, which indicated that the flight had gone completely unnoticed by both the Chinese and North Vietnamese.

During the next six weeks, there were more alerts for 15 BLACK SHIELD missions, seven of which were flown. Only four detected hostile radar signals. By mid-July 1967, the BLACK SHIELD missions had provided sufficient evidence for analysts to conclude that no surface-to-air missiles had been deployed in North Vietnam. From Kadena, during 1967, the A-12s conducted 22 operations in support of the Vietnam War. During its deployment on Okinawa, the A-12s (and later the SR-71) and by extension their pilots, were nicknamed Habu after a cobra-like Okinawan pit viper which the locals thought the plane resembled.

A typical mission over North Vietnam required refueling south of Okinawa, shortly after takeoff. After the planned photographic passes, the aircraft withdrew for a second aerial refueling in the Thailand area before returning to Kadena. So great was the plane's speed that it spent only 12.5 minutes during a "single-pass" mission, and 21.5 minutes during a "two-pass" mission. Because of its wide 86-mile turning radius, the plane occasionally crossed borders when getting into position for a second pass.

After the aircraft landed, the camera film was removed and sent by special plane to processing facilities in the United States. By late summer, however, an Air Force photo laboratory in Japan began doing the processing in order to place the photo-intelligence in the hands of US commanders in Vietnam within 24 hours of a mission's completion.

On 17 September 1967 one SAM site tracked the vehicle with its acquisition radar but was unsuccessful with its FAN SONG guidance radar. It was not until 28 October that a North Vietnamese SAM site launched a missile at the OXCART. Mission photography documented the event with photographs of missile smoke and its contrail. Electronic countermeasures aboard the OXCART performed well, and the missile did not endanger the aircraft.

During 1968, Black Shield conducted numerous operations in Vietnam and also supported the Pueblo Crisis. In February of 1968, in preparation for the replacement of the A-12 by the SR-71, Lockheed was ordered to destroy all tooling used to create the A-12 Blackbirds. Also during this year, the first SR-71 arrived at Kadena to replace the A-12s. On May 8, over North Korea, the last operational mission of an A-12 was undertaken. Subsequently, all deployed A-12s were sent back to Palmdale, California, where they joined the remainder of the A-12 fleet, and all were placed in storage.

On May 8, Jack Layton flew the final mission of the A-12s, after which they were retired from active service and replaced by the SR-71. In the just over one year duration of Operation Black Shield, the A-12s flew 29 operational sorties. On June 4, shortly after operations ceased and just two-and-a-half weeks before the retirement of the entire A-12 fleet, an A-12 out of Kadena, piloted by Jack Weeks, was lost over the Pacific Ocean near the Philippines while conducting a functional check flight after the replacement of one of the craft's engines. Search and rescue missions found no trace of the plane or its pilot.

On June 21, 1968, pilot Frank Murray took the final A-12 flight, to Palmdale, California.

The OXCART was the last high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft produced for the CIA, although the Office of Special Activities did briefly consider several possible successors to the OXCART during the mid-1960's. The first of these, known as Project ISINGLASS, was prepared by General Dynamics to utilize technology developed for its Convair Divisions earlier FISH proposal and its new F-111 fighter in order to create an aircraft capable of Mach 4-5 at 100,000 feet. General Dynamics completed its feasibility study in the fall of 1964, and OSA took no further action because the proposed aircraft would still be vulnerable to existing Soviet countermeasures. In 1965 a more ambitious design from McDonnell Aircraft came under consideration as Project RHEINBERRY (although some of the work seems to have come under the ISINGLASS designation as well). This proposal featured a rocket-powered aircraft that would be launched from a B-52 mother ship and ultimately reach speeds as high as Mach 20 and altitudes of up to 200,000 feet. Because building this aircraft would have involved tremendous technical challenges and correspondingly high costs, the Agency was not willing to embark on such a program at a time when the main emphasis in overhead reconnaissance had shifted from aircraft to satellites. As a result, when the OXCART program ended in the summer of 1968, no more advanced successor was waiting in the wings, only the veteran U2.

Intended to replace the U-2 as a collector of strategic intelligence, the OXCART was never used for this purpose, its brief deployment was strictly for obtaining tactical intelligence and its photographic product contributed very little to the CIA's strategic intelligence mission. By the time OXCART became operational other reconnaissance methods had filled the role originally conceived for it. The most advanced aircraft of the 20th century had become an anachronism before it was ever used operationally. On 26 January 1967 Kelly Johnson noted in his "Archangel log": I think back in 1959, before we started this airplane, in discussions with Dick Bissell where we seriously considered the problem of whether there would be one more round of aircraft before the satellites took over. We jointly agreed there would be just one round and not two. That seems to have been a very accurate evaluation, as it seems that 30 SR-71's gives us enough overflight reconnaissance capability and we don't need the additional 10 Oxcart aircraft.

