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136 The Naval Academy Planetarium
By Lieutenant W. F. Fahey,
U. S. Navy
140 Inner Space Navigation
By Captain P. V. H. Weems,
U. S. Navy (Retired)
141 The Royal Canadian Navy’s "Beartrap” Helicopter Handling System
By Peter Brannan
145 "Overseasmanship” Training in the Navy
By Commander John P. Dickson, U. S. Naval Reserve (Retired)
148 Notebook
Despite man’s growing use of atomic power and advances in space technology, computers, radio telescopes, and electronics, the art and science of celestial navigation today utilizes a concept of the visible universe that has remained unchanged f°r thousands of years: the geocentric universe, with the earth at the center and all the celestial bodies revolving around it. This theory presents the universe as a huge sphere of infinite radius with all the celestial bodies placed at equal distances from the earth. We think of this “celestial sphere” as making one revolution about the earth each day. An imaginary system of co-ordinates is created by projecting the earth’s latitudes and longitudes out onto this celestial sphere, and thus the terrestrial equator, so projected, becomes the “celestial equator” and the terrestrial meridians become the “celestial meridians.” The navigator is thus able to create and work with a simple and direct universe of his own, and can construct the “navigational triangle” °n his imaginary geocentric celestial sphere by connecting a celestial pole with the observer s zenith and the position of a given heavenly body. The solution of the spherical triangle thus formed is, and has been for centuries, the means of determining position at sea, and lS the very heart of celestial navigation.
Since 1923 man has been able to duplicate, with reasonable fidelity, the actual appeaI' ance of the night sky. In August of that year, the heavens were artificially reproduced f01 the first time, in all their brilliance, on the inside of a 16-meter dome erected on a factory roof of the Zeiss Works in Jena, Germany’ The Zeiss Planetarium became world famous, and some 25 of these instruments were installed in “sky theaters” around the world,
including one in the Hayden Planetarium in New York City.
The Zeiss Planetarium was uniquely realistic in its ability to duplicate accurately the night sky because it used the principle of projection. Instead of a mechanical device carrying lights, or a mechanically rotated hollow sphere with back-lighted holes to represent stars, the new planetarium transferred the entire mechanism for the movements of the celestial bodies to a collection of projectors which projected luminous images onto a stationary white hemispherical dome. Within the dome, the center of which is occupied by the projectors, all would be in darkness. By means of suitable mechanisms and gears, the projectors could be moved and guided so that the images of the heavenly bodies would conform on the dome to the motions which actually occur in the visible universe. The movements of the projectors could be controlled by electric motors which, like the lamps within the projectors, were controlled from a master switchboard.
The essential feature of this ingenious invention is the mechanical construction of the gearings which embodies the true heliocentric or “sun-centered” motions of the solar system, while at the same time the optical projection of the planets and stars on the dome reproduces their geocentric motions. With various auxiliary projectors, it is possible to project celestial co-ordinates and the navigational triangle onto the background of stars and planets.
The U. S. Naval Academy quickly recognized that the Zeiss Planetarium could be used to great advantage to introduce midshipmen to the concepts and theory of celestial navigation, and during World War II groups of midshipmen were sent to the Hayden and Fels Planetariums, in New York and Philadelphia respectively, for assistance in their studies. This arrangement was costly and time-consuming. In 1944, a Link Celestial Trainer, a mesh hemisphere with mounted light bulbs which could be mechanically rotated, was installed in a temporary building next to Luce Hall, home of the Naval Academy’s department of seamanship and navigation. With some modifications, the Link Celestial Trainer was suitable for use in the instructing of midshipmen in the use of a sextant and basic star identification, but it was not a projection-type planetarium and left a great deal to be desired so far as demonstrating co-ordinate systems and the motions of the planets, sun, and moon. The Zeiss instrument, while possessing almost unlimited capabilities, was too large and too expensive for Naval Academy use. Thus, it was decided to search for an instrument which had most of the educational capabilities of the much larger Zeiss instrument, but which was smaller, relatively inexpensive, not too complex, and which could be used in teaching small groups of midshipmen. For several years no such instrument was available. Trips to the Hayden Planetarium were continued as a part of the midshipman summer cruises.
In October 1947, Armand N. Spitz, then Director of the Fels Planetarium, demonstrated a small planetarium projector to a joint meeting of two astronomical societies in the Harvard College Observatory. This projector was virtually hand-made by Mr. Spitz and was extremely faithful in its reproduction of the night sky. The Spitz Planetarium Projector was designed to sell for considerably less than the Zeiss, was capable of adaptation for instruction in celestial navigation since it utilized the projection principle, was ideal for small groups, and did not require extensive operator training. It was the answer to the Naval Academy’s problem.
Mr. Spitz was invited to demonstrate his invention at the Naval Academy. Demonstrations were held at the Naval Academy, and officials were so impressed that they decided to purchase a Spitz Planetarium and to install it under a dome installed in the old Link Celestial Trainer building. Some measure of uncertainty still existed, evidenced by the fact that the new planetarium dome was installed by fitting it inside the Link hemisphere with the provision that it be so secured as to make it possible to remove it in one day. The device was installed and on 6 May 1949, the doors were opened to the Naval Academy Planetarium, the first such installation in any of the service academies and the second in an educational institution in the United States.*
* See W. B. Hayler, “The Naval Academy Gets a Planetarium,” U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, February 1952, pp. 168-169. The first such installation was at the Eastern Mennonite College in Virginia.
On 17 January 1950, the Spitz Projector was christened the Training Device l-BV-3, and was evaluated for the Navy Department by representatives from the Naval Academy, the Office of Naval Research, the Bureau of Naval Personnel, the Naval Air Training Command, and the Air Force Training Command. This formidable group made a very favorable report and the Naval Academy Planetarium was formally accepted.
This first planetarium consisted of a hemispherical dome 20 feet in diameter, suspended six feet off the floor. Beneath the center of this dome stood the pedestal- mounted Spitz Projector. Sixty-five seats were arranged in three concentric circles about the projector. The seating capacity was deliberately limited to allow for close student- instructor contact, and for this reason the seating capacity has never been increased. While lecturing, the instructor stood in the center of the room and manipulated the controls mounted in the base of the projector. A navigational triangle projector, a meridian projector, and a celestial co-ordinates projector were attached to the main instrument to complete the installation. These educational auxiliaries were suggested after several months of operation of the basic projector.
