THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.100.NO.108
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING: 864-4358
WEDNESDAY, MAR. 7,1990
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
Bye-bye Blackbird
Spy plane ends career with 4 speed records
By Mark McHugh
Kansan staff writer
Todd Lawson and his classmates thought a truck had backed into the wall of Learned Hall about 8:30 yesterday morning.
"Everybody turned around and looked out the window," said Lawson. Shawnee senior.
Actually, the low rumble they heard, along with others in Lawrence, Kansas City and cities across the United States, was the sonic boom of a military plane flying over Los Angeles to Washington D.C.
A sonic boom is a sharp, explosive sound generated by an airplane traveling faster than the wind, which is 1,089 feet per second.
America's premier spy plane — the SR-71 Blackbird — came in from the cold war after a quarter century of supersonic snooping, setting a transcontinental speed record before retiring
Jim Malholland of the KU police said people called in but no noise complaints were filed.
The Blackbird ended its last flight yesterday after crossing the continent in 68 minutes, 17 seconds. The old record was 3 hours, 38 minutes, set in 1963 by a Boeing 707.
At speeds exceeding Mach 3, or three times the speed of sound, the Blackbird broke four speed records.
The two-man crew beat a world record from Los Angeles to Washington, a world record from Kansas City, Mo., to Washington, a world record from St. Louis to Cincinnati, and a national record from the West Coast to the East Coast.
The Blackbird took a running start, refueling over the Pacific Ocean at 60,000 feet before heading east from the California coastline and crossing its finish line near Salisbury, Md. The plane landed at Dulles = International Airport in Washington.
After debate late last year, Con
Retiring spy plane sets
speed records - An Air Force reconnaissance plane broke four speed records on its last flight, from California to Washington. Route of flight
Route of flight
SR-71 "Blackbird"
Production began 1968
Single seat, two jet engines
Record speed: 2,424 mph
Record altitude: 85,000 ft.
SOURCE AP. The Illustrated
Encyclopedia of Modern Wearables
Knight-Ridder Tribune News/BILL BAKER
gresed decision to go along with the Air Force's request to store the Blackbird fleet. The Air Force contended that the program was compared to other budget priorities, such as the B-2 Stealth bomber.
"They're going to phase out the airplane," said Jan Roskam, professor of aerspace engineering. "The aim is to budget, it's deemed unaffordable."
He said the Blackbird, along with other information-gathering devices, was being replaced by satellites, which are able to carry better cameras and shoot pictures at higher altitudes at less expense.
■ The Associated Press contributed information to this story.
Afghan defense minister instigated coup
Fighting in Kabul continues today
The Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Soldiers led by the Afghan defense minister joined with Muslim guerrillas yesterday to try to overthrow Afghanistan's government and diplomats said they remained in the country's capital today.
"There was also a lot of heavy anti-aircraft fire to drive them away," said one diplomat.
Kabul radio reported last night that the rebels were defeated by troops loyal to President Najib. But Western diplomats said mutinous Afghan air force pilots were still bombing loyalist positions in Kabul this morning.
A second Western diplomat said efforts to contact people in Kabul today had been difficult: "It seems they are all hunkered down in their
bunkers and that means there must be shooting in the streets of Kabul."
Both diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity.
Afghanistan's U.N. envoy, Noor Ahmad Noor, said in New York yesterday that security forces were searching for the defense minister, Maj. Gen. Shah Nawaz Tanai. Noor told reporters at U.N. headquarters that Tanai was believed to be in hiding in the Kabul vicinity.
Shortly after Tanai launched the coup attempt, fundamentalist Muslim rebel leader Gulbaddin Hekmatar provided his support.
Abul Haidi, a spokesman of Hekmatary's Hezbi-Islami rebel group, told The Associated Press on Wednesday "We are getting news from the Kabul wireless that the fighting is still going on."
Postage may increase by 20 percent in 1991
By Chris Siron
Kensen staff writer
Stamp prices are likely to increase by about 20 percent in February 1991 after the U.S. Postal Board of Governors voted yesterday to raise rates.
The board voted for increases affecting virtually all classes of mail, including a nickel jump in the cost of mailing a first-class letter.
The board's proposals call for first-class stamps to increase from a quarter to 30 cents, with the price for each additional ounce rising from 20 cents to 23 cents. Postcards would cost 20 cents, also up a nickel.
Gary Thompson, KU director of student records, said he expected mailings of transcripts and report cards to be more expensive for the state. Kansas. High-volume mailings from the KSU office are sent at a bulk first-class rate.
Businesses and non-profit agencies would have similar increases in their bulk and pre-sorted rates.
The proposed rates would increase the price per piece about 5 cents. Thompson said his office had required a larger mailing budget
See POSTAGE, p. 6
Soviets broaden reforms
Lawmakers to let citizens own means of production
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — Beset with a sinking economy and rising discontent, the Soviet parliament yesterday made a drastic break with Communist orthodoxy by voting to allow private citizens to own small factories and hire their own workers.