The OXCART did not even outlast the U-2, the aircraft it was supposed to replace. The OXCART lacked the quick-response capability of the smaller craft: a U2 unit could be activated overnight, and within a week it could deploy abroad, fly sorties, and return home base. The OXCART planes required precise logistic planning for fuel and emergency landing fields, and their inertial guidance systems needed several days for programming and stabilization. Aerial tankers had to be deployed in advance along OXCART's flight route and be provisioned with the highly specialized fuel used by the J58 engines. All of this required a great deal of time and the effort of several hundred people. A U-2 mission could be planned and flown with a third fewer personnel.

Although the OXCART program created a strategic reconnaissance aircraft with unprecedented speed, range, and altitude, the program's most important contributions lay in other areas: aerodynamic design, high-impact plastics, engine performance, cameras, electronic countermeasures, pilot life-support systems, anti-radar devices, use of nonmetallic materials for the major aircraft assemblies, and improvements in milling, machining, and shaping titanium. In all of these areas, the OXCART pushed back the frontiers of aerospace technology and helped lay the foundation for future "stealth" research.

Australian Military Rocked with growing Scandals

2012-01-11T21:54:00.000-08:00

The Australian military has been rocked with a new sex scandal, including allegations of assault, child porn, rape and drug-dealing within its ranks.About 350 pages of documents obtained by Channel Seven News under the freedom of information laws detail what it called "ongoing, often major, breaches of discipline in Australia's armed forces".
It said on Thursday that more than 100 incidents had been reported in the last year, from weapons mishaps to sexual assault, especially in the Navy where allegations of misconduct on four warships are being investigated.
Among them, alleged sexual assaults on two navy ships have been referred to police.
In a statement, the Australian military said it has "no tolerance for misconduct or security breaches".
"An organisation is measured in how it responds to such allegations," it said in reaction to the Channel Seven report.
"Defence has responded promptly to these incidents, including referring criminal matters to relevant civil authorities."
The documents, referred to as the "Hot Issues Brief", detail a female sailor aboard the vessel HMAS Success claiming she had been indecently assaulted during a port visit to Singapore by a male shipmate.
Seven months later, a senior officer on the same vessel was reported to police for video-taping sexual encounters he had with junior sailors.
On the vessel HMAS Toowoomba, a female sailor complained of indecent assault, bullying, and harassment, including a so-called "Beer Bounty" being placed on her: free beer for the first sailor to have sex with her.
Other incidents include a female civilian who was reportedly assaulted at the Royal Military College at Duntroon and two teenagers who were found living with a soldier at Sydney's Holsworthy army base for two weeks.
Channel Seven News said the documents also contained "a handful of child porn charges, drug dealing, and rape allegations", without going into details.
Waning reputation
The revelations add to the unwanted reputation the military has gained with the Australian Defence Force stung in recent years by a string of allegations, some decades old, of abusive and sexist behaviour in its ranks.
Claims against the defence force came to a head last year with a report into incidents on board the supply ship HMAS Success in 2009 finding a sexually predatory and boozy culture, concealed through silence and fear.
This was followed by a high-profile case of an 18-year-old female cadet who went to the media saying she had sex with a fellow defence academy classmate who allegedly broadcast the encounter on Skype so his friends could watch.
Soon after, a female soldier in Brisbane reported seeing a camera placed underneath the screen of her shower cubicle.
That incident sparked several inquiries, including one into the treatment of women in the armed forces that in November reported "widespread low-level sexual harassment" at Australia's premier military college.

Pakistan PM Fires Defense Secretary

2012-01-11T21:50:00.000-08:00

Pakistan's prime minister has dismissed the country’s defence secretary in a move likely to escalate tensions between his civilian government and the country's powerful military.
Yousuf Raza Gilani's office, in a statement on Wednesday, accused retired Lieutenant-General Naeem Khalid Lodhi of "gross misconduct and illegal action which created misunderstanding" between state institutions.

Gilani's decision comes against the backdrop of a scandal involving an unsigned memo that apparently sought US help in stopping a possible coup by the army following the killing of Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil by US forces in May.

Pakistan's supreme court has set up a judicial commission to investigate the memo.

As part of the investigation, General Ashfaq Kayani, the army chief, and Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the head of the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, submitted statements to the supreme court in which they suggested the memo was part of a conspiracy against the army.

Lodhi was viewed as having more power than the civilian defence minister because of his direct links to the army high command. He will be replaced by Nargis Sethi, who will fulfil the responsibilities of defence secretary in addition to those of her current post, cabinet secretary. Sethi is seen as a close ally of Gilani.
In a separate development, local media reported that the army had appointed a new commander to the Rawalpindi-based 111 Infantry Brigade, a unit of the Pakistan army's X Corps that has historically been involved in military coups. The army said the posting was "routine", and was made as a result of the previous commander being promoted.