By 1954, the Naval Academy Planetarium had traded in the “Model A” for a newer and better Model A-l projector. In the same year the billet of Planetarium Director was officially established. This officer was charged with the upkeep and proper operation of the Planetarium: “He shall also familiarize himself with the capabilities and limitations of the Planetarium equipment in order that he may effectively use this equipment together with his knowledge of astronomy and celestial navigation in lecturing on nautical astronomy to the midshipmen and to authorized visitors.” A Planetarium staff of three officers was necessary, for lectures were offered not only to the midshipmen but also to such visitors as local Boy Scout troops, grammar and high school classes, the Bermuda race teams, and astronomical societies.
In view of this increasingly larger attendance, a study was conducted in 1958 to determine whether the Planetarium should be moved to a building with a larger seating capacity. Since the primary purpose of the
Planetarium was the instruction of midshipmen, it was decided to keep the existing seating capacity, roughly 65.
Despite the small size of the Planetarium, attendance increased from year to year. Special public demonstrations were included as a part of June Week, Armed Forces Day, and Alumni Weekend. By the end of the 1958 academic year, annual attendance, including midshipmen under instruction, had reached 4,000. The Planetarium staff, consisting of navigation instructors who lectured in the Planetarium in their spare time, increased to four officers. The special public demonstrations took the form of “sky shows” similar to those offered in major planetariums throughout the country. Demonstrations such as “The Sky Over the Severn,” “The Northern Constellations,” and “A Trip to the North Pole” became highlights of Naval Academy open- house events.
In 1959, the Naval Academy initiated its electives program, and the command department offered special electives in astronomy and advanced navigation. The Planetarium was in even heavier demand as enrollment in these electives increased. The potential of the Planetarium in teaching astronomy was obvious and the advanced navigation elective utilized the Planetarium to supplement lectures on polar navigation and lifeboat navigation.
By 1962, the Spitz A-l projector had reached the end of its very useful life. Its material condition was poor, and its capabilities, while more than satisfactory for teaching celestial navigation, could not satisfy the ever-growing needs of the new elective courses. The Spitz firm showed Naval Academy representatives its latest instrument, the A-3-P projector, designed to be operated from a console at the side of the room, thus removing the instructor from the center of the planetarium. It showed almost twice the number of stars that the A-l did and in more realistic colors. The A-3-P also operated electronically. While each demonstration with the A-l instrument was preceded by hours of laborious hand adjustments, consultation of almanacs and the American Ephemeris, and manual setting of planet positions, the A-3-P could, with the flick of a switch, move forward or backward in time, displaying 26,000 years in a few minutes. The phases of the moon were
shown automatically, as were the correct motions of the planets. Any existing satellite orbit could be duplicated in an instant. The A-3-P would answer the Naval Academy’s increasing needs.
In June 1963, the Naval Academy Planetarium closed its doors for the first time in 14 years for an extensive and much-needed renovation.
The A-l projector was removed. The dome was repainted and the whole area was rejuvenated. On 30 June, the A-3-P projector arrived and a team of technicians commenced installation. Light classical music was taped, and adaptations to the new projector and console were made by the Planetarium staff to permit the use of special projectors designed for navigational instruction. Spitz trained the staff in the operation of the new and complicated equipment.
The “new” Naval Academy Planetarium made its debut in September, with a series of special demonstrations for the faculty. Soft music filled the chamber and, as the artificial twilight darkened into night, the dome slowly revealed the brilliance of the autumn sky over Annapolis. In 20 minutes, the audience was transported to the North Pole, taken into the center of the earth, and carried back in time to see the same skies that Cleopatra had seen.
Its debut was brilliant, and in almost two years of operation the A-3-P projector has proven its worth. Instructors are able to place the midshipmen at any point on the surface of the earth at any time of day or night. The student of navigation is taken down into the center of the earth where he can look up and watch the solution of the navigational triangle develop graphically, and can watch celestial lines of position being plotted over the vast ocean wastes by some unseen hand. With a flick of a switch, the motions of the sun, moon and planets can be speeded up, compressing a year’s time into minutes. In the classroom, eclipses can be predicted by computation and then observed a few minutes later.
The new Naval Academy Planetarium is a wonderful place to visit, but, more important than that, it is an indispensable and vital training aid for Naval Academy midshipmen studying navigation and astronomy.
By Captain P. V. H. Weems,
U. S. Navy (Retired)
INNER SPACE NAVIGATION
Only a few years have passed since space navigation has been seriously studied, yet tremendous advances have been made and a great deal of material is now available in this field. Of even more recent interest is the study of the extremely important field of inner space navigation which covers the vast area under the surface of the sea, and about which little is known at the present time. The loss of the nuclear submarine Thresher has directed attention to the difficulties of navigating on the bottom of the ocean. [1]
In a book recently published by the Smithsonian Institution, History Under the Sea, author Mendel Peterson proposes that divers construct a compass rose on the ocean bottom by pivoting a measuring line attached to a fixed stake from which directions and distances are shown by additional markers. This proposed process shows but a minute part of the present difficulties involved in underwater navigation. The water is usually cold, in motion, and often murky, with hidden dangers. The diver must carry a breathing apparatus under pressure, as do spacemen. Recently, however, underwater, or inner space navigation, has experienced a breakthrough in hydronic radiations.
Hydronic radiations is the designation given to the newly discovered electronic radiations propagated through a water medium and associated with low-frequency oscillations. Assuming that the claims are substantiated by further research and tests, we have an aid to inner space navigation comparable to radar, radio direction finding, and LORAN for sea and air navigation.
Hydronic radiations were discovered accidentally by Wallace L. Minto of Sarasota, Florida. Describing his discovery of the radiations, Mr. Minto has stated: f
In some ways hydronic radiation really isn’t a very new thing; it’s new to humans, but we are a little behind the times in comparison to marine animals. The reason I say this is because of the method of its discovery. While doing some research on underwater sound we started picking up some very odd signals, because, I admit, of defective equipment. The wiring in the equipment in use that day was not what it should have been. But, when we started picking up these very odd signals we traced this down and discovered the source of the signals were fish. Most species of fish seem to emit these quite strongly. I want to emphasize again that this had nothing to do with sound. Although the discovery came about while we were doing research on sound production of fish, it was not entirely fortuitous that we discovered that fish also give off electromagnetic signals. We were not completely convinced of this until we completely eliminated the hydrophones, retaining just the leads. After that the equipment worked well. And when we learned the secrets of the antenna array, it worked even better. After we tried using a conventional amplifier to amplify the signals and it didn’t work, we found out what the “mistakes” were in the circuitry that did respond to the signals.
