134
Russell C. Coile
over to Bolling Field and spoke to the right people. I explained that I was
the project offi cer on a new secret IFF antenna. We needed an airplane for a
couple of days to fl y up to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. The actual fl ight test
would be from Sandy Hook, New Jersey out over the ocean to a distance
of 100 miles to determine whether or not the new antenna worked. An
offi cer was assigned to help me. He showed me a Grumman amphibian
called a Widgeon. It was a seaplane with a fl oat hanging down from the
wingtip on each side. He told me that they had three of these seaplanes.
I asked about a pilot who could fl y our test mission. He asked around and
found an Air Corps pilot friend in headquarters who thought he could get
a couple of days off to fl y for us. The only problem was that his friend had
never fl own a seaplane. The solution to that was to get one of the senior
pilots at Bolling to check him out. The fi rst check ride was a disaster. They
were planning to do three water landings, but the third one had a cross
wind and the wing was not level when they tried to land. A fl oat about fi ve
feet inboard of the wingtip hit the water and broke off. No problem, they
started over in a second Widgeon. They had a good water landing so they
moved on to practice landing on the runway with the amphibian's wheels.
This time, again they had a cross wind. The plane drifted over to the side of
the runway and a wing fl oat hit a runway light and broke off. No problem,
they started over in the third Widgeon.
Well, when the pilot was fi nally checked out, he had to fl y from Bolling
Airfi eld to Anacostia Naval Air Station. It seems strange now, but the Navy
fi eld and the Army fi eld actually were next to each other, but there was no
common runway, and no way a plane could taxi from one fi eld to the other.
When the plane arrived at Anacostia, the Naval Research Lab installed
the airborne transponder. The NRL electronics technician and I fl ew in
the passenger compartment of the hull and we took off. We got to Fort
Monmouth and actually to Sandy Hook. At that point, the pilot told me
that the weather was turning bad and that he refused to fl y 100 miles off-
shore in bad weather. I persuaded him to go just fi ve miles off-shore since
he could still see land and we tried to see if the experimental model IFF
antenna installation worked. It didn't work! So, the test was successful in
demonstrating that the antenna didn't work and we did not need to go 100
miles off-shore after all. I wrote all this up in a report and recommended
that the antenna contract be cancelled.
Summary :
Well, when the pilot was fi nally checked out, he had to fl y from Bolling Airfi eld to Anacostia Naval Air Station. It seems strange now, but the Navy fi eld and the Army fi eld actually were next to each other, but there was no common runway, and no way a plane could taxi from one fi eld to the other. At that point, the pilot told me that the weather was turning bad and that he refused to fl y 100 miles off- shore in bad weather.
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had,oer,off,antenna,new,pilot,could,runway,miles,eld,oat,widgeon,100