The aircraft had to be positioned within a very close t
position in space relative to the device so that the fixed camera mounted
on the aircraft could photograph the detonation,
As the normal airborne
radar would not scan above the aircraft and since the target was a free
moving body in the upper air currents, a special installation of an E-)
radar set with an upward field of scan was made on these aircraft and a
beacon installed in the equipment carried by the balloon,
This equipment,
unfertunately, never functioned properly and an alternate method of positioning had to be arrived at.
Through much practice, a system was devised
where the balloon was tracked by optics and by radar aboard the USS BOXER
and its vosition passed to the Task Group 7. Controllers, who plotted this
position on their radar scopes.
/
The controllers in turn vectored the
3.36!s to the proper position relative to the balloon and maneuvered the
aircraft into their proper H-Hour positions,
The pilots of the aircraft
also were able to check the AOC positioning by flying formation on the
balioon visually while the navigator checked for proper slant range from
the target through optical instruments,
Due to the flash blindness hazard,
the visual and optical observations had to be abandoned justprior to time
zero and final positioning done by the controller but this ingenious method
of positioning the aircraft against a position in space relative to a moving target proved highly effective and all scientific requirements were met.
The positioning problem was not so great on the TEAK and ORANGE shots.
On these events, a large nuclear device was detonated after being carried
to heights of 250,000 and 125,000 feet by a Redstone Missile.
tion was programmed to occur within a fixed envelope in space.
The detonaOne (1)
aircraft positicned itself by using its own airborne radar while the other
was positicned by an MSQ-1A radar on the ground,
95
APL
Gigane
Air controllers monitored
NOT
7
paling: 9S