Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-07-11
Pick-a-Back Plane
Maneuyer Is Easy Job
For Training Crews
By Vsrn Houolond
Associated Press Siaff Writer

Assoeietsd Press staH Writer
cARswEIL AIR FORCE
BASE. Tex, July 10.-The jet
fighter roared into view beneath
our big plane and then began
climbing-its nose pointed di-
rectly at us.
An observer on the ground
) would swear he was about to see
q spectacular aerial collision.
In a way, he would be right.
The F-84F jet kept closing on our
plane, but as 1t neared 1t began
slowing down. Finally. it was
+. only eight feet away, then four
feet, then barely q foot.
Seconds later 1t gently touched
its blunt nose against a steel
boom jutting down from the for
ward end Of our open bomb bay.
A nose latch clicked and the jet
was hooked on to our B-36 heavy
bomber. swaying back and forth
. in the turbulent air.
The fighter pilot lowered his
wing flaps to make the rear
part of his plane rise. A hydrau-
lie mechanism began retrieving
. the steel boom and drew the
fighter closer to our fuselage
until side latches on a "trapeze"
locked and held it steady. Then
the fighter was raised with the
"trapeze" into our bomb bay.
. Shown Few Times Publicly.
Release and recovery of a par
asite" F-84 by a B-36 in flight
has been shown publicly only
half a dozen times, but it has
been carried out hundreds of
times as the Air Research and
!. Development Command contin-
ues to work out improvements.
II a fighter can, be carried
. aboard q long-range bomber.
and even be refueled from the
mother ship, it gains almost lin
itless range.
This would make possible the
protection Of bombers engaged
: on long missions and perhaps
: make feasible fighter attacks on
!. distant targets.
= I boarded a mother" B-36 at
this airbase. near Fort Worth,
. first newsman to watch a
launching retrieving demonstra-
: ton at close hand.
> The plane commander was
Raymond Fitzgerald of Fort
. Worth, a Consolidated Vultee
: Aircraft Corp. test pilot, who
has been flying the "Ficon" B-36
from the beginning of the ex-
) periments in 1850. (Origin of
!, the term Ficon is obscure. Best
guess is it's just out of some
--body's hat. but it could be
: contraction Of fighter and con-
I;vair).
: First HOok-up Hardest.
: Pilot Fitzgerald says the first
hook-up was the hardest-just
proving that it could be done.
II couldn't even estimate how
many times we've launched or
retrieved a fighter" he told me-
enough times so that it has
become routine, anyway.
I'VE don't think of 1t as diff
cult or dangerous any more. The
fighter pilots tell me it's asier
than in-flight refueling."
James H. Margeson of Hemp
stead, N. Y. was co-pilot. Others
aboard included Raymond E.
Fisher, Wichita, Kans., operat-
ing the trapeze, observer L. H.
Baker. fight engineers c. T.
Jones and j. L. Blackmon, all of
Fort Worth, and Jacque (Jocko)
Lewis of Springfield, Ohio, crew
chief for the F-84F.
The B-36 can take of and
land with the 2O,000-pound par
asite plane still aboard, and Pilot
. Fitzgerald said it handles just
the same. On this mission, how
ever. the planes took of sepa-
rately.
Roar Down Runway.
With our six propellers at full
blast, the pilot cut on the four
jet engines and released the
brakes. and we roared down the
runway. We were barely in the
air when, back down the rum
way. we saw the F-84F starting
out after us. It's pilot, was Air
Force Maj. Clyde E. Good, from
Wright Patterson Air Force
Base, Dayton, Ohio.
A few minutes out Fisher
Lowered the trapeze, q steel boom
and a automatically operated as
sortment Of strong steel arms and
bars. He operated this equip
ment from the camera compart-
ment. peering out a window just
above the nose latch on the
boom.
When the F-84's nose clicked
into its latch Fisher told Mai.