Once the concept has been stated, our imagination takes over. Mr. Minto has given a clear statement of some features of his significant discovery:
Basically we are in much the same position that Hertz was when he first started working with his spark gap, excepting that we have a very sophisticated electronics technology to draw on and a lot of experience in radio and electronics that is applicable to this field. Although hydronics has a lot of surprises for us, at least we know where to look to see whether the rules are the same, and we can look to the
f Lecture by Wallace L. Minto delivered to the Sarasota Chapter of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers in Sarasota, Florida, January 1965.
present uses of radio as a guide to potential uses of hydronics. The fact, for example, that these radiations may be reflected by metallic surfaces is interesting, because this permits setting up reflectors to focus the beam, which leads to devices such as underwater radar, which would be a material advance over our present sonar method of detecting underwater objects. It also permits the development of underwater metal locaters, just as you now have metal locaters that operate in air or underground, this could work in much the same way under water. For example, if you wanted to locate a sunken boat, it would be a relatively simple matter now to pinpoint it merely by having a transmitter and receiver on opposite ends of the boat; sending out a constant signal from the transmitter and adjusting the receiver to a null point. Then when you pass over a metallic object on the bottom your received signal immediately picks up because it is coming from another direction. This works quite well incidentally.
Among the interesting features of hydronic radiations are that there are no significant differences in transmissions in sea water and fresh water, through water layers of different temperatures, or in calm water or water disturbed by a passing motor boat. These radiations are “not a pressure wave in any mechan- •cal sense since the antenna cannot pick up a pressure wave or even react to deliberate mechanical jarring. It is not sonic in any sense . . . according to Mr. Minto. Radio Waves are transversal; sound waves are fore and aft.
The frequency range of hydronic radiations appears to fall conveniently in the band designated for navigation aids of the basic spectrum, approximately 30 to 300 kilocycles. This is above the audible region, and below that of the radar band.
Relatively low power is required. In fact some of the transmitters and receivers are in the milliwatt range. While rapid progress is being made, a 100-milliwatt transceiver has broadcasted at 250 yards. Since hydronic radiations are at right angles to radio waves, they depend on the cross-section area, and not °n the length of the antenna. Hydronic emis- ^ons are sensitive to antenna composition.
1 ests indicate that monel or gold is excellent, ~~if you have it! At the time this is written, fr. Minto had not disclosed the circuitry for his concept. These details will not be made public until a patent application has been filed. This explains the lack of additional details on the newly discovered radiations.
Some of the claimed results obtained by experiments in hydrosonic radiation include:
• Communication underwater up to 30 miles.
• Directional feature similar to D/F, with sharpest directional characteristics at the null point.
• A seagoing “walkie-talkie” which provides two-way verbal communication up to 350 yards and contains a homing feature.
• The use of many items of electronic equipment associated with radio waves.
The Navy will doubtless be an interested party in these developments. Navy representatives have witnessed some of the early demonstrations. Would not research in this area be a suitable project for a U. S. Naval Academy Trident Program Scholar? Albert Michelson, at age 27, fared quite well with his speed of light experiments. Could hydronic radiations inspire another Michelson?
This discovery, provided the claims are substantiated, should be the answer to many ASW problems, improve underwater surveys, and provide a welcome safety device for scuba divers now exploring inner space.
THE ROYAL CANADIAN NAVY’S "BEARTRAP” HELICOPTER HANDLING SYSTEM
In 1956, the Royal Canadian Navy realized that it would need a larger replacement for its CH04S-3 helicopters in order to carry advanced detection and attack equipment at the same time. It was also realized that ASW aircraft were a necessary extension to surface ships if the latter were to oppose nuclear- powered submarines.
The problem then presented was one of
operating large, high-performance helicopters, of a type normally operated from aircraft carriers, from the Navy’s destroyer escorts. By marrying the seven-ton Sikorsky CHSS-2 helicopter to the destroyer, the R.C.N. felt it could restore at least tactical equality, or even superiority, to the ASW surface vessel. But the ship had to be able to launch and retrieve the helicopter during conditions of rough seas, in poor visibility, and at night. _
Experiments with smaller CH04S-3 helicopters were first conducted on the frigate
Buckingham, which was equipped with a small flight deck erected aft. These tests indicated the feasibility of the scheme, but it was realized that if larger helicopters were to be employed some sure system of control while in the air, and handling after touch-down, would have to be devised.
The “haul-down” system and “beartrap” handling device that have resulted from these experiments seem to be an effective answer to the problem. The recovery equipment was first installed in HMCS Assiniboine.
This sequence shows HMCS Assiniboine recovering a CHSS-2 helicopter during recent trials. Counterclockwise from left, the Assiniboine is rolling as the helicopter approaches. The square "beartrap is in the center of the helicopter deck. As the helicopter hovers above the deck, its cable is attached to the beartrap. Then, with the helicopter applying lift to keep the line taut, the whirlybird is reeled down, engages its belly probe, and is then pulled into the hangar. At lower left is the landing signal officer who controls the operation from his "cockpit” in the forward, starboard corner of the flight deck.
Left, Royal Canadian Navy Others, Sikorsky Aircraft
During sea trials and demonstrations on board the destroyer escort Assiniboine, the large twin-turbine CHSS-2 was launched and landed without difficulty despite reasonably heavy seas. During one day of the demonstrations, landings were made in short, steep seas which gave the ship up to 20 degrees of roll and eight degrees of pitch.
The beartrap system is designed to retrieve the helicopter—and to transport it in and out of the hangar adjoining the landing platform —in sea states causing the ship to roll up to 31 degrees and pitch up to eight degrees, with the flight deck heaving up to 20 feet per second, and in winds of 45 knots.
The key to the system is the haul-down winch, which enables the landing control officer (LCO) to land the helicopter much in the same fashion as a fisherman playing a catch, and the beartrap itself, which secures the aircraft on the deck the instant it touches down and then transports it into the hangar without manual aid.
Fairey Canada, Ltd., of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, was given the task of developing the rapid-securing device and in turn subcontracted the design and production of the winching equipment and controls to Dowty Canada, Ltd., Ajax, Ontario.
The winch is installed below the landing platform, and its haul-down cable passes through the center of the four-foot square
beartrap. A light cable lowered from the hovering helicopter is attached to the haul- down cable. This is the only part of the operation that calls for manual manipulation. A deck crewman takes hold of the helicopter’s cable, or messenger line as it is called, with a pair of grounded tongs (to guard against shock from static electricity) and connects it to the end-fitting of the haul-down cable. The cable is then drawn up into the probe in the belly of the helicopter.
Once the end-fitting is secured, the LCO, sitting at an instrumented console in one corner of the flight deck, takes over. He takes up the slack in the cable which is then held taut by the action of the winch and the lift of the helicopter. An electronic sensing system built into the winch ensures that a constant tension—selected by the LCO—is maintained. The helicopter is then drawn down toward the deck and centered over the beartrap. Relaying his actions and intentions to the helicopter pilot by two-way radio, the LCO waits until the appropriate moment, choosing a time when the ship is level, and draws the helicopter down the last few feet to the deck.