Blast kills Nuclear Scientist, Central Iran

2012-01-11T08:48:00.000-08:00

A nuclear scientist who supervised a department at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility has been killed by a magnetic bomb placed on his car by two assailants in northern Tehran, Iranian media reported.The attack strongly resembles earlier killings of scientists working on the country's controversial nuclear programme.
The bomb explosion killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry expert and a director of the Natanz facility in central Iran, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said Israeli agents were behind the attack, but cannot ``prevent progress'' in what Iran claims are peaceful nuclear efforts.
Safar Ali Baratloo, a senior security official, was quoted by Fars as also saying the attack was the work of Israelis.
"The magnetic bomb is of the same types already used to assassinate our scientists," he said.
Roshan, 32, was inside the Iranian-assembled Peugeot 405 car together with two others when the bomb expoded near Gol Nabi Street, Fars reported.
Fars described the explosion as a "terrorist attack" targeting Roshan, a graduate of the prestigious Sharif University of Technology in Tehran.
"The deputy governor of Tehran is blaming [the attack] on Israel, saying it wants to destabilise the country ahead of presidential elections in March," Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari said.
"But it's unclear as to how, in such a secure city as Tehran, such attacks can take place over and over again."
Previous attacks
Ahmadi Roshan was "working as the deputy in charge of commerce at the Natanz [uranium enrichment] site", said a posting on Sharif University's website. "He was working on project of making polymeric membrane for separating gas."
A similar bomb explosion on January 12, 2010, killed Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a senior physics professor at Tehran University, when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his car as he was about to leave for work.
In November 2010, a pair of back-to-back bomb attacks in different parts of the capital killed one nuclear scientist and wounded another.
The slain scientist, Majid Shahriari, was a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran and co-operated with the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.
The wounded scientist, Fereidoun Abbasi, was almost immediately appointed head of Iran's atomic agency.
And in July 2011, motorcycle-riding gunmen killed Darioush Rezaeinejad, an electronics student. Other reports identified him as a scientist involved in suspected Iranian attempts to make nuclear weapons.
Rezaeinejad allegedly participated in developing high-voltage switches, a key component in setting off the explosions needed to trigger a nuclear warhead.
Imad Khadduri, a nuclear expert, told Al Jazeera, "There are hundreds if not thousands of such scientists", beyond the five targeted in recent attacks.
While he said the string of assassinations was "100 per cent Mossad", he called the victims "small fish".
Ronen Bergman, an Israeli author and journalist, told Al Jazeera that "for years Mossad has a tradition of assassinating scientists," for two specific purposes.
"One target is to take out people of profound importance [to the project], and the second target is to spread fear among the other scientists that the same fate may happen to them as well."
According to Ronen, the assassination demonstrated that "someone is highly capable in recruiting people from within the project and sabotaging it."
'Unnatural' events
Wednesday's assassination is "evidence of [foreign] government-sponsored terrorism" but will not stop Iran's nuclear programme, Rahimi told state television.
"Today those who claim to be combatting terrorism have targeted Iranian scientists," he said. "They should know that Iranian scientists are more determined than ever in striding towards Iran's progress."
The US and Israel say Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons technology. Iran denies the allegations, saying that its programme is intended for peaceful purposes.
There was no immediate word from officials in Israel, which has always declined comment on previous such bombings.
On Tuesday, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, Israel's military chief of staff, was quoted as saying that Iran should expect more "unnatural" events in 2012.
His comments, to a closed-door parliamentary panel, were widely interpreted as alluding to previous acts of sabotage.
"For Iran, 2012 is a critical year in combining the continuation of its nuclearisation, internal changes in the Iranian leadership, continuing and growing pressure from the international community and things which take place in an unnatural manner," Gantz was quoted as saying.

Mitt Romney Wins New Hampshire Primary, after win in Iowa Caucus

2012-01-11T08:43:00.000-08:00

Mitt Romney has won the New Hampshire primary, building on his first-place finish in last week's Iowa caucuses and establishing himself as the man to beat for the Republican US presidential nomination.Final results showed the former Massachusetts governor with 39 per cent of the vote, followed by Texas congressman Ron Paul with 23 per cent and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman with 17 per cent.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum trailed with 10 per cent and nine per cent, respectively, while Rick Perry, the governor of Texas who did not campaign in the state, polled just one per cent of votes.

Acura NSX Concept - Honda's Supercar Returns

2012-01-11T08:31:00.000-08:00

NSX will utilize a form of the new hybrid Super Handling-AWD (SH-AWD) system. The V-6, likely a 3.5- or 3.7-liter, will drive the rear wheels by means of a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Unlike the current SH-AWD system, which would send power to the front wheels by way of a driveshaft and a mechanical differential, the NSX's front wheels will instead be powered by a pair of electric motors. As each motor is assigned to a wheel, the system has the ability to accelerate the outer wheel in a corner, creating a yaw moment that improves the car's ability to turn in and rotate. All told, the system could produce a net punch of about 400 hp.

Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/auto_shows/detroit/2012/1203_2012_detroit_acura_nsx_concept/#ixzz1jAURaDsO

2013 Ford Fusion

2012-01-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

From Motortrend:

We've heard this one before. Every builder of a midsize sedan since, at least, the first serious Nissan Altima a decade ago claims to have broken the mold with a sporty looking, sporty handling answer to all the vanilla appliances out there. You won't, they claim, have trouble finding their affordable sport sedan in a parking lot full of Camraccordsonaltimas.

So it's no surprise when Chris Hamilton, the British exterior design chief of the all-new, 2013 Ford Fusion and Mondeo, says this: "We put a lot of emphasis, to create something that we think will be different in the marketplace. We'll have a sophisticated feel. We'll be elegant. We'll be somewhat unexpected in North America, from Ford, and we'll set ourselves apart from Camry and Accord ... We wanted to create a beautiful-looking car. That's always been our number-one objective."
J Mays said in our November 2011 issue that the production 2013 Ford Fusion unveiled at the 2012 North American International Auto Show in Detroit would borrow heavily from the Evos concept revealed at Frankfurt last fall. As on the Evos, the large, expressive six-point lower fascia from the Focus and Fiesta has been moved up the nose to become the Fusion/Mondeo's grille, the headlamps are narrow slits that avoid the bug-eye (not to be confused with the Austin-Healey Sprite's) lamps infesting the rest of the midsize segment lately and the fast roofline gives the car an almost four-door coupe' look
"You're the first to hear this," Samantha Hoyt, Fusion's marketing manager tells Motor Trend. "We will be the first to offer a gas, a hybrid and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle." The Fusion Energi goes on sale roughly five months after the Fusion and Fusion Hybrid.

Our first look came so early, in fact, that the car was really more Mondeo than Fusion, with a metric speedometer (okay, perhaps it's Canadian), with taillamp trim and other details that had yet to be finalized. We hear some final design details were still to be worked out after the NAIAS unveiling. With the official on-sale date about eight months away, it's clear Ford was eager to pull its unveiling forward early enough to make the Detroit show.

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Ford says the on-sale date will be late summer, with serious stock getting into dealerships by early fall. The new '13 Honda Accord and Nissan Altima both launch within a few months of the Ford. Chevrolet will have the eAssist '13 Malibu Eco on sale for several months, though you'll have to wait until autumn if you want a non-Eco Malibu with the new 2.5-liter four. By then, we'll know whether Volkswagen's strategy of designing a bigger, specific Passat for North America (and China and South Korea) is successful in the marketplace.

In normal times, the plug-in hybrid version would be enough to distinguish the Fusion in this segment. Despite all the talk of Americans downsizing to compact cars, the midsize segment is heating up, fueled by Ford's much-improved quality scores, Toyota and Honda's natural and man-made troubles and new models from South Korea and VW stepping in to relieve supply shortages.

It's clear, too, that Ford noticed when enthusiasts wrote into motortrend.com online forums and in our letters section of how they'd take that last Mondeo over the 2006-12 Fusion, any day. Shortly after the first Fusion launched, Alan Mulally started the One Ford program, with corporate brass recognizing the cost-saving advantages in combining mainstream European models with mainstream North American models, while figuring that Americans finally are ready to buy global cars.

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Fusion ditches its Mazda6-based platform to join the Mondeo on a heavily reworked version of the previous Mondeo's platform. The new Mondeo is not only sleeker than the '12 Fusion, it's sleeker, sportier than the Mondeo it replaces, Hamilton says. His design team put a lot more effort in the four-door sedan. In Europe, the Mondeo wagon and hatchback are much bigger sellers.

"It's not an evolution of today's Fusion. It's something different. It needed to be new. And it needed to be perceived as new. I find [Malibu] more evolutionary. We didn't want to do that at all."

If not for all the equity Ford has built for the Fusion name in the last six years, it could have taken the Mondeo name.

"From a design point of view, we weren't necessarily thinking about just Camry, Accord, Malibu, those sorts of things. We were thinking about all the global inputs. We were taking into account inputs from outside the segment as well, from BMW and Mercedes," he says.

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"The hardest cars to do are these cars. They have to be everything to all people. They have to be great to look at, they have to be great to drive, and they have to be functional," Hamilton continues. "It's very easy to create a good-looking car. You just have to lower the roof, put big wheels on it, put a big engine, a long hood."

Easily said if you don't care about function and interior space, this segment's raison d'etre. Hamilton's design team managed to inject that sort of styling without degrading interior space. The front seats are as commodious as expected, but so too are the back seats, which have ample headroom and legroom for a six-footer. The back seat seems wide enough for three adults in a pinch, though as in most competitors, the rear of the center console, with its rear-seat vents, seems to encroach on the unlucky adult who gets the middle seat. It's competitive with the '13 Chevy Malibu, which has good rear seat room despite a shorter wheelbase and faster roofline than its predecessor. Ford needed to avoid the mistakes it made with the 1996 "ovoid" and current Taurus, which both have tight rear-seat headroom, especially for ingress and egress.

