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Test Aircraft Unit.
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The Test Aircraft Unit, comprised of six ele-
ments, exercised operational control over all test aircraft aud was responsible for briefing all aircrews involved in test projects.
Command
of the Test Aircraft Unit was assumed by Colonel jlden G, Thompson.
The six elements, their compositions, and their missions are des=
cribed in the following paragraphs.
The Sampling clement was composed of the 4926th Test squadron
(Sampling), Kirtland Air Force Base, augmented by personnel from the
4025th Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron, 4080th Strategic reconnaissance ding, Strategic Air Comnand,
The element conducted nuclear cloud
sampling with ten o=57B aircraft provided by the Air Research and Develosment Comnand and six B-57D aircraft provided by Strategic Air Command.
Sampling requirements for HARVTACK, as specified by Air Force and
by Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and University of California sxadiation Laboratory, made necessary a number of samples ranging from one
to ten (depending upon che nature of each shot), coilected at various
altitudes,
A sample consisted of a predetermined amount of radioactive
material, generated from the detonation of a nuclear device, coilected
on a special filter paper or in gas bottles,
After return of each aim
craft from the sampling mission, the filter vapyer and gas bottles were
removed from tne aircraft and procesved for i:mediate shivment to itomic
wnergy voinmission laboratories in tne Zone of Interior ivr radio-cneuical
AFWL/ iQ
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analysis,