VI

Preparing the B-36 constituted a major portion of the work,

In

June195k, the Field Command, Armed Forces Special Weapons Project,
outlined detailed requirements.

Just after releasing the nuclear device,

the B=36 airplane was to drop canisters to record pressure and mclear

radiation data,

Time zero equipment, used for previous nuclear tests,

was to be installed, and Naval Radiological Defense Laboratory thermal
radiation measurement equipment was to be mounted in the tail of the
aircraft.

Communications would be available in the aircraft for controlling

equipment be mounted on the drop airplane so that, after dropping the

nuclear device and the canisters, it could turn around and gather samples
from the cloud.2°

However, it appeared to Center officials that operating

at such a high altitude, the B-36 would not have enowgh fuel to remain long
enough after detonation to gather samples,--

Dropping the canisters after the nuclear device presented difficult
timing problems because they had to be spaced accurately and at the correct

altitude when the detonation occurred.

There was no available interval-

ometer which had the accuracy of release pulses, Mr. Samuel Schwartz, of >
the 925th Test Group (Atomic), took on the job of designing an intervalometer with the required close tolerance,

His device was installed on

26 August 195, and then tested successfully,

‘The Cambridge Research Center,

in charge of instrumenting the canisters, later approved the intervalometer

and the instrument assumed a key role in drop aircraft equipment .2°

The

925th also installed calorimeters to gather radiation statistics for the
Navy and other instruments were installed for the Cambridge Research

133

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SWEH~2-003);

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