Experience has shown that even during the most boisterous sea conditions, the ship is level and stable for sufficient periods for a safe landing to be accomplished. Since the evaluation tests began, several hundred landings have been made without incident.
The controls permit the cable to be paid out if the tension exceeds the desired level, and if for any reason the helicopter needs to be released, the cable can be cut by the action of the LCO or the pilot. In the event of failure, a shear pin built into the system will release the cable if the tension exceeds 6,000 pounds.
The beartrap has a pair of arresting beams fitted on two opposite sides, and when the helicopter touches down the trap is “fired” pneumatically by the LCO, and the beams slide together, gripping the probe projecting from the helicopter’s underside.
At this point, the helicopter may not be lined up in the fore and aft position. This is accomplished by a rearward and then a forward movement of the beartrap, which has its own wheels that engage in a groove running fore and aft along the centerline of the deck. A second probe toward the rear of the underside of the helicopter also engages in this groove to keep the aircraft lined up while it is winched forward into the hangar. The same winch is used for hauling down the helicopter and for pulling it forward.
Before the CHSS-2 can be accommodated in the hangar, the five-bladed rotor has to be folded and the tail section, mounting the stabilizing rotor, hinged forward to lie flat alongside the fuselage. Both actions are hydraulically powered, although during demonstration, deckhands steadied the rotor tips to ensure they did not foul the safety net supports framing the flight deck. By folding these extremities, the over-all length of the CHSS-2 is reduced to 46 feet 6 inches. The normal rotor diameter is 62 feet.
Launching the helicopter takes “only a few minutes.” Naval officers are reluctant to be more specific, saying that the actual time depends very much upon the state of readiness being observed. The vessel will normally be underway during helicopter operations.
Night landings are expected to present few problems. A lighting system is being developed under the guidance of the Navy’s experimental squadron responsible for overseeing the development and trial of all new air branch equipment. In order to help the pilot maintain proper orientation during landings, particularly in poor visibility, the Spectocom “head-up” instrument display being developed by Computing Devices of Canada Ltd., Ottawa, is being fitted to the helicopters. This enables the pilot to read his instruments while looking straight ahead through the windshield. The readings are projected upon a transparent screen on a principle much like the reflector gunsight.
There are some areas where further development is necessary. One is overcoming the side-loads on the tires and landing gear during straightening of the helicopter while locked in the beartrap. But satisfactory progress is reported, and it was obvious from the interest expressed and displayed in the Navy’s approach to the helicopter landing problem, that this might have wide application possibilities among other NATO navies.
The Assiniboine is one of nine St. Laurent- class ships scheduled to be fitted with helicopter flight decks and to carry CHSS-2 helicopters. The aircraft will be used for a variety of fleet support duties as well as their ASW role.
"OVERSEASMANSHIP” TRAINING IN THE NAVY
The national People-to-People effort was inaugurated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. Since that time, the Navy has stressed to all personnel the importance of the contribution they, with their dependents, can make toward achieving the vitally important objectives of this program.
The response from all hands has been encouraging. The forces afloat and ashore have shown great initiative in making friends with the peoples of other lands. Their spontaneous acts of generosity, interest, understanding, and goodwill have reflected the best traditions of the Navy and the nation, and have done much toward presenting a true image of the United States.
To help prepare naval personnel deploying
overseas to make the most of their opportunities in the real spirit of People to People, a unique briefing technique has been developed under the Assistant Chief of Naval Personnel for Education and Training. During the past four years, “overseasmanship training” briefings have been provided for nearly 100,000 men of some 250 ships and stations. This has been the assignment of a two-man team, the People-to-People Section of the Bureau of Naval Personnel. For logistic reasons, these presentations have been limited to the eastern seaboard although they are equally applicable to the needs of personnel deploying from the West Coast.
During a typical, nearly three-hour “overseasmanship” briefing, the participants are taken at a rapid-fire pace through hundreds of down-to-earth, specific, and highly practical details of overseas “know-how.” The emphasis is on the positive side. Every man in the audience is made to feel that he can easily handle himself abroad in the way he would wish to if he only knew just how to go about it. Step by step, he is subtly led to a sense of confidence in his ability to adapt quickly and successfully to his new environment and to meet the right kind of people, who want to meet him, on their own home ground.
Some of these briefings are worldwide in
scope; others are devoted to major geographical areas such as the Mediterranean, Latin America, or northern Europe. Whether on a naval base theater stage, in a carrier hangar, or in a ship’s compartment, the briefer—often in overseas native dress—is surrounded by an eye-catching display of People-to-People exhibits. Colorful flags of a score of countries, unusual traffic signs, brilliant costumes, simple but attractive products of local handicrafts which make excellent gifts to take home, and even everyday items of common household use, and much more are strung up or spread out in curiosity-arousing profusion.
During an hour or so of the liveliest on-stage presentation, the various displays are vividly explained along with the customs, traditions, and character of the peoples they represent. The top tunes and popular dance steps of different nations are included. Then, after a short intermission, hundreds of color slides are presented, showing sights and scenes, people and places which the men may soon see for themselves. These slides are accompanied by a witty but instructive commentary, amply spiced with jokes and anecdotes, and guaranteed to keep the eyes of the audience glued to the screen. The briefing also emphasizes the all-important field of language and “paralinguistics”—sign language, facial expressions, and gestures—some “good,” some “not-so-good.”
The whole “show” is calculated to cause keenest anticipation in the audience and to prepare it for liberty time abroad enjoyably, confidently and intelligently.
These straightforward, perceptive, yet highly diverting man-to-man talks have been surprisingly successful. Commanding officers of ships, squadrons, bases, and stations; individual officers of all ranks; midshipmen; and, perhaps most significantly, hundreds of enlisted men have expressed verbally and in writing their satisfaction with what they have heard and seen. One sailor put it this way: “It is the first time I was ever entertained while I was being instructed.” Others have said they wished they had had a chance to attend a session before they had sailed on their previous overseas cruise.
