[ARC5] And then there were none
Hubert Miller
Kargo_cult at msn.com
Fri Dec 6 15:56:33 EST 2019
The 'Lady Be Good' story is a little more complicated. Apparently their ADF was not working and they got an ambiguous bearing QTE from the ground station, didn't take into
account the possibility of reciprocal and missed seeing the flares fired from the base. Wikipedia says "HF DF" from the ground station but I'd bet this is wrong; that the DF would
have been on LF. But now we won't ever know for sure, I suppose, as the LBG's BC-375 became lost with time.
As for problems with RDF, what came to mind is the Russian possible spoofing. I still recall reading, at 10 years of age, about a USAAF tickler recon plane shot down by MIGs,
I think over Armenia or somewhere such. I still recall the newspaper quote of the recording of the MIG pilot's radio comms. A Soviet spoofed LF beacon was mentioned at the time.
Probably no way to know now, how true; and it may just have been another case of flying too close, or even overflying the border.
The "January 2020' issue of Aviation History magazine has an EXCELLENT article on the Kee Bird affair. This was a B-29, lost, that emergency landed on a Greenland frozen lake
in 1947. That account will illustrate some of the problems with navigation before GPS. The article also include this line: "It was later discovered that the Soviets had been sending
radio signals over the Arctic to lure U.S. planes into Russian airspace. "
Well, "maybe".
A private effort was made in 1995 to recover the plane, fly it out. A can of gas for the putt-putt had been poorly secured, started a fire, and the plane was destroyed.
Great article.
-Hue
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