The briefing befell at 7:00 a.m., and two hours later a Fairchild C-119J Flying Boxcar with the decision signal Pelican 9 lifted off from Hickam Air Drive Base, Hawaii. It was August 19, 1960, and Pelican 9 was on its strategy to make a historic rendezvous.
Piloting the twin-engine cargo airplane was Captain Harold Mitchell. In World Warfare II Mitchell had served as a bombardier and gunner on Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and later flew transports for the Berlin Air Carry. Throughout the Korean Warfare, Mitchell flew C-119s and Douglas C-47s on fight drops of airborne troops on the Chosin Reservoir, in addition to resupply, medevac and logistics missions.
Pelican 9’s copilot was Captain Richmond Apaka, who had graduated from the College of Hawaii earlier than becoming a member of the Air Drive. Additionally onboard had been a winch operator, 4 loadmasters (two on both sides of the fuselage), a photographer, navigator and flight engineer. They belonged to Check Squadron 6593 (Particular), below the course of the 6594th Check Group.
Pelican 9 flew to its assigned patrol space over the Pacific Ocean 300 miles southwest of Hickam. Shortly earlier than 1:00 p.m., a capsule separated from a satellite tv for pc in orbit excessive above. Earlier than lengthy Pelican 9 detected a sign from a descending object about 4,000 ft overhead, after which the crew noticed an orange and silver parachute. Dangling beneath it was a gold capsule—“the form and dimension of a kettle drum gleaming within the solar,” as Mitchell described it. Mitchell slowed the plane to 120 knots and made a primary move as his growth operators tried to snag the goal. They narrowly missed the capsule on the primary two makes an attempt, however the third time proved the attraction, and the crew captured the parachute and its capsule at 8,500 ft. Chief pole operator SSgt. Algaene Harmon received on the intercom. “Good hit, Captain, we’ve received her in tow,” he stated. The crew reeled within the steel canister, which was nonetheless black with soot from the retrorockets. As soon as that they had it on board, they locked the capsule and its labeled payload right into a canister and turned again to Hickam.
Pelican 9 had made the primary aerial seize of an object from area. The capsule contained pictures of the Soviet Union taken by a spy satellite tv for pc of Venture Corona, a top-secret and excessive precedence program for the American protection institution. Corona mixed what was then state-of-the-art satellite tv for pc know-how with a decidedly lower-tech restoration course of—a propellor-driven cargo airplane utilizing hooks to grab the capsule out of the air.
The C-119 Flying Boxcar that recovered the pictures traced its origins to Sherman Fairchild (1896-1971), an aviation innovator, entrepreneur and 1979 inductee into the Nationwide Aviation Corridor of Fame. One among his ventures was the Fairchild Aviation Company, the aerospace concern that constructed the twin-engine C-82 Packet, designed to interchange cargo plane such because the Douglas C-47.
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Fairchild Aviation later developed the C-119 as an improved model of the C-82. First flown in 1947, the C-119 had two 18-cylinder Wright Cyclone 3350 engines, just like these used on plane such because the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. The C-119 had a wingspan of 109 ft and was 87 ft lengthy. Early mannequin C-119s had a “clamshell” tail design that opened outward on the plane’s rear between and beneath its twin booms; the later C-119Js had a “beaver tail” that lifted out from the fuselage, a super characteristic for retrieving satellites. As its title attests, the Flying Boxcar wasn’t glamorous, nevertheless it served effectively in any variety of roles within the Nineteen Fifties, together with dropping prefabricated bridge sections to Marines combating in North Korea’s Chosin Reservoir; transporting French paratroopers and delivering provides to French troops at Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam; and carrying supplies to construct the Distant Early Warning line throughout Alaska and Canada. By the point manufacturing led to 1955, nearly 1,200 C-119s had been constructed.
Boxcar pilot and historian Wendell Cosner famous that the airplane had drawbacks. For one factor, the quantity of cockpit glass may create greenhouse situations on heat days. Cosner additionally stated the C-119 was “rattling heavy” on the controls, since there have been no energy boosts for the management surfaces. Different pilots disparaged the C-119 as “1000’s of rivets flying in free formation” and listed quite a few mechanical issues, however upkeep crews labored lengthy and exhausting to maintain the plane flying. Pelican 9’s Mitchell thought his C-119J, No. 18037, ultimately turned “a wonderful airplane,” however admitted it was “a junk heap” when he first began flying it. “I believe I had one thing like 30 write-ups on it, hydraulic and fuel leaks,” he stated.
Because the Chilly Warfare escalated after World Warfare II, U.S. intelligence businesses struggled to be taught the true extent of Soviet navy capabilities. In 1949 the Soviets detonated a nuclear gadget, sending shock waves via the U.S. navy and political management and growing calls for for higher methods to watch the nation’s major adversary. The calls for turned extra insistent after the Soviets started attacking American reconnaissance airplanes that neared their borders, capturing down a number of.