Requests from the field for the “overseas- manship” briefing have exceeded the capacity of the team to meet them. As a result, special, filmed audio-visual training aids are now being prepared to make it possible for a greater number of personnel to participate. The basic approach remains the same, but new and highly imaginative techniques have been evolved to put on film the message formerly delivered loud, clear, and “live.” Although sealed in a reel, an effort is being made to have the films down-to-earth, spontaneous, salty, stimulating, and to the point. Above all, they will continue to provide convincing answers to three hard-nosed questions the average sailor would ask if he were to speak out frankly: “What’s in it for me?” “What do you want me to do?” “How do you expect me to do all this? I can’t speak the lingo. I can’t even read the menu in a restaurant . . . ” To all this, the answer is the same as before: “Oh yes you can! And here is how: Just watch and listen. And if you don’t believe us, find out for yourself; check on it. And if you still don’t know, ask. The right people in the right part of town will be glad to help you. Try it, and see. And let us know how you make out.” Many do.
Overseasmanship training seems to fill a vacuum in the education of American Sailors who visit foreign lands. Ships which have received the briefing may cite a minimum number of shore-patrol reports after overseas port calls, or no reports at all. “Overseasmanship” is an art that can be acquired quickly, it seems, if “taught” the right way, and with results which can help not only the Navy man himself, but also his ship, his service, and his country. “Overseasmanship” is People to People . . . the Navy way.
★
Notebook
U. S. Navy
H Spies Open New Worlds for Seabees
(Andrew J. Glass in New York Herald Tribune, 24 May 1965): The Seabees were landed in Poland and, in the words of the American ambassador, completed their mission without being captured by “the temptations which Warsaw has in abundance.”
In a heretofore secret naval foray behind the Iron Curtain, the Seabees spent 18 days last winter rebuilding the American Embassy, where 30 rooms had literally been ripped apart to remove a microphone network presumably installed by Polish intelligence agents.
The sailors performed so splendidly that the State Department has now asked Congress for $1,644,600 in the coming fiscal year to put 155 Seabees at work around the world restoring other “de-bugged” places and building special “tanks”—rooms within rooms—where diplomats may converse in safety.
All this came to light yesterday with the release of 1,083 pages of testimony on the new State Department budget before a House appropriations subcommittee headed by Rep. John Rooney, D., N. Y.
Judging by the experience of the nine-man expeditionary force pioneering in the Polish capital, the selected Seabees have it made. Ambassador John M. Cabot reported to Washington:
“You can understand that we were somewhat apprehensive before they arrived as to where they should be housed, fed, and even more important, isolated from the temptations which Warsaw has in abundance.
“The housing problem was solved by turning the first-floor conference room in the Embassy into a dormitory ... A number of Embassy wives took turns preparing a proper dinner for them every night, which was served in our snack bar. On weekends they were invited to the homes of members of our staff for food and entertainment.
“Everything worked out to our complete satisfaction.”
Unfortunately, satisfaction hasn’t always been guaranteed. Marvin Gentile, new Deputy Assistant Secretary for Security, told the subcommittee why “our counter-audio boys” might find trouble keeping friends after they have torn down plaster walls, ripped up floors and demolished ceilings in order to get at a suspected “bug.”
“In the past,” Mr. Gentile said, “many posts have been unhappy to have a man go rip up a floor and have to wait indefinitely to have it put together again.”
s Navy F-111B Makes First Flight (Byron Porterfield in The New York Times, 19 May 1965): The F-111B, the Navy’s version of the biservice TFX fighter plane, flexed its movable wings over Long Island yesterday in a first flight that lasted 1 hour 19 minutes.
With the after-burners of its powerful engines jetting twin columns of flame, the sleek plane climbed steeply into the clear sky at the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation’s airfield here after using only 2,500 feet of a 10,000-foot runway.
The first flight of the controversial design took place seven days after it had been rolled out for display before military and industry officials.
Engineers, technicians, military representatives and workmen lined an adjacent taxi strip to watch “their baby.”
The TFX has been the subject of bitter criticism and dispute in many quarters since it was selected in 1962 to become the nation’s biservice, all-weather, multipurpose tactical fighter.
The Air Force version, the F-111A, is undergoing flight tests at Edwards Air Force Base in California. General Dynamics Corporation, the project’s prime contractor, first flew the Air Force model last Dec. 21 at Fort Worth.
On yesterday’s flight, Ralph H. Donnell, the test pilot and his co-pilot, Ernest Von Der Heyden, took off with the wings extended almost perpendicular to the fuselage. A few minutes later they brought the aircraft low over the field with the wings swept back 50 degrees.
The plane is capable of a 72.5-degree wing sweep, which will enable it to fly at speeds up to 2J times the speed of sound.
Three chase planes, Grumman A-6A Intruder jets, strained to keep up with the big plane while motion picture cameras from their cockpits recorded the flight from either side and below. The test was confined to subsonic speeds.
Other systems tested during the flight included communications, navigation, electrical, hydraulic and environmental control.
“Two little micro-switches need slight adjustment,” Mr. Donnell told one of the engineers. “That’s the only thing I could find that didn’t operate perfectly.”
The major problem facing the craft concerns reduction and compensation for excessive weight that resulted in developing the Navy version of the F-lll. Officials contended at the roll-out ceremony that “substantial strides” had been made in weight reduction with some compensation to be achieved in later models.
s Apologies On Merchant Fleet View
{Journal of Commerce, 14 May 1965): The Navy has made a not very graceful, red-faced attempt at clarification of a glaring conflict of testimony between two of its vice admirals on the same subject—the role of the U. S. flag merchant marine in Navy amphibious assault operations.
However, Rep. Herbert C. Bonner (Dem., N. C.), chairman of the House Merchant Marine Committee, appeared somewhat satisfied. He said the clarifications “go far to eliminate what could otherwise have been a very serious misunderstanding.”
Vice Admiral John S. McCain, Jr., Commander, Amphibious Forces Atlantic, told Rep. Bonner’s committee March 16 that the 10 chartered merchant ships contributed mightily to the success of “Operation Steel Pike 1” in Spain last fall.
Earlier, Feb. 19, in a closed hearing before a House appropriations subcommittee, one of Admiral McCain’s superiors, Vice Admiral Lot Ensey, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, told that body just the opposite. At least that was the conclusion of those reading the testimony and Rep. Bonner who rechecked it and demanded an explanation.
Adm. Ensey, in a telegram from the Pentagon to Capitol Hill, conceded that Rep. Bonner’s points were “well taken.”
However, he went to explain that since Adm. McCain had been on the scene his, Adm. McCain’s, appraisal “represents, as it should, a more precise and technical assessment of the operation and the role of the merchant marine . . . than does my comment. ...”
Adm. Ensey said what he meant to convey was “that there is no merchant marine capability, old or new, which can be substituted for naval amphibious units, integral to the fleet and especially designed and constructed to meet the particular needs of our Navy/ Marine team for the actual landing in the initial combat amphibious assault. ...”