Though various editors of varying height will have to cycle through the rear seat to give a definitive opinion, Your Humble Servant had no issues getting in and out of the back.

n Western Europe, compacts have long been the center of the market. Cars like the Mondeo are a step closer to premium, or "executive" sedans.

That ovoid Taurus and its immediate successor, you'll recall, were in the Fusion's d-segment -- or c/d-segment as Ford prefers to call it -- when Ford dropped the name and replaced it with the Fusion for the 2006 model year. Before CEO Alan Mulally brought the exclusively North American Taurus back to replace the full-size Five Hundred, it had been an odd kind of midsize duck itself, V-6 only and a bit larger on the outside than the Toyota/Honda competition before their midsize cars grew in overall length.

"The c/d-segment is the heart of the market, with 80 percent of the segment covered by six competitors," Hoyt says. They represent about 1.5-million units, she says, or 13 percent to 15 percent of volume and will grow with the industry to 2-million plus by 2017. They are Fusion, Camry, Accord, Malibu, Altima and Sonata, Hoyt says, "Sonata being the surprise."

It sure is. The new Fusion/Mondeo's roofline, especially at the c-pillar, resembles the Sonata's, or perhaps even more its platform-sibling, the Kia Optima's. For the record, the new Fusion/Mondeo's design would have been locked in before the new Sonata went on sale about two years ago.

Ford calls the sporty roofline "silhouette innovation," ridding the Fusion of its three-box look without sacrificing interior or trunk space. "We've done clever tricks with where we got the H-point, where the beltlines are, sections in the roof, and things like that, to make sure the glass looks coupe-like and has a sort of sporty feel to it," Hamilton says. "But we're not compromising on egress, we're not compromising on vision and we're not compromising on headroom."

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One designer's trick is the slightly rising beltline. As that line merges with the roofline at the c-pillar, the rising line gives the perception that the cabin is much tighter than it really is, Hamilton says. So the roofline is actually higher than it looks over the rear seat, and there's a lot of space.

"It's a fairly long car," Hamilton says, "but the elegance was important. You get that by stretching out long, sinewy surfaces and linework. That character line that connects headlights and taillights was key. That sophistication in the bodysides, we don't have that in today's Fusion, which has a kind of mechanical surfacing. We wanted that feel of, that it felt sort of crafted, that somebody made it by hand and had worked on the surfaces rather than being machined by a computer and sent down the production line."

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Wind tunnel testing gives the Fusion/Mondeo a drag coefficient of about 0.28, he says. "It was important to have a visual lightness about it. So we did a lot of work thinning the a-pillars, working the bodyside sections so it doesn't feel heavy and cumbersome."

Hamilton's design team worked on aero tricks in the front and rear corners of the car. The new Fusion's corners are very chamfered, or rounded, whereas most commodity cars square those corners off and make it look rounded with visual tricks.

The takeaway from Hamilton's Fusion/Mondeo design review is that Ford worked hard to make it come off as a premium sedan that can compete with, and beat cost-conscious commodity sedans. Take the trunklid sacrifice panel, designed to take rear impact and allow a lower trunk floor height.

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"If you look at the back of a Jaguar XF, which has a similar area, it does not have this panel," Hamilton says. You'll see an offset here of about 60mm. Jaguar used to be our sister company. We know they wanted to do this for the XF, and they couldn't afford to do it.

"It's an expensive part of what we do ... but we had to do it. The message is, we didn't cut any costs in the car."

Will it pay off? Can the new Ford Fusion, like the Bush I/Clinton-era Taurus, compete with Camry and Accord for top sales spot in the U.S.?

"Our competitors, Camry and Accord, are in the 400 to 450 (thousand) range," says marketing chief Hoyt. Ford sold nearly 250,000 last year. "We need at least 300,000 to be even close."

The new Fusion joins the Hyundai Sonata, Kia Optima, Buick Regal and '13 Malibu in scrubbing V-6 engine options. Ford has replaced the SEL trim level with Platinum, befitting the new car's richer look. The high-volume SE and the straight-to-rental S trim levels remain. The SE line has two sub-trim packages, Appearance and Luxury, to gum up this simplicity. (The sidebar on powertrains endeavors to sort this out.) Platinum takes SEL's space atop the lineup, though like the Focus Platinum, it's premium enough to compete with Buicks, and could easily be priced just below where the next Lincoln MKZ will start.

BMW i8 - BMW i. Born electric.

2012-01-08T11:45:00.000-08:00

BMW i8 - BMW i. Born electric.

