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Project 9,1 - Technical Photography =: Lt Col Jack G, James
On QE shot. (cHEROKEE) two of three 9.1 aircraft
participated.
CARTER 2 aborted the mission at 0400.
was made for flying safety reasons,
Decision to abort
Sufficient time had not elapsed
from the 18 May mission to repair electrical system damaged by internal fire,
CARTER 1 was moved into the CARTER 2 position 110 nautical miles
South of Ground Zero,
CARTER 3 remained in his prescribed position
130 nautical miles West of Ground Zero,
Both aircraft were on orbit
properly positioned, flying at 20,000 feet at Time Zero.
CARTER 1
had an unrestricted view of the detonation and resulting cloud.
Photographic results were good for approximately 45 minutes with the
exception of the Eclair camera which malfunctioned.
CARTER 3 flying
the Western quadrant encountered a towering cumulus at plus 2 minutes.
An attempt was made to climb out on the back leg flight.
The aircraft
attained 31,000 feet but was still in heavy cloud cover.
On post
flight critique it was found that this cloud cover was approximately
45,000 feet high and about 20 miles across,
Understandably cloud photographic results from this aircraft was
virtually negative.
In addition to the photographic effort both air-
craft carried bhangmeters mounted in the oblique camera window on starboard side of aircraft.
CARTER 1 carried in the right scanners blister two Project 4.1
rabbits for flash exposure,
a