The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1946-02-27

(CoDtinued from Page II
idea. When Army-Navy task force
NO. carries out its may Is atomic
bombing of surface ships of Bikin
Atoll In the Marshalls, the idea as
well as the bomb will be put to the
test.
In this phase OF the test. the
Flying Fortress, the outmoded Bit
the hero Of Allied air assault on
Germany which gave way in the
Pacific to the B-29, will be a hero
all over again.
Bill 20 Be Unoccupied
A B-29 supcr-fortress will drop
the bomb. But 1t will be the Biz,
flying by remote control without q
crew, which will brave the violent
death Of the atomic cloud to ex-
tract its secrets.
In charge Of these radio-con-
trolled ''drones" is Col. Harvey T.
Alness, of Bayport, MINI. He is
chief Of the air Instrumentation
unit Of the 58th Wing Task Group
is, the Army's half Of the Joint
Army-Navy task force which will
carry out Operations Cross
Roads of Bikini.
Frankly" AlnesS said, we don't
know what to expect" But the
droneS. obeying impulses flashed
from mother ships" 10 to IL miles
distance, will fly solo through the
atom cloud and return with in
formation heretofore undreamed
Of"
One Of the things the Air Forces
will be most interested i'll viii be
engine power changes" How the
intense radioactivity of the tower
ing cloud which rises when an
atomic bomb bursts will affect in
ternal combustion engines remains
to be seen.
Induces Leaks" in Power
But 1t is known that radio activ-
ity ionizes the air, changes 1t into
charged particles which conduct
electricity and thus induce "leaks"
from power-carrying wires.
This conceivably could wreck the
ignition system of an airplane en-
CINE and result in the crafts de-
struction. Obviously, radioactive
clouds could stop invading air ar
madas in their tracks.
AlneSs does not believe that all
Of his droneS can survive their
venture into the atomic cloud. All
manned Photographic planes as
signed TO the mission have been
warned to stay 10 to II miles from
the bomb burst.
Col. William. H. Blanchard, COM
mander of the 58th Wing, 5O9th
composite group, says human
beings should not venture closer
than five miles of cloud for any ex-
tended period.
But even those drones that sue
cumb to heat, blast. pressure, tur-
bulence. or radioactivity will tell
their story before they die.
win Gather Cloud
A movie camera in the mother
plane will record televized pictures
of the instrument panel aboard the
drone as 1t flies through the cloud
And the drones which survive win
D1A146 udCA AlOb only ECCotd %
what they went through but also
physical samples OF the cloud It.
self. Bags aboard the drones win
automatically open to gather parti-
cles Of the radioactive matter In
the cloud and viii automatically
seal afterward, Alness said.
The man who will actually drop
the bomb will be selected from
eight crews now being trained here
and at Albuquerque and Clovis, N.
M. These crews thus far have drop
ped an average Of two mock atomic
bombs each and will drop a total
Of about 10 before their training is
finished. The crew with the best
record win make the air drop on
Bikini.
Maj. Charles Sweeney, 90. OF
North Quincy. Mass, who piloted
the B-29 which dropped the atomic
bomb on Nagasakl, Is one OF the
experts on hand here.