coe >
Chapter
- Test Aircraft
pecresren OT
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1954
A part of the mission charged to Task Group 7. was & provide, maintain and operate aircraft in support. of diagnostic and weapons effects
test missions.
These aircraft supported a large number of scientific pro-
jects gathering scientific data.
the Test Aircraft Unit.
Most of these aircraft were operated by
Some of the aircraft in this classification were
operated by the Test Services Unit.
These were aircraft supporting tech-
nical and documentary photography projects.
Figure 3
aircraft participation in nuclear test events.
shows the complete
This chart shows all air-
craft airborne at H-Hour, both test support and test aircraft, as well as
those test aircraft which were airborne after H-Hour,
Test aircraft par-
ticipation may be divided roughly into fcur (1) categories:
Samplers,
i
effects aircraft, instrument carriers and photographic aircraft.
The mission of the Sampling Element was to collect particulate and
gaseous samples from within the nuclear cloud.
The nucleus of this organ-
ization was the 926th Test Squadron (Sampling), a subordinate unit of the
L950th Test Group (Muclear).
The 4925th operated ten (10) B-57B aircraft,
esnecialiy modified te perform its primary mission of collecting samples
from nuclear clouds,
For Operation HARDTACK, the Sampling Element was
aucsenved by siz (46) specially modified B-57D eircraft of the 4O80th
Suravelie Pecoonnaissance i/ing (SAC).
Aircraft of the Sampling Element
participated in all of the nuclear tests fn the Eniwetok Proving Ground.
Only the TiiK and ORANGE shots at Johnston Island did not require the
participation of the sampler aircraft.
On a typical sampling mission the sample controller aircraft with a
scientific observer took off prior to H-Nour.
This aircraft was considered
a part of the test array and was placea in a safe position,
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