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Finds Negligence Court Enters Judgements On 1958 Collision On January 7, 1964, the Federal Court in Denver entered judgements against the United States in favor of the surviving families of First Officer Arlin E. (Al) Sommers, and Flight Engineer Charles E. Woods. The Sommers family was awarded $219,800 and the Woods family $123,400. Sommers and Woods were flight crew members of the ill-fated United Air Lines' DC-7 which was involved in a mid-air collision with an Air Force F-100 near Las Vagas, Nevada, on April 21, 1958. The Court found negligence on the part of the Air Force personnel in making a simulated IFR penetration, involving high speeds (425 knots or more) and high rates of descent (3,000 to 10,000 FPM), by use of a tear-drop pattern overlaying V-8 airway, without obtaining IFR clearances or traffic information. The evidence indicated that numerous such penetrations were being made daily by jet fighters from nearby Nellis AFB without coordination with the air carriers, although more than 100 scheduled carrier flights passed over Las Vegas daily. Numerous Penetrations The widows and children were represented on trial by attorney Paul C. Brown of Denver, a former UAL Captain and ALPA member. Capt. G.C. Kahmeier, UAL Denver, provided technical trial assistance. Among the many witnesses were UAL captains Ted Boerstler, Ed Cullerton and Ed Grimm. United Air Lines' legal staff made available to the Denver Federal Court, the materials and exhibits which they had assembled for trial of its claim against the government for loss of the DC-7. This claim was earlier settled by the government in the midst of trial before the Delaware Federal Court for $1,450,000. [[image - drawing]] ARTIST'S CONCEPTION shows how a new Boeing flight simulator will appear when it begins operation. It is designed for low-altitude visual flight simulation and is equipped with a color transparency through which a small intensive point of light projects terrain onto a semicircular screen. A BIT OF BLUE SKY Panoramic Transparency Used in Simulator A new panoramic transparency used to project miles of natural-colored terrain has opened new horizons in flight simulation, the result of years of effort by engineers at The Boeing Company. While visual simulation itself is not new, the use of a 30-foot by 50-inch moving color transparency is. This new color transparency is part of a Boeing advanced low-level flight simulator that mixes moving terrain with a bit of blue sky to give a pilot the feeling of actual flight. At the simulator controls, a pilot sees unfolding before him 17 miles of terrain projected onto a huge curved screen 15 feet in radius. The display screen is molded from Fiberglas resin and structurally supported by a tubing framework. The color transparency was prepared by a Boeing-developed method. First, an authentic black-white-grey design was painted from aerial photos. This was then photographed to produce a positive transparency which was colored with special hand-applied dyes. As the color image is projected by a small highly intense point of light, blue sky is added to define the horizon. The pilot ses [[sees]] natural-colored terrain move beneath him, just as if he were actually flying. Pitch, roll and yaw rotations are obtained by changing the position of the transparency. The pitch and roll axes may rotate through a full 60 degrees and the yaw axis has complete rotational freedom. To gain the required performance, a total of three hydraulic servo motors of 7.5 horsepower are used. The Boeing approach to translation is unique in that the X motion (forward or aft) is derived from rolling the 50-inch wide mylar transparency from front to rear on large aluminum rollers. [[image - photograph]] AFTER BEING MOUNTED into the Company's new low-level simulator, this montage of fields, streams, trees and landscapes will unfold 17 miles of natural-colored terrain before the pilot's eyes. FEBRUARY, 1964 PAGE 19