Venture Genetrix, a program authorized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1955, explored one technique of monitoring the Soviet Union from above—with camera-equipped balloons (see sidebar, earlier web page). All through the Nineteen Fifties, the Central Intelligence Company and the U.S. navy looked for different methods to find out the quantity and placement of Soviet plane and missiles. The Analysis and Growth (RAND) Company had already began considering using orbiting satellites for photographic espionage; in 1946 RAND had even issued a report known as “Preliminary Design for a World-Circling Spaceship.” That imaginative and prescient got here nearer to actuality in October 1957 when the Soviet Union launched the primary satellite tv for pc, Sputnik I, into orbit. The Soviet success elevated the urgency for intelligence gathering.
Created in 1958, the CIA-led Superior Analysis Tasks Company (ARPA) acquired duty for conducting military-related area initiatives with Air Drive assist. One objective was to develop a reconnaissance satellite tv for pc that might {photograph} the Soviet Union and different Communist nations from area, after which return the movie to earth in a capsule (because the know-how to obtain picture information didn’t but exist). This offered the essence of Venture Corona. Permitted by Eisenhower in 1958, this system had public and secret faces. For public consumption, the satellites had been known as Discoverer and their cowl story was that they might examine situations outdoors the environment and develop new spaceflight applied sciences, together with restoration strategies. The true targets of this system remained secret.
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James Plummer of Lockheed’s Missile and Area Division turned Corona’s program supervisor. Plummer modeled his crew after the Skunk Works, Lockheed Plane’s analysis and growth arm that had developed the U-2 spy airplane, amongst many different plane. Lockheed would construct the orbiting area car. Different main contractors had been Normal Electrical (restoration car), Eastman Kodak (movie), Fairchild Digicam and Instrument (one other firm based by Sherman Fairchild, for cameras), and All American Engineering (restoration tools and classroom coaching on aerial restoration strategies).
Corona’s many challenges included growing cameras that might operate within the vacuum and excessive situations of area, 100 miles or extra above the earth’s floor. Every digicam required a three-axis stabilizing system to take clear photos even because the satellite tv for pc was transferring at 16,000 mph round a rotating earth. Imaging decision, the bottom dimension equal of the smallest seen view, was initially about 25 ft, however improved over time to 6 ft. A profitable mission would conclude with a capsule bodily returning uncovered movie to earth whereas defending the top-secret cargo from the acute temperatures of reentry.
Corona missions started lifting off from California’s Vandenberg AFB starting in February 1959. The primary 12 failed, both via launch pad misfires, failure to realize orbit or poor digicam operation. A scarcity of telemetry information made troubleshooting tough. Parachutes created their very own difficulties, as early variations proved unstable and had a too-fast descent charge. Corona and Lockheed engineers redesigned the parachutes, decreasing the sink charge from 33 to twenty ft per second.
CIA Deputy Director Richard Bissell met with a annoyed Eisenhower to elucidate what could have brought on the failures. Some within the CIA and the Protection Division needed to cancel the mission, however the president remained dedicated. Francis Gary Powers and his U-2 spyplane had been shot down over the Soviet Union on Might 1, 1960, and Eisenhower needed to keep away from one other incident. Satellites additionally had the potential to survey rather more of the Soviet Union than the U-2 may, one other issue that doubtless motivated the president’s ongoing assist for Corona.
By means of the perseverance of the mission crew, Corona started to show round. In August 1960, Discoverer 13’s capsule was efficiently retrieved from the Pacific Ocean’s floor. The mission was a check flight that didn’t embody cameras, however the achievement was nonetheless important as the primary time an object flown into area had been recovered. Nevertheless, Mitchell and his crew within the retrieval C-119 had not been in a position to intercept the capsule earlier than it hit the water.
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Discoverer 14 was launched from Vandenberg aboard a Thor-Agena A launch car on August 18, 1960. The second-stage Agena car separated from the booster as deliberate and reached orbit. Over the course of 17 circuits across the planet, the Corona digicam operated completely, taking 3,000 ft of movie that coated 1,650,000 sq. miles of Soviet territory. The one factor remaining was to get the uncovered movie again to earth and into the arms of intelligence analysts.
Corona’s planners had determined to make use of the C-119Js that had confirmed their price on Venture Genetrix, though making the rendezvous remained difficult. The satellites dropped their capsules from an orbit of 550,000 ft or increased. After the capsule entered the environment, the parachute separated from its warmth protect and a drogue chute deployed, adopted by the primary chute at about 60,000 ft. Ideally, the C-119 could be in place to seize the capsule and movie between 12,000 and 15,000 ft over the ocean.
As soon as airborne, crews labored relentlessly, coping with the slipstream, engine noise and restoration gear, usually at altitudes over 10,000 ft in an unpressurized plane. Crewmen may use oxygen hoses on the aspect of the cargo compartment. For security, crew working on the plane’s rear wore parachutes and inflatable life jackets and will use a D-ring on their parachutes to hook themselves to a steel cable. Knives had been out there to chop the capsule’s parachute risers in the event that they turned entangled.
