Plane

Q: I have a Spirit of St. Louis model plane made of metal that was manufactured by the Metalcraft Corp. of St. Louis and that was bought sometime between 1928 and 1930. The plane's rudder and landing gear are missing, and its wooden tail wheel was worn out. Where can I find the missing parts?A: Collectors of Spirit of St. Louis and Charles Lindbergh memorabilia belong to the C.A.L./NX-211 Collectors Society (which stands for Charles A. Lindbergh and the registration number of his plane). Annual membership and monthly newsletter are $12 from Sallie G. Fowler, 6 Todd Drive, North Haven, Conn.

A single-engine airplane crashed into a split-level house in Brockbridge last night, leaving the pilot with severe head injuries, but harming no one in the house, authorities said.The pilot, Gary Hankins, 45, of the 300 block of Dameron St., Maryland City, was flown to the Prince George's Hospital Center. He later was listed in critical, but stable condition.Randy Franklin, who lives across the street from where the Ultra Light aircraft crashed in the 3500 block of River Bridge Way, was in his garden when the plane come down shortly before 6:30 p.m. "I just heard two or three pops, like shotguns when the engine gave out and then it died and glided right into the house," said Mr. Franklin, 34."

The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation to determine why a single-engine plane crashed into a house in the 3500 block of River Bridge Way in Brockbridge Tuesday evening, a spokeswoman for the agency confirmed yesterday.Joan Brown, the spokeswoman, said an FAA inspector went to Suburban Airport in Laurel to examine the plane about noon yesterday, the first step in what she said would be a "lengthy investigation."FAA investigators have not interviewed the pilot of the plane, Gary Hankins, 45, of the 300 block of Dameron St. in Maryland City.

MERRILLVILLE, Ind. -- The American Eagle plane that crashed Monday night took an unexplained dip to the right, recovered, dipped again and turned upside down just before it plunged to the ground, killing all 68 people aboard, the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said at a briefing last night.Data from the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder from Flight 4184 showed that the plane began descending probably in response to instruction radioed to the pilots from the ground.

China will set up a company to build large passenger airplanes, a first step as it seeks to take on Boeing Co. of the U.S. and Airbus SAS of Europe. Premier Wen Jiabao approved the plan at a Feb. 26 Cabinet meeting in Beijing, according to a statement posted on the central government's Web site Sunday. "Building a large aircraft is an important strategic decision of the Communist Party and the State Council, and it has been the desire of all Chinese people for many years," the government said in its statement.

A Hampton (Va.) man, believed to be the president of a Cumberland firm, was killed Wednesday when his small plane crashed while trying to land at the Cumberland Municipal Airport, West Virginia State Police said yesterday.The victim of the 4:50 p.m. crash was tentatively identified as Jan F. Miller, 40, president of the National Jet Co., a micro-engineering and tool- making company based in Cumberland.Witnesses said the victim, the only person aboard the twin-engine Piper Aerostar, was trying to circle the field for a second attempt at landing when the craft went down in Wiley Ford, W.Va.

A malfunction in an auxiliary power unit on the tail of an arriving Southwest Airlines passenger jet was blamed for a brief scare at Baltimore-Washington International Airport last night. Jonathan Dean, a spokesman for the Maryland Aviation Administration, said the flight from Indianapolis was taxiing to the gate when the problem occurred about 6:15 p.m. Fire and rescue crews answering the call found no fire, he said. Southwest spokeswoman Edna Ruano said the crew of the Boeing 737 was alerted that an air-traffic controller had spotted an external fire.

A small plane that crashed shortly after taking off from Suburban Airport in Laurel Monday evening narrowly missed a road packed with commuters and a bike path that connects Maryland City to a nearby park.A volunteer fire chief said that if the plane had not hit a century-old, 40-foot tree, cushioning the impact, the pilot and student aboard the two-seater might have died."There were people driving right underneath the plane as it was crashing," said Ray Smallwood, the fire chief for the Maryland City volunteer fire station.

A student pilot and her instructor were injured yesterday when theirsingle-engine training plane crashed into an empty building lot in Laurel.The Piper Tomahawk plane, which took off from nearby Suburban Airport at 5:19 p.m., traveled about a half-mile before crashing just north of the airport, county police and fire department spokesmensaid. Both the airport and crash site are in Anne Arundel County.Student pilot Sharon Lynn Meigs, 36, of the 12100 block of Amblewood Drive in Laurel, Prince George's County, was conscious when paramedics and eyewitnesses arrived.

CARROLLTON, Ga. -- Twenty-six of the 29 people aboard a Delta commuter airplane survived a fiery landing in a west Georgia hayfield yesterday after the plane apparently lost an engine in midflight.The pilot, whom passengers and witnesses credited for the survival of so many, was one of two people killed immediately. A third died later in Erlinger Medical Center in Chattanooga, Tenn.Survivors and law enforcement officials said the plane, operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, a commuter line that is partly owned by and feeds into Delta Air Lines, developed trouble in one of its twin turboprop engines less than a half-hour after taking off from Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport on a 362-mile trip to Gulfport, Miss.