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ByJohnRogers The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Goodyear has let the helium out of the last of its fabled fleet of blimps, but the company's flight program will con- tinue. About two dozen em- ployees were on hand early Tuesday to witness the de- flation of California-based Spirit of Innovation. But shed no tears, blimp fans, you'll still see a famil- iar blue-and-gold form float- ing over your favorite sports event or awards show. Although the blimp's re- placement, Wingfoot Two, will look about the same when it arrives at Good- year's airship base in Car- son later this year, it will be a semi-rigid dirigible. Such aircraft, one of which has already replaced Goodyear's Florida blimp, have a frame, which means they maintain their shape when the helium is drained. Blimps, on the other hand, go flat. Wingfoot Two, cur- rentlyoperatinginOhio,will be replaced by yet another dirigible whenit leavesthere for Southern California. Far more important to Goodyear is that the new airships are faster, quieter, larger, easier to fly and more maneuverable than the blimps it introduced more than 90 years ago. Still, the company plans to keep calling the new mod- els blimps. "Because a Goodyear Semi-rigid Dirigible doesn't roll off the tongue," laughed company airship historian Eddie Ogden. Crew members Tuesday yanked a rip line to open a section at the top of the blimp's big gas bag, known as an envelope. It took about two minutes for it to crumple to the ground. Ogden said Goodyear em- ployees watched the defla- tion with mixed emotions. "Therewereacoupletears because they've been work- ing with blimps for so long," he said. "But the program has always changed over thedecadesandthisisastep forward. The new model is incredible to watch fly." The switch to dirigibles offers a similar-looking, ci- gar-shaped flying machine but one that's 246 feet long, nearly the length of a foot- ball field and 50 feet longer than the old blimps. With room for three engines in- stead of two, it will be able to hit freeway speeds of over 70 miles per hour and turn on a dime. The quieter engines also will provide an advantage in covering golf tourna- ments, Ogden said, by elim- inating the racket that can sometimes disrupt golfers lining up their putts. The ability to hover will allow a pilot to better position the aircraft to capture NASCAR race finishes and key mo- ments in a baseball game. And the ability to take off and land like a helicop- ter will put an end to those funny-looking runway pur- suits by the ground crew. Still, Spirit of Innovation was an innovator in its day and its deflation comes with some emotion. Its gondola, originally christened Columbia in 1986, became Eagle in 2002 and finally Innovation fol- lowing a public name-that- blimp contest in 2006. With the lifespan of the envelope nearing an end, it was time to mothball it, said Matthew St. John, chief pilot at the Carson air- ship base and the man who took the blimp on its final flight above last month's Academy Awards. The craft's historic gon- dola will be shipped to Goodyear's century-old Ohio airship base to be put on permanent display. Other parts are going to museums, and the envelope is being recycled. "The engines can be re- paired and replaced, the gondola can be repaired and refurbished, the tail fins can be refurbished," said St. John, who plans to fly "In- novation's" replacement. "But with the envelope, there's a safety measure there that we take a very se- rious look at and say, 'OK, this is the mark, and we're not going to go beyond that mark,'" he said. FABLED FLEET Go od ye ar r et ir es b lim ps bu t ke ep s fa mi li ar f or m in fl ig ht RICHARDVOGEL—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Ground crew guide the Goodyear Blimp "Spirit of Innovation" as it comes in for a landing at Goodyear Airship Base in Carson. By Elliot Spagat and Julie Watson The Associated Press SAN DIEGO A retired Navy admiral was among nine high-ranking military offi- cers indicted and arrested Tuesday across the coun- try in a burgeoning bribery scandal involving a Malay- sian defense contractor nicknamed "Fat Leonard." The indictment unsealed in federal court in San Di- egoallegedthatretiredAdm. BruceLovelessandtheother officersacceptedtheservices of prostitutes, lavish meals and fancy trips from Leon- ard Francis in exchange for classified information that helped his company, Glenn Defense Marine Asia. It was the latest indict- ment in the three-year-old case that has charged more than 20 former or current Navy officials so far and marks one of the Navy's worst corruption scandals in history. Prosecutors say Fran- cis, whose nickname comes from his wide birth, bilked the Navy out of nearly $35 million — largely by over- charging for his company's services supplying ships in the Pacific with food, water, fuel and other necessities. Francis obtained clas- sified information by buy- ing off Navy officers who helped him beat out the competition or steer ships to ports in the Pacific where he could charge fake tariffs and fees, prosecutors said. The new indictment also charged a former Marine colonel. The defendants were arrested Tuesday in Cali- fornia, Texas, Pennsylva- nia, Florida, Colorado and Virginia. Loveless was ar- rested at his home in Coro- nado across the bay from San Diego. None of the de- fendants or their defense at- torneys could be immedi- ately reached for comment. "This is a fleecing and be- trayal of the United States Navy in epic proportions, and it was allegedly carried out by the Navy's highest- ranking officers," said Act- ing U.S. Attorney Alana W. Robinson. She added that "the al- leged conduct amounts to a staggering degree of cor- ruption by the most prom- inent leaders of the Sev- enth Fleet — the largest fleet in the U.S. Navy — ac- tively worked together as a team to trade secrets for sex, serving the interests of a greedy foreign defense contractor, and not those of their own country." Among those charged so far was another admi- ral who was sentenced in June and is believed to be the first active-duty Naval flag officer charged