“It is unfortunate that I did not further stress the vital and specific role that the merchant marine played in the exercise.”
A study of the exercise and testimony before Rep. Bonner’s committee, Adm. Ensey said, “does indeed substantiate that our modern merchant ships contributed in great measure to the success of the exercise.”
Rep. Bonner also received an acknowledgement of his inquiry to the Navy, from Commerce Secretary John T. Connor, and another from Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s office.
Admiral David L. McDonald, Adm. Ensey’s boss, also wrote Rep. Bonner, saying he, Adm. McDonald, “concludes that Vice Adm. Ensey . . . desired to make a point for continued construction of specially-designed naval amphibious ships. It was not the intent of Adm. Ensey to downgrade the role of the U. S. merchant marine. ...”
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Strength and Weakness of Airlift
(Richard Fryklund in Washington Star, 17 May 1965): The Dominican crisis demonstrates both the importance and inadequacy of the present U. S. military airlift.
The Military Air Transport Service clearly did do an impressive job.
In about a week it carried 20,000 men and
17,0 tons of equipment to the Dominican Republic in 2,000 trips by 328 transport aircraft. It was the biggest airlift in history and executed without pre-planning and without accidents.
But the operation, combined with the now- routine airlift to Viet Nam, put such a strain on airplane capacity that a week’s backlog of military cargo backed up on MATS fields.
The biggest part of the lift ended May 6, but the backlog is just now being cleared away.
The Air Force says that the Vietnamese war alone put a strain on MATS. For six months the American buildup there has required more planes than MATS normally has.
But to make it worse, some of the older MATS planes were being scrapped, one plane, the C-133, was grounded because of several unexplained accidents, and a big new jet transport, the C-141, was not ready for use.
Just to handle Viet Nam, the Air Force called up National Guard and Reserve planes, chartered all of the civilian planes that could be obtained and told all commanders to send as little as possible by air.
With a great effort, the backlog was held down to two days’ worth of supplies.
Then came the Caribbean crisis. All of the Strategic Air Command and Tactical Air Command (the two big Air Force combat outfits) cargo planes in the United States that were not held essential by the Joint Chiefs of Staff were turned over to the airlift.
The men and materiel did move into Santo Domingo on time—only five flights out of
2,0 had to turn back because of mechanical trouble.
But at the peak, 6.8 days’ worth of military supplies had piled up at West and East coast MATS terminals. Emergency goods were plucked out of the piles and sent to their destinations, but many outfits overseas just had to wait.
The Dominican crisis was a small one, and the Vietnamese war has barely started. Will there be an intolerable jam-up if there are two or three simultaneous large operations in the future?
Possibly, but a number of things are being done to ease the future strain.
The Defense Department has doubled airlift capacity in the past four years and will have five times the 1961 capacity by 1970.
One increase will come from the C-141 jet cargo planes. Bigger and faster, the C-141S could have handled the Dominican crisis with only 750 sorties, instead of 2,000 and in a shorter period of time.
Within two years enough C-141s will be available to handle an entire Dominican crisis alone—that is, carry one division to any place in the Caribbean in a week.
If necessary, civilian cargo planes can be drafted in a future crisis. A number of large airlines have pledged their planes in case of need.
The Army is streamlining its equipment so
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that more power can be packed into a smaller airlift.
The Air Force has learned a great deal about operations and command and control in the past few weeks; so future crisis will be handled even faster.
Maritime General
s Ice Patrol Ends Uneventful Year (Werner Bamberger in The New York Times, 5 June 1965): The Coast Guard’s International Ice Patrol will conclude tomorrow one of the shortest and most uneventual seasons since the patrol’s establishment in 1914.
Coast Guard sources said here yesterday that only about 80 icebergs, compared with a normal total of 380, had drifted into the North Atlantic shipping lanes off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
Dye marking of icebergs was tried for the first time this year to determine iceberg drift and deterioration. But the effort was limited by the low number of icebergs sighted.
Only six icebergs were hit by the Coast Guard archers who used arrows tipped with a blue marker.
A Coast Guard spokesman, however, termed the archery experiment a success since all targets were hit. “We were able to hit one berg 60 feet above the water line and the dye remained visible for 10 days,” the spokesman said.
The current season was declared ended about three weeks earlier than the normal closing date of about July 1.
The season, which started late in February, was ended because Capt. Richard L. Fuller, patrol commander, found that the chance of ice hazards to vessels traveling the prescribed North Atlantic and Canadian ocean tracks had vanished.
The work of this season’s patrol, it was explained, was aided considerably by monthly aerial survey flights that were started last October. These flights to northern waters west off Greenland enabled the Coast Guard to keep a tally on icebergs afloat and to recheck their location every month by using ice drift prediction charts.
One phase of ice patrol work—the study of ocean currents and their effect on drift patterns—will be continued later this summer.
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The cutter Evergreen, a vessel specially equipped for oceanographic work, will make a cruise to Labrador, Hudson Strait and the east coast of Baffin Island to determine the effects of the Labrador Current on bergs.
This cold current carries southward the icebergs spawned by glaciers on the west coast of Greenland after they have drifted across Baffin Bay.
Two large aircraft, stationed at the Coast Guard Air Station at Argentia, Nfld., in addition to the Evergreen, took part in this season’s patrol work. Also assigned to the patrol on a stand-by basis were the cutters Acushnet, based at Portland, Me., and Tamora, based here. Their services were not required because of the light incidence of icebergs.
The first International Ice Patrol saw duty in 1914. The sinking of the British liner Titanic two years earlier prompted the patrol’s establishment.
s New Device Helps in Rescues (Werner Bamberger in The New York Times, 16 May 1965): The Coast Guard believes it has found the answer to one of the most troublesome problems in search and rescue operations at sea—the rate of drift of an object in the water.
A Coast Guard expert at the North Atlantic Search and Rescue Operations Seminar, attended here last week by delegates from nine stations, said that the ocean drift problem was “still a can of worms.”
Vessels and men in the water, Capt. John M. Waters Jr. declared, do not drift straight downwind but veer off at angles of up to 40 degrees from the direction of the prevailing wind.
To overcome man’s limited knowledge of the effect of winds and current, Captain Waters said, the Coast Guard has developed a floating beacon known as a “datum marker.” It can transmit a steady radio signal for 36 hours on three frequencies.
In a rescue operation, he explained, the beacon is dropped from the air in the general search area, where it drifts at the same speed and in the same direction as the object of the search. The beacon can be used as a reference point to lay out ocean search patterns because it maintains a steady position in relation to other objects drifting in the area.
The Coast Guard, he added, is also interested in another electronic device that could be employed with good results in connection with the datum marker.
