This came to me via a rotary engined aircraft list, original source was
the Sonex news letter.
I hope some crusading aviation hater doesn't get a twinkle in their eye
about this one.
Subject: Sonex List: Off Topic: The "Evils" of homebuilding
A report from CBS news:
Hiding In Plane Sight Fiberglass Plane Made From Kit Can Evade Radar
Detection
SEBASTIAN, Fla., Jan. 22, 2002
(CBS) The Velocity airplane is visible to the eye, but to America's best
radar system it is virtually invisible. And that, says U.S. law enforcement,
makes the near stealth Velocity a tool for smugglers.
Joe Bendig, the director of U.S. Customs' state of the art radar center says
the system has a problem finding small fiberglass aircraft like the
Velocity.
"The radar pretty much gets absorbed by the skin. The only thing we really
pick up is the engine, which is metal," he said.
Until last spring, reports CBS News Correspondent Wyatt Andrews, no one in
law enforcement thought the Velocity to be much of a factor in drug
smuggling. But then came a joint U.S.-Mexico drug crackdown the DEA called
Operation Marquis.
In the process of making some 300 drug arrests, the DEA says it learned that
Arturo Beltran Leyva, a man the U.S. calls one of Mexico's top drug
transport chiefs, owned five Velocities.
"We've made our Mexican counterparts aware of this Velocity aircraft," said
Rod Benson of the DEA.
He says most drug smuggling by air happens with metallic planes visible to
radar.
The planes skirt the U.S. shoreline, or land in Mexico just short of the
U.S. border, with the drugs then loaded onto vehicles of every type you can
imagine - even school buses.
Benson says so far, invisibility is mostly used by smugglers inside Mexico.
"It's not just one transportation organization. We've identified others that
have dabbled and are beginning to look at these Velocity aircraft to move
their drugs."
As for Velocity the company, it's based in two hangars in rural Florida and
the plane is a mail order kit that is shipped in boxes to hobbyists who
assemble it.
The company is not under suspicion and its Vice President Scott Baker calls
invisibility a coincidence.
"There's nothing about the aircraft that was designed with the idea of
hiding from radar and none of our marketing whatsoever speaks to
stealthiness."
Even now, after the Sept. 11 terror attacks with military radar planes
blanketing the border, officials admit Velocity would be tough to find.
Until America's multi billion-dollar border radar can spot fiberglass, it
can be beaten by an airplane built in a garage.
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