XIII

(f)

Convert to WB-7/WC-130 operations as soon as aircraft

can be made available,

Thus was set in motion the sequence of events which led up to the
operations known as MUSIC MAN and CROW FLIGHT as well as the air sampling
operations which made it possible to detect foreign nuclear blasts; to
determine theyield of those blasts, the efficiency of the device tested,
and even the mechanical and physical means used to cause the detonation,
KIWD

During the summer and early autumn, 1960, tests of two nuclear
powered reactors under Project ROVER, KIWI A-PRIME and KIWI IITwere
conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission-Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory.
Despite much and repeated delays, when the reactors finally operated, the
B-57 crews of the 926th accomplished sampling missions with no operational
difficulties

For the sampling of KIWI A-PRIME, a trail formation, race-track
pattern sampling technique was used.

Following the firing of the first

jet-assisted takeoff, the airborne control aircraft orbiting in the area

adjacent to the reactor test cell informed the four sampler aircraft to
commence the sampling operation as soon as the exhaust cloud reached a

minimum safe altitude,

This was determined to be approximately 6,000

feet mean sea level, or 2,000 over the reactor.

The jet-assisted takeoff

fired in banks of five at one minute intervals for a period of nine minutes,
During this time, the expelled hydrogen was ignited by the acetylene flare
as it left the nozzle of the reactor and forced the exhaust and smoke

288

SWEH -2~003

6
APWL/ NO

3

7
wy Rt

Select target paragraph3