Plane reminiscent of RC-121Ds (a navy variant of the Lockheed Constellation) served as aerial command posts. These plane had homing tools to assist the retrieval plane find the parachute. As soon as the C-119 had a visible, the pilot would fly previous the capsule—which was falling at about 1,500 to 2,000 ft per minute—circle again and time his flight path with the descending parachute’s trajectory. Ideally, at seize the parachute’s prime could be about six ft beneath the plane. The restoration tools included hydraulically operated actuators that raised and lowered two 34-foot poles, a restoration line with eight hooks to catch the parachute, and a winch to drag the capsule to the plane. A trough held nylon strains that had been deployed for the restoration. A “guillotine” may fireplace a pyrotechnic cost to chop the strains in an emergency. Loadmasters within the plane’s rear waited for visible sighting of the parachute cover and listened for the noise of affect and payout of line from the cable trough. As soon as winched aboard, capsules had been usually nonetheless heat to the contact from the warmth of reentry.
As a backup, Navy ships patrolled the anticipated touchdown space, with helicopters and divers prepared if the plane didn’t catch the capsule. Within the occasion of a water touchdown, capsules may float for a number of days earlier than a saltwater plug dissolved, sinking the container and ending the danger of a Soviet pickup.
Few personnel on Corona restoration missions knew the precise nature of the recovered payload; info was shared on a need-to-know foundation. Navigators got here primarily from Army Airlift Command with intensive over-water navigation expertise. Some enlisted males, reminiscent of Airman 2nd Class Daniel Hill of Pelican 9, had been assigned to Corona as a result of that they had expertise with Genetrix.
“To see a dwell Discoverer payload from area descending in the direction of you on a superb parachute was each aircrew’s dream from day one,” Hill stated later. Pilot Mitchell had additionally minimize his enamel with Venture Genetrix.
After Pelican 9 made its profitable restoration of the Discoverer 14 capsule, Mitchell felt “vindicated” after the unsuccessful try to snare Discoverer 13. He descended from the flight deck to shake arms with the crew and congratulate them on their work. Winch operator Tech. Sgt. Louis Bannick handed Mitchell a chunk he had torn from the parachute. “For you, captain,” he stated. “They’ll by no means miss it.” As soon as again at Hickam, the movie went to Eastman Kodak for processing after which the pictures had been despatched to intelligence businesses, the place picture interpreters had been “jubilant” and pronounced the pictures “stupendous.” Mitchell acquired the Distinguished Flying Cross for the mission; the others on Pelican 9 acquired the Air Medal. As well as, the 6593rd Squadron gained the 1960 Mackay Trophy as a Unit Award.
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The mission, with the science cowl story intact, acquired plentiful media protection. In a single interview, Mitchell modestly described flying the missions as “simple,” however enlisted personnel reminiscent of Sgts. Charles Dorigan and Richard Bell thought in any other case, noting the exact flying abilities required to achieve the capsule with out hitting it. Mitchell, 1st Lt. Robert Counts and Bannick traveled to New York Metropolis to tape an interview with Dave Garroway for the “Immediately Present.” All airmen had been invited to a proper dinner in Washington, D.C., hosted by Lt. Gen. Bernard Schriever of the Air Analysis and Growth Command.
The C-119s weren’t round to share the limelight. Irrespective of how effectively maintained, the twin-engine C-119Js weren’t ideally suited for over-water operations, and the navy opted to section them out in favor of Lockheed’s four-engine JC-130 Hercules. The Hercules began flying Corona missions in June 1961, utilizing the identical primary catch and retrieval course of, though with upgraded restoration methods and electronics.
The satellite tv for pc applications remained an enormous enhance to the U.S. intelligence group, with 153 movie canisters retrieved between 1960 and Might 1972. In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson remarked, “Due to satellites, I understand how many missiles the enemy has, and I can sleep comfortably at night time.”
This system concluded in 1972 when the navy launched different airborne surveillance applications reminiscent of “Hexagon” and “Gambit.” After President Invoice Clinton declassified Corona in 1995, information indicated that this system took about 800,000 pictures. Air Drive journal commented that program pictures confirmed “all the Soviet missile complexes, every class of Soviet submarine, a whole stock of fighters and bombers, the presence of Soviet missiles in Egypt to guard the Suez Canal, Soviet nuclear help in China, antiballistic missile protection contained in the Soviet Union, atomic weapons storage websites, Chinese language missile complexes, air protection batteries, floor ship fleets, command-and-control services, and the Plesetsk Missile Check Vary north of Moscow.” Corona missions additionally surveilled and captured movies of Communist China’s preparations for its first nuclear check in 1964 and North Vietnamese surface-to-air missile websites in the course of the Vietnam Warfare. In a paper for Research in Intelligence, Kenneth Greer famous that “the totality of Corona’s contributions to U.S. intelligence holdings on denied areas and to the U.S. area program typically is nearly unmeasurable.”
Mitchell flew 117 missions in Vietnam and retired in 1974 as a lieutenant colonel. His C-119J and elements of the Discoverer 14 capsule are on the Nationwide Museum of america Air Drive, Dayton, Ohio.