This, he said, is a battery-powered radio beacon small enough to be attached to a lifejacket in the same manner as a small flashlight that was a standard attachment in World War II.
“Visual search for a small object in the water, like a man,” he said, “is for the birds. What is needed is a detection aid for a man in the water, something like a small portable radio beacon.”
The Air Force, he noted, has just ordered
32,0 of these devices. The Navy has developed one the size of a cigarette pack. These can be clipped to life-jackets and turned on in the water by releasing a snap-out antenna similar to the antennas on small transistor radios.
Another device, already in use and considered of value for ships that are waterlogged or sinking, is a small gasoline-powered pump that can be dropped from the air.
Last Wednesday such a pump was dropped from a Coast Guard aircraft, flying out of Quonset Point, R. I., to the 87-foot Gloucester fisherman Raymonde, which was shipping water 70 miles southeast of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass. The pump was assembled by the fishing vessel’s crew and was started up- The craft made port safely.
The pump assembly, packed in a watertight, yellow metal container, can either be lowered to the deck of a distressed vessel from a helicopter or dropped by parachute from a fixed-wing aircraft.
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Helicopters have also been pressed into use as aerial tugboats. One large Coast Guard helicopter, it was said, can tow an 83-foot Coast Guard patrol boat at 10 knots for long distances, using a recently developed in-flight refueling system.
The main feature of in-flight helicopter refueling is a 25-gallon rubber drum that is ferried out to sea by another helicopter and dropped into the water, where it floats because of the low density of its contents.
0 Crew of 29 for 150,000 DWT Ship
{Journal of Commerce, 18 May 1965): A crew of only 29 men will be required for a tanker of 150,000 dwt now being built by Ishikawa- jima-Harima Heavy Industries, of Tokyo. Keel of the ship was laid down earlier this month at the recently completed Yokohama No. 2 Works of the builders.
The ship has been ordered by the Tokyo Tanker Co., one of the major companies of the Nippon Sekiyu Group. She will be the world’s largest tanker measuring 46 ft longer and 15 ft wider than the tanker Nissho Maru, 132,334 dwt, the largest tanker now in service and operated by the Japanese oil company Idemitsu Kosan.
These vessels will be eclipsed in over two years, however, by the coming into service of four 165,000 dwt tankers, ordered by Shell International Marine.
Three of these giants are to be built in Japan, one each coming from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ishikawajima-Harima H. I. and Hitachi Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. The order for the fourth was placed with Kieler Howaldtswerke, Germany.
The vessel now building for the Tokyo Tanker Co. will be named Tokyo Maru. She will be capable of carrying 150,000 tons of oil on a single voyage.
The Tokyo Maru will have 14 cargo and ballast tanks, compared with 40 in the Nissho Maru. Principal dimensions of the ship will be: length overall 1,004 ft, length bp 953 ft, width moulded 156 ft, depth moulded 79 ft and draft 52j ft.
The main engine will develop 30,000 hp giving the ship a service speed of 16 knots at full load.
Completion of the Tokyo Maru is scheduled for the end of the year.
160 U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, August 1965 Foreign
s Aircraft Carrier Seen As a Ferry (The
New York Times, 7 June 1965): Britain’s obsolescent aircraft carrier Leviathan may become Greece’s secret weapon in the tourist war that Mediterranean countries are waging.
The Greek National Tourist Organization is already sounding out the British Government to see whether it is prepared to turn over the Leviathan as part of Britain’s promised economic aid to Greece. The ship was built 20 years ago but never completed and is lying in mothballs at Portsmouth.
The tourist organization foresees that a tourist could board the 16,000-ton carrier at Trieste, pitch his deck chair under a colored parasol on the 660-foot flight deck, and for as little as $15 sail to Patras, South Greece, in just under 24 hours, half the time it now takes.
Greek maritime experts consulted by the tourist organization estimated that the carrier could take 2,000 passengers, 310 passenger cars and 100 bulky refrigeration trucks. The trucks could carry exports of fresh fruit and vegetables to Central and Western Europe.
Estimated cost of converting the carrier is $1 million to $1.5 million.
H Albanians Accuse Soviets of Stealing Subs (The New York Times, 25 May 1965): Albania has accused the Soviet Union of having stolen eight of her submarines and a number of surface ships while the vessels were in the Crimean port of Sevastopol for repairs.
The charge, brought by the Albanian Communist Party daily newspaper %eri I Popullit, and carried by the official Albanian press agency, was monitored by Radio Free Europe.
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The Soviet Union is known to have withdrawn eight submarines and a tender from the Vlone base it built for Albania. The vessels were removed when the two countries started quarreling in 1960. In July, 1963, the Albanian press indicated that Albania still had at least two submarines.
s Three British Logistic Ships (Marine Engineer & Naval Architect, April 1965): The Minister of Transport has placed an order on behalf of the Ministry of Defence (Army) for three logistic ships with Hawthorn, Leslie (Shipbuilders) Ltd. They are for delivery in two years and are worth about £5jm. They will be similar to the two now building by Alexander Stephen & Sons Ltd. (Linthouse) and are a development of the prototype Sir Lancelot, which Fairfield’s built in 1964. Changes in the design include a flush weather deck, the use of higher tensile steel and propulsion by twin Mirrlees-National 10-cylinder in-line Monarch engines. The military features include bow and stem ramps and helicopter flight deck.
s Red China Strips Army of Insignia
(Charles Taylor in The Washington Post, 26 May 1965): China is stripping its generals and other officers of their rank and insignia in a move to strengthen Communist Party control over the People’s Liberation Army.
From June 1, generals and other officers will no longer wear peaked caps, epaulettes and special belts and service badges. Instead, all Chinese soldiers, sailors and airmen will wear a simple red star on their hat and a red badge on their collar.
Also to be abandoned are the Western style of military dress for the Chinese Army’s field grade officers and the skirts and blouses of women officers.
According to the decree announced by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress these steps are being taken “in order that the revolutionary spirit and glorious tradition of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army—a great army led by the great Chinese Communist Party and guided by the great Mao Tse-tung’s thinking—should have full expression and in order that there should be identity between _ the three services and between officers and men.”
About 150,000 officers, including 160 generals, are affected by the decree, according to Western estimates that place total strength of China’s armed forces at about 2.7 million men.
Observers said the move was taken to counter the growth of a professional military elite and to reaffirm the primacy of the Communist Party.
Developed as a guerrilla force during the Chinese revolution, the Liberation Army only adopted a system of ranks in 1954. An editorial in Tuesday’s Liberation Army daily said: “Ten years of practice has proved that it is not in conformity with our army’s glorious tradition, with the close relations between the officers and men, between the higher and lower levels and between the army and people.”
