Flightline: 55/TBD

"user314" (user314) 10/05/2020 at 11:00 • Filed to: flightline, Planelopnik, nasa, catch a falling star

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JC-130H with the 6593rd Test Squadron

Refined during the 1950's mid-air retrieval involved flying one aircraft, suitably equipped with capture equipment, near another object descending under a parachute and capturing it before it impacts the surface.

The first recorded use of this technique was in the 1950s, when modified C-119s were used to recover !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! drones during their development phase. Later, Sikorsky SH-3 Sea Kings were modified to capture the drones, and still carry on the task today.

C-119s were also used to recover film capsules from CORONA reconnaissance satellites, supplemented and later replaced by JC-130B and JC-130H Hercules transports. The crews for these missions consisted of two pilots, one flight engineer, two telemetry operators, one winch operator, and four riggers. The telemetry operators would acquire the location of the satellite and relay the info to the pilots. Once visually acquired the pilots would head on course to the satellite descending towards the Pacific Ocean, usually at an altitude of approximately 50,000 ft. The winch operator and the riggers would deploy the retrieving apparatus called the “Loop”, which consisted of high quality nylon rope with a series of brass hooks spliced into the apparatus. Once the parachute was snagged by the “ loop” , the winch line would pay out and stop, at which point the winch would reverse and capsule was retrieved .

The first recovery of an object from space occurred in 1960 when the capsule from Discoverer XIV was retrieved by a C-119J.

C-119s and C-130s were also used to retrieve film from various CIA and USAF balloon programs such as !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!

This arrangement was also used, with less success, in the CIA’s !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! program, under which a high speed drone was launched from a modified A-12 (and later on, a B-52D) to overfly areas off limits to even the A-12/SR-71. The D-21 would then fly back to a designated area, where JC-130s would be standing by to capture the drone’s film hatch for processing. The program was beset by technical issues, and only four operational missions were carried out, all ending in failure.

A B-52 carrying two D-21Bs. Photo taken from a KC-135 during a refueling op.

Sikorsky CH-37 Mojave helicopters were used to recover ballistic missile reentry vehicles during suborbital tests at the White Sands range.

Perhaps most famously, mid-air retrieval was to be used on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! sample return probe.

Artists rendering of the Genesis, shown in collection mode

Genesis featured collectors made from various materials, which would collect particles from solar wind at different times (fast wind, slow, CME) as well as an over-all collection. These wafers would then be returned to earth, where they would parachute down and be recovered by a helicopter. Due to a sensor malfunction, the parachutes did not deploy, and the capsule impacted the ground, breaking open the samples.

Despite the damage and contamination (though dirt infiltration proved to be less severe than contamination from Genesis’ own lubricants and other materials), samples of the dirt taken from the impact site allowed scientists to sift through the remains and weed out terrestrial dust from the solar wind particles. JPL was able, with a bit of work, to achieve most of their goals despite the mishap. 

For Sweden > user314 10/05/2020 at 11:21

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The USAF gave us corona

I knew it

ttyymmnn > user314 10/05/2020 at 11:29

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I’m reminded of this scene from Thunderball . Pretty sure thee’s no way in hell Bond could have held onto the girl. And.....holy shit! That’s a B-17! In 1965!

From IMPDB :

Registration N809Z, serial # 44-83785, c/n 32426, built in 1945. Carried registration N207EV from 1975 onwards after it was acquired by Evergreen Helicopters and used as a water bomber. At the end of the movie, this unmarked B-17 appears and drops the rescue-system “when arrows meet”. This is a life raft, which has one special function: Bond sends up a big inflatable arrow, which has a rope connected to Bond and Domino. Then the B-17 returns and a special fixture collects the rope and pulls Bond and Domino with them. This particular aircraft was used to develop the Fulton Skyhook system used in the movie. This system would later become standard on Special Operations variants of the C-130 used by the USAF. Today, this aircraft has been restored to WWII configuration and is on display at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinville Oregon with the name Shady Lady .

user314 > ttyymmnn 10/05/2020 at 11:43

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Hell, that plane was only 20 years old at the time, practically new.

There was a post that came across my tumblr feed over the weekend: it’s a longer period between the first flight of the Lockheed A-12 and now than the period  between the Wright’s First Flight and the first flight of the A-12...

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 10/05/2020 at 11:44

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The older I get, the bigger a crock of s**t those old James Bond movies look to me to be.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > user314 10/05/2020 at 11:45

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Was the Orion derivative at the top of your post the model that the Chinese forced down some years back and then chopped up?

ttyymmnn > user314 10/05/2020 at 11:47

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Orville Wright was still alive when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. 

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 10/05/2020 at 11:48

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Well, they aren’t meant to be a documentary. From Russia With Love is still the best one of them all IMO . And there have been 24 Bond films.

For Sweden > ttyymmnn 10/05/2020 at 11:58

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Sure, if you can call being in Ohio living

user314 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 10/05/2020 at 12:28

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Different plane. That incident involved an EP-3 Orion , which is a SIGINT/ELINT version of the P-3 sub- hunter, which was struck by a PLAN J-8IID (sometimes referred to as the J-8D) ‘ Finback B’.

Only Vespas... > ttyymmnn 10/05/2020 at 14:10

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Nice! B-17s played a part a few years later in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. S trangelove. The arial footage POV and out the windows of Slim Pickins’ B-52 was shot in real life by a civil  B-17 over the actual terrain seen on film. On closer examination the composition model shots of the B-52 one can see the jet casting an unmistakable B-17 shadow.

ttyymmnn > Only Vespas... 10/05/2020 at 14:14

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As important as that film was and still is, I have not seen it in its entirety. It does have one of the greatest lines in film, though:

It’s also my understanding that the scenes inside the B-52 were very operationally accurate. 

ttyymmnn > user314 10/05/2020 at 14:16

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It would be interesting to know how many of the 12,700 Forts they built survived the war, only to be melted down as so much surplus aluminum . I’ve seen a few photos of B-17s converted to civilian use after the war, and this one probably never left the US.

Only Vespas... > ttyymmnn 10/05/2020 at 14:26

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So much so that the USAF freaked out a little. I do recommend it, especially Peter Sellars three- role virtuosity.

ttyymmnn > Only Vespas... 10/05/2020 at 14:30

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One of my favorite George C Scott performances, but Patton still tops the list for me. That’s one of those movies that I will watch every time it shows up on TV. Jerry Goldsmith’s score is also absolutely brilliant.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > user314 10/05/2020 at 18:24

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I wonder how bad of an intelligence wound that was for the US.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > user314 10/05/2020 at 22:59

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Cleopatra is closer to the iphone than when the pyramids were built.