NFL - Wildcard - 2012

2012-01-06T21:31:00.000-08:00

Brazil floods

2012-01-06T07:12:00.000-08:00

The rain is falling heavily in Brazil and people are concerned that the tragedy that struck last year might be repeated.Just 11 days into 2011, flash floods and landslides killed 902 people across the state of Rio de Janeiro. It was the most deadly natural disaster in Brazil’s history. Worst hit was a mountainous region 40 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. 300mm (12 inches) fell in just a few hours, triggering flash flooding and landslides which buried people under a wall of mud
This year the rains have turned heavy once more. The states of Mina Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo are all being hit by the severe weather. An average of 125mm (4.9 inches) of rain is expected in the whole month of January, but some locations are reporting this amount of rain in just 24 hours.
Flooding is already affecting many areas and as the rains continue to fall, the risk of mudslides is also rising.
Water affects the way that the soil clings together and adds extra weight, making the soil heavier and therefore less stable. As the saturation of the soil increases, the speed of the landslide is also increases, making the situation even more dangerous.
Across much of the area that has been inundated by rain, the houses are perched perilously on the edge of hillsides. Any movement of the ground could have disastrous results.

Already mudslides have struck in the city of Belo Horizonte, and across the country six people have lost their lives to the severe weather. People in other precarious regions are now being evacuated to prevent a repeat of last year’s catastrophe.

Brazil floods: More than 500 dead

A woman in Brazil narrowly avoids being swept away

More than 500 people are now known to have died in floods in south-eastern Brazil, the country's worst natural disaster for several decades.

Heavy rain has led to massive mudslides hitting several towns, resulting in thousands being made homeless.

Police say the number of dead is likely to rise further.

The death toll has now surpassed the devastating 1967 mudslides in Caraguatatuba, Sao Paulo state, in which up to 430 people perished

'Thousands trapped'

Rescue workers will resume searching for survivors in the mountainous Serrana region, north of Rio de Janeiro, later on Friday.

Many spent Thursday scrabbling with their bare hands through debris.

On her visit to the area, President Dilma Rousseff promised a shipment of seven tonnes of medicines.

In the Campo Grande area of Teresopolis, which was earlier cut off, rescuers found people pulling bodies from the mud.

In the neighbouring town of Petropolis, local resident Nelson Toledo told the BBC that some areas "had been completely devastated" by the floods and mudslides.

He said "thousands" of people remained trapped in their homes.

But the number of injured was threatening to overwhelm the medical services.

Jorge Mario, mayor of Teresopolis, said: "There are three or four neighbourhoods that were totally destroyed in rural areas. There are hardly any houses standing there and all the roads and bridges are destroyed."

In one dramatic rescue which was filmned, 53-year-old Ilair Pereira de Souza was pulled by rope from a destroyed house surrounded by raging water.

"I thought I was going to die," she said.

Ms Pereira de Souza had jumped with her dog Beethoven but was forced to let him go to survive.

"If I had tried to save him, I would have died. The poor thing. He stayed for a moment looking me in the eyes, and then he was swept away."

"It's very overwhelming. The scenes are very shocking," President Rousseff said on her visit to the area on Thursday.

The day before, she signed a decree authorising 780m reais ($480m; £296m) in emergency funding for the affected areas.

Ms Rousseff described the destruction as an act of God but she also expressed anger at illegal construction.

"We saw areas in which mountains untouched by men dissolved. But we also saw areas in which illegal occupation caused damage to the health and lives of people."

Saying that building houses in risky areas was "the rule rather than the exception" in Brazil, she added: "When there are no housing policies in place, where will a person with an income of up to two minimum wages live? He will live where he is not allowed to."

'Humble people'

Ms Rousseff said the state would care for the victims but said stopping future tragedies would be a priority.

"Unfortunately, what we saw in Petropolis, Teresopolis and Nova Friburgo, since the 1980s, was a problem similar to what happened in the city of Rio - letting the poorer people occupy risk areas."

He said some rich mansions had been damaged but most of the victims were "humble people".

Mr Cabral ended the news conference by asking people in risk areas to leave their houses and seek public shelter or in other homes.

"The weather forecast is not reassuring, and new mudslides could occur," he said.

About 200 people are so far known to died in Nova Friburgo, some 175 in Teresopolis and dozens more in

REVIEWS: 2011 BMW 535i - Four Seasons

2012-01-05T07:58:00.000-08:00

REVIEWS:

2011 BMW 535i - Four Seasons Wrap-Up

From the February, 2012 issue of Automobile Magazine

By David Zenlea

Photography by A. J. Mueller

For nearly four decades, the BMW 5-series has walked the tightrope between luxury and sport, satisfying the demands of both buttoned-up executives and driving purists. It has been the benchmark -- often an unmatched one -- for just about every automaker looking to build a mid-size sport sedan. Even the last-generation 5-series, distracted by flawed iDrive technology and controversial "flame surfacing," possessed the magical ability to indulge and engage.

There was thus little question we'd want to spend a year with the new, sixth-generation 5-series, which debuted for 2011 with more creature comforts, more technology, more sophisticated engineering, and better efficiency than ever before.

We ordered our test car with a mind toward maximizing the aforementioned selling points. To balance performance and efficiency, we opted for the midlevel engine -- the 3.0-liter turbocharged in-line six we already know and love from the 3-series. Although we energetically applaud BMW for offering a manual transmission, we decided to test the new eight-speed automatic. Then there was the matter of a few options -- $14,950 worth. They included leather, navigation, automatic high beams, lane-departure warning, blind-spot warning, keyless ignition, an iPod adapter, and metallic blue paint.

