Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia • Page 43

0Q6 IY)P fCS5 Thursday, September 1, 1988 State Obituaries Middle Peninsula 1 r.t Langley Research center ie sung new wing design looking for ideal speed, manueverability mix fir Tt I dim. iYS vv- I 77 preferred for control and combat manuevering as well as for short-range takeoff and landing. "We were trying to come up with a way to get the best of both worlds," said Ron Smith, project engineer for the vortex flap experiments. The vortex flap has been projected to increase the maneuverability of some fighter aircraft by as much as 20 percent. The black metal flap is attached to the front of the standard wing on the test plane.

It is 30 feet long and roughly 15 inches wide. The flap controls part of the airflow over the top of the wing, creating a forceful swirling motion called a vortex. The vortex of air, analogous to water in a stream moving around a boulder, is trapped on the flap surface, creating a suction that aids thrust, cuts down on drag but does not reduce needed lift. According to nearly 3,000 hours of wind tunnel tests, the flap promises a 30 percent improvement in lift-to-drag ratio and a 15 percent increase in maximium lift, which would make the craft easier to control. Flight testing started Aug.

2 with NASA pilot Phil Brown in the cockpit. A second test flight was successfully completed Aug. 25, flown by Air Force Lt. Col. Alfred J.

Wunschel. The pilots put the planes through a variety of maneuvers so scientists and engineers can measure the flap's performance. Smith said the data from those flights is being analyzed and the tests are going well. Roughly 50 test flights will be flown in the next year and the technology will eventually be transferred to the commerical aeronautics industry, said Smith. "A new idea, an old aircraft, and a lot of Langley ingenuity Please see Wing, B3 1j 5 By MARY BETH REGAN Staff Writer HAMPTON NASA's Lang-ley Research Center has started tests on a new wing design that could give fighter pilots of the future an edge over their competitors.

The new wing design, called the vortex flap, was designed to solve a common problem faced by designers of fighter aircraft: speed vs. manueverability. Fighter aircraft like the F-106B used in the vortex flap test flights have swept wings, which means they are angled toward the craft tail, making them faster. "But short, wide wings are Hampton crab plants on block Staff photo by DAVE BOWMAN Research pilot Phil Brown (left) and Tom Johnson, the flight test engineer, discuss the new wing design after a test flight. A new direction rsj ''if 5" 1 Mentally ill home care plan's aim By MARK DI VINCENZO Staff Writer HAMPTON Nearly 8,000 residents of Hampton and Newport News out of a population of almost 280,000 are mentally ill, and about 275 of those are in Eastern State Hospital near Williamsburg.

State and local mental health officials made it clear Wednesday they want to decrease the second number. They announced details of a project to move mentally ill patients from Newport News and Hampton out of Eastern State, a state mental hospital in James City County, and into facilities in the community or to relatives' homes; and to strictly monitor those patients once they're back in the community. The General Assembly has allocated up to $800,000 during the next two years to the Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board to accomplish that goal, thereby continuing efforts to reduce the number of patients at the state's four large mental hospitals. Not only is it more expensive to treat a person in a state hospital, but that environment is widely regarded as the most restrictive and least desirable. "To use the hospital as a hotel does not make sense," said Howard M.

Cullum, commissioner of the state Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services. The project was first implemented last year in Chesapeake, where it is considered a success. The total number of nights Chesapeake residents spent at Eastern State dropped from 8,321 in fiscal year 1987 to 7,726 in FY88, which ended June 30, said Stuart C. Saul, project manager there. "People are worried about the mentally ill flooding into the community," said Charles A.

Hall, executive director of the Hampton-Newport News board, "but some people might be surprised to know mentally ill people are already in the community in large numbers." Hall said part of the $800,000 designated for the Hampton-Newport News board will be Please see 111, B3 HAMPTON One former seafood processing plant will go on the auction block Friday, while talks with the city to buy two more continued Wednesday. All three crab plants closed about a year ago, and their owners, Nellie Hunt Rodgers and John Mallory Phillips, both died recently. Whether the plants reopen is now in the hands of their potential buyers. The three were once part of a thriving industry in downtown Hampton, which as recently as a decade ago boasted at least nine crab plants. Only two remain.

Phillips Seafood Co. Inc. on Armistead Avenue will be sold at a trustee's sale on the steps of Hampton Circuit Court at 9 a.m. Friday. Phillips, the city's former vice mayor, died in July.

In the meantime, city officials are still trying to buy the defunct P.K. Hunt Sons Inc. and Chesapeake Crab Co. crab houses and the old Seafood Kitchen Restaurant on South King Street. Nellie Hunt Rodgers, matriarch of the family that owned the property, died Sunday.

She was 74. 3 John Mallory Phillips founded Phillips Seafood in 1943 and built it into one of the area's largest wholesale and retail operations. The crab-picking portion of the business closed a year ago. The last surviving operation, a carry-out restaurant, closed its doors last month. Jeffrey M.

Stedfast of the Kaufman Canoles law firm in Norfolk, substitute trustee for the estate, declined to comment on why the property is being sold at a public auction rather than on the commercial real estate market. George L. Smith, attorney for the Rodgers family, met with City Manager Robert J. O'Neill Jr. Wednesday.

Both reported no progress in their talks. O'Neill and Mayor James L. Eason recently warned that the city might condemn the property and force a sale if they could not agree on a sales price. The 1.5 acres is on the Hampton River between the Radisson Hotel and the proposed city museum complex. Staff photo by KENNETH D.

