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The Air Force conducted several such studies in order to formlate

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standard operating procedures for the 926th pilots and maintenance
crews,

Probably the most significant was that directed by Colonel Ernest

A. Pinson and published by the Special Weapons Center in June 1956,"

The report analyzed radiation dosages received while passing through. the
visible cloud and those received subsequent to exit

and returning to

home base,

Evaluations were rendered for T-33, F-8h, B-36, and B-57

aircraft,

Project officers found the contamination to be higher for

fighter than for bomber aircraft, unclean aircraft collected more radiation
than clean,

Grease spots collected more than 100 times as mech contamination

in passage through a radioactive cloud as a clean surface of equal area,
Colonel Pinson was able to compose an equation showing radiation dose
received by aircrews with the following known factors:

penetration time

(

in minutes after detonation, aircraft landing time in minutes after
detonation, yield in megatons, contamination factor in reciprocal minutes,

and aircraft speed relative to cloud in kilofeet per minute,

However, Air

Force officials believed the equation accurate within plus or minus 65 per
cent for nominal yield bombs,

A scarcity of information on the dimensions

of and radiation intensity in clouds from megaton devices at operational

altitudes for times up to one hour after detonation made "the prediction
of aircrew radiation doses in transit through such clouds questionable.">
The enforcement of radiological safety measures, however, was a
continuing problem, with outright rebellion by Air Force operational leaders
threatened on at least one occasion.

They argued that no serious mishaps had

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