The vote by the Supreme Soviet was hailed by supporters as a great step forward. It is one of the key elements of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's economic reform package.
"This is an enormous step forward because it lays down the principle of pluralism in the forms of ownership and the basis of their equality and their protection from the government," said denukt Alesel Vlakokov.
The joint meeting of the Supreme Soviet's two houses broke into applause as the vote total was announced.
After a section-by-section vote on each of the bill's six parts, the bill was approved by a 350-3 vote. Eleven demitries abstained.
The section on the property rights of Soviet citizens, which includes the right to own factories and other properties, was passed 39-4-0 with 13 abstentions.
Leslie Dienes, KU professor of
geology, Soviet and East European studies, said that until last December cooperatives were restricted in the rural areas of the Soviet Union.
A Western diplomat watching the session said it would be the first time since the New Economic Policy that allowed to own industrial plants.
The law also gives individuals the right to hire others to work for them as long as their pay and benefits are in keeping with Soviet law.
People have traditionally been allowed to own cars, summer homes and other personal property.
The Supreme Soviet also voted to incorporate traditional Marxist rhetoric into the property law outlawing the use of any form of property "for the exploitation of one man by another," despite objections that such wording was a sneak attack on private property.
"It is a great contradiction to allow the hiring of one man by another." Dienes said, "and still say there will not be exploitation of one man by
House Democratic leader proposes direct Soviet aid
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt said yesterday that the United States should offer direct aid to the Soviet Union to ensure that its reforms succeed.
"We should be investing in our own self-interest," Gephardt said. "And stability, democracy and a market economy in the Soviet Union are in America's strong self-interest."
The proposal brought immediate criticism *f*=am some quarters with a presi t initial spokesman saying the Soviets did not want direct aid.
Sen. Bill Bradley, D.N.J., say the Soviets haven't requested U.S. help and that, if they did, it would be wasted without economic reform. "Unless they reform the economy, it's
going down a rathole," Bradley said.
Others on Capitol Hill said that they thought Gephardt's proposal would spark a useful debate but not disapprove. On all on disapproving public ears.
"If you're going to start giving foreign aid to the hated Commies of 70 years" worth, you've got a real sales job to do in the United States," said Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo.
Gephardt noted an appeal by Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel, in a Feb. 21 speech to Congress, to help his country by helping the Soviet Union continue on its reformist road.
If Havel, who was imprisoned by the communists, can call for aid to the Soviets, the least we can do is listen. Gephardt said.
another."
It makes no mention of private
referents instead to the
property of city.
Yablkov said, "It's unfortunate that there is no mention of private property, but the principle is there."
Vice President Anatoly I. Lukyanov, who presided over the joint
meeting of the Supreme Soviet's two chambers, urged the legislature not to drag its feet on the bill, which is to become law July 1.
"We need this law to go into effect fast," he said.
Kansas reporter Christine Reinolds contributed information to this story.
Weaver's art
Mellasa Lindsey, Kansas City, Kan., junior, concentrates on weaving what will become a six-foot tarpery for a weaving class.
She worked on her project yesterday in the Art and Design Building. She said that the work was tedious but that the reward of having a work of art was worth the effort. Lindsey expected to finish her tapestry by next week.
Libya now producing lethal chemicals
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Libya is producing limited amounts of mustard and nerve gases useable as chemical weapons, U.S. officials said last night.
The Rabba plant 60 miles south of Tripoli also is capable of producing canisters to carry the lethal chemicals to selected targets, the officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
It was not clear whether dictator Moammar Ghadhafi was relying on outside sources for help in accelerating a dangerous program that a year ago seemed to have subsided under a barrage of U.S. complaints about ISIS-fired firms and other foreign soldiers.
The officials said the Libyans had kept the assembly line active for several months but only toward the end of last year achieved what one official called a "certain operationalILITY" that it did not have before.
"They haven't got enough to go into full production, but they can keep producing at this level," one official
said.
Yesterday's disclosure was that production had increased.
After West German politicians said last month that Libya had produced enough gas for 1,000 artillery shells, U.S. officials said the Raabt plant had been producing very small quantities of chemicals for about a year.
Mustard gas, used in World War I, is an extremely irritating gas that
Both ABC News and NBC News broadcast stories last night about Libya's new chemical weapons capability.
blisters the skin. Nerve gases, developed by Nazi Germany in World War II but never used, kill by disabling the normal transmission of nerve impulses.
There was no official comment from the State Department.
However, spokesman Mark Dillon, without confirming Libya's resurgent chemical weapons program, said, "We remain seriously concerned about the Rabba weapons facility. We have continuously taken
1.
See LIBYA, p. 6