LYONS Disc jockey Harvey King operates some of the new equipment inside the remodeled Gloucester radio station WDDY. Starting today, the station broadcasts under its new name, WXGM (1420 AM). The station's format also has changed, from country to "golden oldie" pop hits. The station has spent about $40,000 improving its equipment and signal. Man killed for drug, witness says "He was the man doing the shooting," Peele said.

"There's no doubt in my mind." The shooting occurred about 8 p.m. Police arrived at the scene shortly thereafter and found Sports lying face down, with several bullet wounds in his head. Carlissa Whitlow, who lived at the apartment complex at the time, testified she was standing about 10 feet from the two men when the shooting occurred. "Before Joe could get his leg over the fence, the man shot him," she said. Wyche then stood over Sports' wounded body and shot him repeatedly, Whitlow testified.

Rose M. Lino, who was visiting a friend at the apartment complex that night, said she heard a shot and ran out the door. "I observed this man here leaning over the fence shooting down toward the ground" where Sports had fallen, Lino said. Wyche was arrested in New York City on June 11, 1987. He was recently extradited to stand trial in Newport News.

He will be sentenced Oct. 18 and faces 20 years to life in prison for the murder and a mandatory two-year sentence for use of the gun. "I hope he gets what he deserves," said Joseph Sports the victim's father. "They should give him double life." By RON SHAWGO Staff Writer NEWPORT NEWS Within an hour after Joseph Sports Jr. stole a bag of cocaine, he paid for it with his life, a witness to the 1986 killing said Wednesday.

That testimony by Randolph Peele and two other witnesses led Circuit Judge Fred W. Bate-man to convict Lee A. Wyche of first-degree murder. Bateman also found Wyche, 36, guilty of using a gun in killing Sports, who was 28. Peele said he and Sports saw Wyche, whose nickname is "Foots," outside an apartment complex in the southeast section of the city when they got off work on June 29, 1986.

Wyche gave Peele some co caine in a plastic bag. Then, while Wyche was talking to someone else, Sports took the bag from Peele's hand and walked away, saying "something about Foots owed him money and wouldn't pay," Peele said. Wyche saw Sports leave with the drug, Peele said. Sports later threw the cocaine away, saying it was no good, he added. Wyche then went to make a phone call and Peele said he went to a girlfriend's home in a nearby apartment building in the 500 block of 17th Street.

Peele said that about an hour later he was looking out of the window of that apartment and saw Wyche shoot Sports at close range, while Sports was trying to jump over a fence. Family had enough of life in the A rmy i hv-'-- I -'7 West Germany on a planned tour of duty. They submitted an application for a hardship discharge on the basis of these problems last week. It has been tentatively approved by both Breeden's company commander and battalion commander. The matter will then be referred to post commander Maj.

Gen. Samuel Wakefield. Carl said Breeden will likely be discharged within the next 10 days. The couple's troubles began as a result of her condition. Less than a month after their 1985 marriage, Terri Breeden.

then 17, suffered a series of strokes related to her severe migraine condition. So in August 1985, Sgt. Breeden, who had been at Fort Campbell, received a compassionate reassignment to Fort Eustis so he and his wife could be near alter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. The company that moved their trailer to the Peninsula charged about $7,200. $3,000 of which was for services the Army doesn't cover.

Sgt. Breeden said he signed the bill without seeing a total figure, partly because he was upset about his wife's condition. He also said many of the charges were added after he OK'd it Carl said Breeden ignored the Army's standard Pleas? see Tlight, B2 By DAN DeWITT Staff Writer NEWPORT NEWS A year ago last spring, Sgt. Howard Breeden re-upped for six years because debts to the Army were sucking him dry. The debts, however, continued to mount.

Now Breeden will probably be released from the Army, not because of the overwhelming debts he said are partly the Army's fault, but because of his wife's health problems. In March 1987 Breeden agreed to re-enlist for six years to gain more time to settle his debt to the Army, which he was paying off at a rate of $423 a month. Breeden owed the money because he was overcharged $3,000 by the company that moved his trailer from Fort Campbell, here in 1985. But despite the re-enlistment agreement, the Army continued to deduct $423 per month from his checks until the debt was paid in July 1987. This slip-up was part of a string of bad luck that the Breedens said was compounded by the Army's mismanagement and indifference, leaving them $6,000 in debt and ruining their credit rating.

Fort Eustis spokesian John Carl called Breed-en's situation unfortunate, but said, "He's brought "Something obviously got screwed up (But) that's the facts of life. We can't change it now." John Carl, Fort Eustis spokesman a lot of these problems on. himself." But Carl admitted the Army should have prorated the payments after the re-enlistment. "Something obviously got screwed up," he said. But, "That's the facts of life.

We can't change it now." He emphasized that the discharge is not an effort to rectify this mistake but instead is justified by Terri Breeden's health problems. According to a report from neurologist Robert L. Solomon, who examined her in July, she suffers frequent migraine headaches as well as a slieht paralysis of the left side of her body, charactar-ized by drooping facial muscles on the left side of her face and weakness in her left limbs. He said her condition was aggravated by flying and she needed her husband's help in nising their liiionth-old son. The Breedens arguwl that these factors made it impossible for them to go Staff ptxxo toy PANSY MORR Fort Eusttspokesman called the situation unfortunate..