in fed- eral court. Francis has pleaded guilty to fraud and is await- ing sentencing. Twenty of the defendants are current or former U.S. Navy officials and five are company executives of the Singapore-based company. To date, 13 have pleaded guilty while several other cases are pending. CORRUPTION SCANDAL Retired Navy admiral among 9 indicted in bribery case The Associated Press LONG BEACH The Queen Mary is so corroded that it's at urgent risk of flooding or collapse, and the price tag for fixing up the 1930s ocean liner could near $300 million, according to a sur- vey done by experts. It would likely take five years to rehab the ship, a tourist destination docked permanently in Long Beach Harbor south of Los Ange- les, according to documents obtained by the Long Beach Press-Telegram (http://bit. ly/2npGoX8 ). During its heyday, the Queen Mary carried Hol- lywood celebrities, such as BobHopeandElizabethTay- lor, royalty, such as the Duke andDuchessofWindsor,and dignitaries, such as Winston Churchill. It also spent sev- eral years ferrying 765,000 Allied troops during World War II, when it was nick- named the "Gray Ghost." But now, naval architects and marine engineers who compiled the survey warn that the vessel is probably "approaching the point of no return." The hull is severely rusted and certain areas, including the engine room, could be prone to flooding, according tothenewspaperreportpub- lished Monday. And because the bilge system is inoper- able, large amounts of wa- ter can't be pumped out and could cause the ship to sink to the lagoon floor. Inaddition,thepillarsup- ports for a raised floor in an exhibition space are cor- roded throughout and could face "immediate collapse" under the weight of just a few people, the survey said. Roughly 75 percent of the repairs were deemed "ur- gent." The Queen Mary made Long Beach its permanent home in 1967. Now a float- ing hotel with shops, restau- rants and event spaces, the shipattractssome1.3million visitors annually. City officials said the find- ings are being discussed with the ship's current lease- holder,UrbanCommons,and both sides are committed to preserving the historic as- set and making sure it can safely remain open to the public. In November, Long Beach approved $23 million to address the ship's most urgent repairs, and Urban Commons is working to se- cure additional funding. RETIRED OCEAN LINER Survey: Queen Mary corroded, repairs could near $300 million JOHN ANTCZAK — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The retired Cunard ocean liner Queen Mary is shown at its permanent mooring in the harbor at Long Beach. By Andrew Dalton The Associated Press LOS ANGELES An arbitra- tion panel awarded Califor- nia utilities $125 million in a lawsuit claiming that Mitsubishi Heavy Indus- tries supplied faulty steam generators that helped lead to the closure of the San Onofre nuclear plant — a hollow victory that was a tiny fraction of the $7.6 billion sought by Southern California Edison and its partners. The contract had capped the Mitsubishi's liability at $137 million, but Edison had sought more, saying that fraud and gross neg- ligence on the part of the Tokyo-based contractor led to devastating effects on the plant. "We had hoped the award would more accu- rately reflect the true mag- nitude of damage caused by Mitsubishi's defective steam generators," Edison President Ron Nichols said in a statement Monday. "Unfortunately, the arbitra- tion panel concluded that the contract's prescribed liability limit should be re- spected and no additional award can be granted de- spite the harm caused." One panel member agreed with the utilities, saying in a dissent that Edison should have gotten over $1 billion. Mitsubishi didn't dis- pute that the steam gen- erators it provided expe- rienced unacceptable de- terioration, but said it had upheld its warranty obliga- tions and the award should be within the liability cap. The contract also said that such disputes would be settled in arbitration. Edison will split the money with plant co-own- ersSanDiegoGas&Electric and the city of Riverside. Under a settlement with state regulators, those co- owners will pay $1.4 billion in shutdown costs for the plant, while their custom- ers will be on the hook for the other $3.3 billion, an amount Edison said it had hoped to reduce with a vic- tory over Mitsubishi. The twin-domed, sea- side plant, located between Los Angeles and San Di- ego, was closed in 2012 af- ter a small radiation leak led to the discovery of ex- tensive damage to hun- dreds of tubes inside vir- tually new steam genera- tors. That shutdown was supposed to be temporary, but San Onofre was shut- tered for good in 2013 af- ter a fight with environ- mentalists over whether it was safe to restart. The Utility Reform Net- work, a consumer advo- cate commonly known as TURN, said in a state- ment that it was a shame that a bigger sum wasn't awarded, but that custom- ers are being bilked either way. $125 MILLION Panel gives small victory to utilities in nuke plant lawsuit The Associated Press DALLAS American Air- lines said Tuesday that it plans to offer free meals to everyone in economy on certain cross-country flights starting May 1. The decision at the world's biggest airline cop- ies Delta Air Lines, which announced a month ago that it would restore free meals in economy on a dozen long-haul U.S. routes this spring. Airlines dropped free sandwiches and other meals in economy on do- mestic flights after brutal downturns in 2001 and 2008, and they have been slow to bring back food de- spite record profits. Amer- ican Airlines Group Inc. earned $2.7 billion last year. American said it will open the kitchen on non- stop flights between New York and both Los Ange- les and San Francisco. The airline says that passen- gers will get a continental breakfast or a sandwich wrap, chips and dessert, or they can pick a vegetarian meal or a fruit-and-cheese plate. That leaves United as the biggest carrier with no plans yet to bring back free meals on any domes- tic flights. United didn't comment immediately on American's announcement. 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