Still, initial comments expressed regret over not having enough options: "I longed for satellite radio and heated seats," groaned copy editor Rusty Blackwell, who picked up the car from BMW in New Jersey. Somehow, he survived his 638-mile journey back to Michigan, achieving an indicated 29.9 mpg along the way. "Pretty good for a mid-size luxury car, even if it does have 'only' 300 hp," Blackwell noted.

That impressive highway performance set the tone for a year in which the 5-series crisscrossed the eastern half of the United States, piling on 29,324 miles and astonishing drivers with its fuel economy and range. Overall, it returned 25 mpg, slightly bettering the EPA's 24-mpg combined rating.

"I'm blown away by the fact that I got 31 mpg in such a big, luxurious, and fast machine," marveled senior editor Joe Lorio after a trip to New York.

As Lorio implies, there's more to the big Bimmer's appeal than efficiency. Unlike some pairings of fewer cylinders and more transmission speeds, this powertrain exacts no fun-to-drive penalty. The automatic is smooth and quick, happily serving up giant eighth-to-third-gear downshifts. The engine, meanwhile, met our expectations for a BMW six-cylinder, which is to say it's the best in its segment. Our only complaint was with a slight hesitance to move away from a stop -- something we've observed on V-8-powered BMWs as well. Despite that momentary turbo lag, the 535i could rip to 60 mph in 5.8 seconds and through the quarter mile in 14.2 seconds. Our fuel economy might have been even better had we not indulged in this capability so frequently. "I included several full-on acceleration runs during my trip to Ohio," wrote West Coast editor Jason Cammisa, who claimed he was trying to prove to his passengers that a six-cylinder is sufficient in such a big car. Consider us convinced. As senior web editor Phil Floraday concluded, "Fuel economy is spectacular, power is plentiful, and you save $10,100. Why would you want the 550i?"

We never wanted for luxury, either. Editors instantly took to the supple black and tan interior, which held up very well through the year. Most of us found the optional multicontour seats exceptionally supportive. Our main ergonomic gripe was with the shallow center-console cupholders. Whereas criticisms of iDrive dominated reviews of the last-generation 5-series, it received mostly passing praise here, a tribute both to improvements in the system itself as well as how accustomed we've all become to cabin technology over the last decade. The 5-series particularly excels at seemingly complex feats such as downloading CDs onto its internal hard drive, finding navigational points of interest, and interfacing with iPods and iPhones. On the other hand, BMW still overcomplicates simple tasks such as changing radio stations and turning off the car.

The 535i's touring and technological prowess did take a hit during its longest journey -- creative director Kelly Murphy's drive to Florida -- when it went into reduced-power mode, flashed a warning light, and then quit completely. Stranded on the side of I-75 in southern Georgia on Christmas Eve (with two cats squalling in the back seat, no less), Murphy deduced that he'd been misled by the 5's fuel gauge.

"The gauge indicated that I had half a tank -- and a range of 250 miles -- even though I'd traveled 557 miles since my last fill-up. That's an impossibly long range, even for a long-distance cruiser."

BMW roadside assistance flatbedded the car to the nearest gas station. Sure enough, the gas tank gulped 0.6 gallon more than its official capacity and the engine fired right up. Once the 5-series was back in Michigan, our BMW dealer determined that a fuel-level sensor had failed and replaced the part under warranty. On the plus side, that was the only time the 5-series visited the dealer during our entire test, thanks to its incredibly long recommended maintenance interval (about 21,000 miles per our car's service-interval indicator).

To recap, the 5-series is fast, efficient, comfortable, technologically astute, and -- but for a bad sensor -- reliable. All that remains is to tell you it's a driver's dream before mailing this article to Munich in a perfume-scented envelope, right? Well, not quite. For all the 535i's well-rounded brilliance, it was a surprisingly less-than-ultimate driving machine.

It's not for a lack of trying on the part of BMW engineers. The 5-series rides on an aluminum-intensive chassis similar to that of the 7-series and exchanges its traditional front struts for a more sophisticated multilink arrangement. Our car's optional dynamic handling package ups the ante with active antiroll bars and variable-rate dampers. Its capability initially wowed us. "The ride-and-handling balance is nearly ideal," reported deputy editor Joe DeMatio after his first drive. He also praised the "discernible differences" among the four dynamic settings -- Comfort, Normal, Sport, and Sport +.

As time wore on, though, complaints rolled in about the suspension's tendency to crash over large road imperfections. The harshness soon took a toll on the car's nineteen-inch wheels and Goodyear run-flat tires. Within the first 10,000 miles, they'd developed uneven tread wear and multiple sidewall bulges bad enough to send vibrations through the steering wheel. In fairness, some of the blame may lie with the larger wheels themselves, part of the optional sport package. Indeed, the complaints died down when, at the recommendation of BMW and Tire Rack, we stepped down to the standard eighteen-inch wheel size for winter. Shod in Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D tires, our rear-wheel-drive 5-series clawed its way handily through winter's worst.

