Cockpit

Herman G. "Hank" Tillman Jr., a retired Air Force colonel and pilot who flew in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and was one of Maryland's most decorated veterans, died Sunday of liver failure at his Chester home. He was 89. He was born in his immigrant grandparents' Anne Arundel County farmhouse, and later moved with his family to a home at Pontiac Avenue and Sixth Street in Brooklyn. After graduating from Polytechnic Institute in 1940, he attended the Johns Hopkins University at night and worked at Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s engineering department during the day. "As a kid, he was fascinated with flying.

Rep. Donna F. Edwards slipped into the F-35 cockpit - a stationary demonstration model - and gave the jet a simulated spin, trying out the controls, shooting down enemy aircraft over the Chesapeake Bay and executing a celebratory roll. "This feels so cool ," said Edwards, a Prince George's County Democrat. "OK, let's land this thing - give somebody else a chance. " This hands-on version of show and tell, held in Linthicum on Thursday, is part of a public-relations campaign for the most expensive weapons program in the nation's history.

Cockpit in Court launches its season tonight with an outdoor production of N. Richard Nash's romantic comedy "The Rainmaker." Under Judy Shannon's direction, the cast is headed by Rodney Atkinson as Bill Starbuck, the slick-talker who promises to bring rain to the drought-stricken Plains. Cockpit, the summer theater in residence at the Essex campus of the Community College of Baltimore County, has had to abbreviate its season due to renovations to the building that houses its primary theaters, but the summer theater will still mount three additional shows this season: "Red Hot &Cole" (June 15-25 in the Administration Building)

The Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre is in the midst of its 40th anniversary season, a significant milestone for a company that has tackled a sizable breadth of repertoire, from "Lysistrata" to "Hairspray," and maintained wallet-friendly ticket prices the whole time. This year, the troupe, based at the Community College of Baltimore County in Essex, has offered productions of "The King and I" and "Steel Magnolias," as well as a children's show, "Dr. Dolittle. " An eager, if uneven, production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Sunset Boulevard" opened last weekend on the main stage; "Laura," a play version of the hit 1940s film, opens Friday in the cabaret theater.

The lively new production of the Broadway musical “Hairspray” at Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre is another opportunity to consider the deep local roots of this show - and to ponder your preference for it in one medium or another. My own vote for best version has to go to the original 1988 movie, directed by John Waters. How can anyone ever surpass the late Divine as that plus-sized Baltimore housewife and icon, Edna Turnblad? The Broadway musical is great fun too, of course, and there have been several memorable actors playing Edna, as well as her similarly hefty daughter, Tracy, who undertakes a fight for civil rights and social justice on several fronts.

Like "The Secret Garden" that gives this 1991 Broadway musical its title, the production at Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre takes a while to blossom. It has its share of vocal highlights and always remains enjoyable, but the story's powerful emotions are fitfully conveyed before finally coming across with full force at the end. The reason partly lies in the musical itself. Based on the beloved 1911 children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the story concerns a 10-year-old girl, Mary Lennox, who is orphaned when her parents suddenly die in India.

"Blood Brothers," the long-running British musical about ill-fated twin brothers, separated at birth, opens tomorrow at Cockpit in Court's Upstairs Cabaret Theatre.Written by Willy Russell, author of "Shirley Valentine" and "Educating Rita," the musical is a kind of updated version of "The Prince and the Pauper," in which a cleaning lady is coerced into secretly giving one of the newborn twins to her wealthy employer. Cockpit's production is directed by Eric Potter and stars Jason Ayestes and Tom Burns as the twins and Liz Boyer as their birth mother.

The Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre is in the midst of its 40th anniversary season, a significant milestone for a company that has tackled a sizable breadth of repertoire, from "Lysistrata" to "Hairspray," and maintained wallet-friendly ticket prices the whole time. This year, the troupe, based at the Community College of Baltimore County in Essex, has offered productions of "The King and I" and "Steel Magnolias," as well as a children's show, "Dr. Dolittle. " An eager, if uneven, production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Sunset Boulevard" opened last weekend on the main stage; "Laura," a play version of the hit 1940s film, opens Friday in the cabaret theater.

This week's apparent mental breakdown by a Jet Blue pilot could have had a very different ending. Imagine that the ill pilot had pulled the gun that many pilots now carry and started a gunfight in the cockpit. The law that allows pilots to bring arms onto planes was enacted following the9/11tragedy. But over the years, we watched time and again as brave passengers have dealt with safety threats directly without the need of armed force. Within recent weeks we've witnessed graphic on-board meltdowns by a flight attendant and now a pilot.

