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Old April 20th 04, 12:41 AM
Mary Shafer
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On 18 Apr 2004 21:57:49 GMT, (JohnF73157) wrote:

I seem to remember reading somewhere that there is a law that prohibits
civilian aircraft, and that includes police aircraft, from having any type of
armaments attached.


Properly speaking, police aircraft aren't "civilian aircraft" in the
sense you mean. They're public aircraft, meaning operated by a public
agency, rather than private aircraft. The FAA doesn't regulate any
public aircraft except those dedicated to flying passengers.

NASA, a civilian agency, has operated armed aircraft fairly recently,
although that was only until we could get the guns out and return them
to the Navy, but we weren't breaking any law to do so. There are
private aircraft that fly with armament, doing testing for the
military, too.

Might you be thinking of the old prohibition of ejection seats in
private aircraft? That was about the pyros, I believe. However, it's
long gone and ejections seats are legal if maintained properly.

Mary

--
Mary Shafer Retired aerospace research engineer