We'd have been more accepting of the harsh ride impacts and short tire life -- neither being all that unusual for a performance car -- if the 535i hadn't at the same time been strangely uninvolving. It starts with the electrically assisted steering, which helps improve fuel economy, but at a cost. Although the steering was direct and well weighted, it sent precious little road information through the thick-rimmed wheel. "I'd sacrifice 0.5 mpg for a more communicative hydraulic steering rack," griped Cammisa.

A bigger factor may be that the 5-series has become a big, 4120-pound car. "Size has a direct correlation with sportiness -- the 5-series isn't a sport sedan, it's a large sedan underpinned by some dynamic hardware," noted associate editor Eric Tingwall.

The net effect is a capable performer that elicited adjectives like "uninvolving," "boring," "Lexus-like," and even "soulless." Mind you, this was hardly unanimous. "If this 5-series is soulless, then consider me soulless, too," associate web editor Evan McCausland wryly noted, adding, "I think it offers a fine mix of comfort and sport." DeMatio agreed and further posited that the problem could be one of perception: "Perhaps the 5-series of the late 1990s was so much better than its contemporaries that it still sticks in our minds as being incomparably brilliant."

Perhaps. Or maybe the 5-series has just grown up. If building an efficient luxury sedan that could melt highway miles was BMW's mission, it has been accomplished -- and that's hardly faint praise. If it's damning, it's only because our expectations for a BMW sedan are so high. Floraday put it best: "The 2011 535i is an amazing car that would be a crown jewel in most automakers' stables. I just wish it were as rewarding to drive as an old 5-series."

5-series Genealogy

The 5-series was in many respects the first modern BMW: the first to use the company's current naming convention, the first developed under now-legendary CEO Eberhard von Kuenheim, and the first aimed at premium buyers. The E12-chassis 530i reached our shores in 1975 with a 176-hp in-line six. Reviews named it one of the best-driving "compacts" (but for its rubber bumpers, it's about the same length as the new 2012 3-series sedan).

You have to squint hard to see the difference in the second-generation (E28) 5-series, which debuted for 1982. However, it had a more lavish interior, a revised suspension, and a more efficient 2.7-liter in-line six, which earned it the 528e designation. At the opposite end of the spectrum was the 1988 M5, with its 256-hp six and 150-mph top speed. Americans could buy it only in black.

There was no doubting the freshness of the third-generation (E34) 5-series when it arrived for 1989 with smoother, 7-series-like styling. The M5 upped the ante with a 310-hp, 3.5-liter six-cylinder.

The fourth-generation (E39) 5-series and the V-8-powered M5 set a standard that may never be equaled, with handsome appointments and spot-on driving dynamics. This generation earned Automobile Magazine All-Star awards every year from 1998 to 2003.

When the E60 5-series debuted for 2004, it earned derision from some for its styling and its iDrive technology, but it still excelled as a driver's car. The 2006 M5 arrived with a 500-hp V-10 and an automated manual that displeased U.S. buyers enough that BMW added a six-speed manual the next year.

The latest (F10) 5-series has a more conservative exterior. Under the skin, a multilink setup replaces BMW's traditional front struts and the steering is electrically assisted. The wagon was discontinued for our market in favor of the 5-series GT hatchback. A 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder joins the lineup for 2012. The 560-hp, twin-turbo V-8 M5 is scheduled to arrive this summer.

Scandalized German president will not resign

2012-01-04T20:08:00.000-08:00

Christian Wulff, the German president, has admitted in a television interview that he made a "grave mistake" by trying to prevent a newspaper from publishing an embarrassing story, but said had no plans to resign.
Wulff broke his silence on Wednesday about a report that emerged earlier this week that he had left a voicemail message last month for the editor of top-selling German daily Bild in which he threatened "war" if the paper published an article on his low interest-rate home loan.
The scandal risks becoming a major distraction for Chancellor Angela Merkel, who nominated him for the ceremonial but influential post in 2010.
With pressure growing for him to step down, he arranged an interview with German public television stations ARD and ZDF on Wednesday to try to calm the storm.
"The call to the chief editor of Bild was a grave mistake, for which I am sorry and for which I apologise," Wulff said, admitting that had not done everything right but had broken no laws.
"Learning process"
Asked whether he had considered resigning in the past few days, Wulff said: "No, because I had great support in the past weeks from many citizens, my friends and employees."
He continued: "I like fulfilling my duties [as president] and have taken the job for five years and want to show at the end of the five years that I was a good, successful president."
It was unclear whether the apology would be enough to ease the pressure on Wulff, a former state premier from Lower Saxony and senior figure in Merkel's Christian Democrats, to step aside
In the interview, he tried on several occasions to portray himself as a victim of the scandal, an approach which could backfire.
"This has been a learning process," Wulff said. "I went from being a state premier to president very quickly, without time to adjust or prepare. It all went very fast."

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