Two neurotic composers hungry for a hit song travel the rocky road of romance in Cockpit in Court's scintillating version of the musical "They're Playing Our Song," being presented on the Mainstage of Essex Community College through Sunday.This snappy, bright and very funny look at the up-and-down relationship between a man and a woman was written by Neil Simon, with grand music by Marvin Hamlisch and lyrics by Carol Bayer Sager that incisively reveal the frustrations, longings and hopes of all lovers everywhere.

This week's apparent mental breakdown by a Jet Blue pilot could have had a very different ending. Imagine that the ill pilot had pulled the gun that many pilots now carry and started a gunfight in the cockpit. The law that allows pilots to bring arms onto planes was enacted following the9/11tragedy. But over the years, we watched time and again as brave passengers have dealt with safety threats directly without the need of armed force. Within recent weeks we've witnessed graphic on-board meltdowns by a flight attendant and now a pilot.

Herman G. "Hank" Tillman Jr., a retired Air Force colonel and pilot who flew in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and was one of Maryland's most decorated veterans, died Sunday of liver failure at his Chester home. He was 89. He was born in his immigrant grandparents' Anne Arundel County farmhouse, and later moved with his family to a home at Pontiac Avenue and Sixth Street in Brooklyn. After graduating from Polytechnic Institute in 1940, he attended the Johns Hopkins University at night and worked at Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s engineering department during the day. "As a kid, he was fascinated with flying.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A Southwest Airlines flight ultimately headed for Baltimore landed safely at Little Rock National Airport after malfunctioning equipment caused a spark and some smoke in the cockpit. Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Mainz says airport emergency officials were alerted about 12:25 p.m. Wednesday after a small spark occurred in an overhead light fixture on Flight 871. Mainz says the malfunction caused some smoke in the cockpit, and a fire extinguisher was used as a precaution.

The lively new production of the Broadway musical “Hairspray” at Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre is another opportunity to consider the deep local roots of this show - and to ponder your preference for it in one medium or another. My own vote for best version has to go to the original 1988 movie, directed by John Waters. How can anyone ever surpass the late Divine as that plus-sized Baltimore housewife and icon, Edna Turnblad? The Broadway musical is great fun too, of course, and there have been several memorable actors playing Edna, as well as her similarly hefty daughter, Tracy, who undertakes a fight for civil rights and social justice on several fronts.

Like "The Secret Garden" that gives this 1991 Broadway musical its title, the production at Cockpit in Court Summer Theatre takes a while to blossom. It has its share of vocal highlights and always remains enjoyable, but the story's powerful emotions are fitfully conveyed before finally coming across with full force at the end. The reason partly lies in the musical itself. Based on the beloved 1911 children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the story concerns a 10-year-old girl, Mary Lennox, who is orphaned when her parents suddenly die in India.

Remember how Capt. Sully's courageous emergency landing on the icy Hudson River in January kind of made everyone feel really good about airline pilots? Well, two Northwest Airlines aviators visiting the land of nod or in a laptop trance - doesn't matter which, really - have probably erased a lot of that good will. They have reminded airline passengers that we really don't know what goes on behind those bolted doors to the cockpit. We only ever hear from the pilots at takeoff ("We're number 1 for go."

It'll be "Comedy Tonight" when Cockpit in Court wraps up its mainstage season with tonight's opening of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The first Broadway show for which Stephen Sondheim wrote both music and lyrics, the 1962 musical is a farce based on the Roman comedies of Plautus, reworked by librettists Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. Director Susan Lev has updated the show to modern-day Washington, with a White House set designed by Terri Raulie. As Pseudolus -- re-envisioned as a wage slave desperate to work his way out of the system -- David Shapiro heads a cast that also includes Scott Frutchy, Joan Merritt and Al Woltz.

LONDON -- American pilots can be heard cursing and weeping after finding out they just fired on a British convoy in southern Iraq at the beginning of the U.S. invasion, according to cockpit video footage leaked to a British tabloid. Shortly after the British newspaper The Sun posted the video on its Web site yesterday, the U.S. government relented on its refusal to allow the video to be shown in a British court. The 2003 strike near Basra killed a British soldier and wounded several others.