By abolishing ranks, the armed forces would become more proletarian and militant, the editorial added. As for the officers, “it will help them to remould ideologically.”
There was no mention of graded pay scales, also introduced in 1954. It is thought that these may be retained.
Even without rank or insignia, there must still be men in command. As in earlier years, they will presumably be called “comrade squad leader,” etc.
But observers said the decree had great political significance. It was in line with a key dictum of Mao Tse-tung: “The Party will control the gun, and the gun will never be allowed to control the Party.”
In recent years, there have been signs that some officers opposed government policies.
In 1958, there was apparent discontent among officers over China’s failure to get modern weapons, including nuclear weapons, from the Soviet Union. There was also unease over the Communist Party’s “mass line” which led to the costly excesses of the Great Leap Forward, the setting up of a mass militia and the demand that army units should take part in construction and other civil projects.
This discontent came into the open when Marshal Peng Teh-huai was dismissed as Defense Minister in 1959.
In the shakeup, the former Chinese commander in Korea, Marshal Lin Piao, became
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Defense Minister, and General Lo Jui-ching became chief of the general staff. Both were apparently chosen for their loyalty to the Communist Party.
In 1963, political work regulations were announced to ensure “absolute Party leadership over the army” in order to “guard against the tendency towards militarism.”
In fact, Chinese soldiers spend about 25 per cent of their time in political study and indoctrination and criticism meetings.
Although the Army remains the only possible rival to the Communist Party, foreign observers have detected no recent signs of serious discontent or active opposition.
But the Party leaders remain morbidly afraid of any new professional elite—in the ranks of the military, the government or the intellectuals—and are determined to prevent its formation.
This latest decree is also an implicit rebuke to the Soviet Union—with its majestic and much-medalled marshals—even though the Soviet military has usually bowed to the demands of the Soviet Communist Party.
s Yemen Air Force Turned Into License Plates {The New York Times, 26 May 1965): Yemen’s air force is being turned into automobile license plates.
The former royalist regime bought 50 Soviet-made fighters seven years ago, but left them exposed to the weather until rain and sun ruined the planes.
After the republican revolution of 1962, the number of cars in the country increased, but there was no suitable material from which to make license plates.
The Government dismantled the planes and sent wings, fuselages and fuel tanks into a new foundry where they were melted down and cast into license plates.
Research and Development
S8 Jet Races With Total Eclipse {The New York Times, 1 June 1965): A jet aircraft carried 30 scientists and a million dollars worth of delicate instruments in a race with a total eclipse of the sun over the South Pacific Sunday.
For nearly 10 minutes the flying observatory raced the eclipse eastward as the moon’s
shadow cast a 100-mile-wide oval of darkness on the waters below.
Scores of observations were made before the swiftly moving eclipse finally outraced the plane shortly before noon.
Scientists from five nations, but chiefly from the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, observed the turbulent processes of the solar atmosphere and the response of the earth’s upper atmosphere and ionosphere to the abrupt interruption of sunlight.
One NASA spokesman said first indications were that the mission was a complete success.
Preliminary results of the flight, roughly
3,0 miles southwest of Santa Monica, were announced by the space agency’s office here on the basis of a radiotelephone report from the plane.
The path of eclipse stretched from the northern tip of New Zealand 8,000 miles east to the coast of Peru. Except for a few small islands, the eclipse was not visible in any inhabited parts of the earth.
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Spokesmen for the space agency said it would be weeks and possibly months before all data from 13 different observation projects would be analyzed.
Officials said the tracking mission was particularly difficult because the eclipse occurred in such a remote part of the globe. The four- engine NASA airplane took off from Hilo, Hawaii, to intercept the path of the eclipse about 1,000 miles southeast of Hilo.
A science writer for The San Francisco Chronicle, David Perlman, the only newsman aboard the plane, reported that the interception was perfect.
As the plane neared the moment of interception the expedition leader, Dr. Michael Bader of NASA’s Ames Research Center, Mountain View, Calif., gave a countdown and then announced:
“The moment has arrived.”
The airplane’s cabin darkened suddenly. There was a final flash of sunlight as interception with the eclipse was reached.
Scores of cameras began clicking rapidly through 13 glass viewing ports installed in the top of the fuselage.
Mr. Perlman said that the most obvious phenomena, which will later be more carefully analyzed, were large prominences on the sun, Jupiter shining brilliantly in the sun s corona, and long corona streamers flashing with surprising brightness.
The plane flew at an altitude of 39,500 feet —above five-sixths of the earth’s atmosphere. In its 9 minute 42 second race with the 1,700- mile-an-hour eclipse, the plane streaked along at 587 miles an hour.
The result was that the scientific teams had more than double the viewing time of any previous eclipse.
Scientists who participated in the mission came from Belgium, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and the United States.
In Washington, a NASA spokesman said that six sounding rockets had been fired from North Island, New Zealand, to check electron and ion density in the lower ionosphere and that reports were “all went O.K.”
In related projects during the eclipse, three other planes carried scientists aloft to view solar phenomena. An Air Force jet flew from Honolulu, and two Atomic Energy Commission planes flew from Samoa.
Vietnam Firepower—The Coast Guard has married the machine- gun and mortar for its 17 cutters being sent to Vietnam. The weapons—shown here on the USCGC Point Grey—combine the firepower of the .50-caliber machine- gun and the 81-millimeter mortar to replace the single 20-millimeter cannon previously mounted on these craft. The 83-foot patrol boats will be used in the coastal blockade force set up to intercept arms shipments to the Viet Cong. Approximately 30 officers and 170 enlisted men will operate and maintain the 17 cutters, organized as Coast Guard Squadron One.
17. S. Coast Guard
170.0- DWT Docks—Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has completed two mammoth docks in its Nagasaki Shipyard, each capable of docking a
170.0- deadweight ton, 1,000-foot ship. The drydock on the left is for shipbuilding and the one on the right, still under construction in this view, is for ship repair. The building dock has two 300-ton-capacity, inverted U-shaped cranes, seen together at the head of the dock.
Space-Age Look—This is how the USNS Croatan (T-AKV-43) looked during her recent cruise as a floating laboratory and missile pad. The one-time escort carrier (originally the CVE-2 5) was modified earlier this year to launch experimental rockets into areas of the atmosphere and ionosphere which cannot be reached by land-launched rockets. She was operated for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration by the Navy’s Military Sea Transportation Service. The Croatan has now reverted to her regular duties as a cargo ship and aircraft ferry.
[1] See Frank A. Andrews, “Searching for the Thresher,” U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, May 1964, pp. 68-77.