[MRCA] [MMRCG] Nems Clark in C-119

[Tim]

Thanks Ray - Very interesting - glad to see that A/C was preserved.  In the
early 1960's I used to see them (it?) flying low over my house while they
were heading into Mitchel Air Force Base runway 30 on Long Island.  The J
Models were unmistakable from a conventional troop carrier C-119.  The J's
with their odd "beaver tail" cargo doors which could be opened in flight..

Tim
N6CC

On Thu, Oct 28, 2021 at 8:49 AM Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu> wrote:

> With the show out in Hagerstown at the old Fairchild plant have been
> looking at C-119 Flying Boxcars a lot. To support the CORONA satellite
> program a group of especially equipped C-119 with  boom attachment that was
> used to capture a Satellite Return Vehicle (SRV) as it reentered the
> atmosphere attached to a parachute.
>
> Back in the sixties and late fifties when the CORONA program was developed
> video scanning technology and live video images were too poor quality to
> use for intelligence so the Agena launch vehicle was used with a film
> camera to do phot recon over the USSR with the film being packed in the SRV
> and that dethatching upon mission completion and returning to earth for
> processing. Later missions had several SRV that would allow for extended
> operation.
>
> The attached picture shows the radio operators station on one of the boom
> equipped C-119 that in addition to the usual ARC-8 set up and loran
> receiver you can see the Nems Clark rack that has a VHF Telemetry receiver
> that would be used to pick up the VHF beacon on the SRV along with a scope
> that I am assuming was set up to chop between the two antennas on the ship
> to give an idea where the payload was falling.
>
> At the top of the rack is a crystal signal generator that I thin was
> switched on to set the receiver at the correct frequency of the SRV beacon.
>
> They have pictures of the pilots and co-pilots station but don’t see any
> methods to assist them in locating the chutes and just assume they were
> given gross coordinates of the reentry and using the beacon receiver with
> instructions from the radio operator they would fly around until they saw
> the chutes and then move in for the capture.
>
> From 1959 to 1972 over one hundred fifty successful recoveries were
> accomplished for both the publicly known Discovery payloads and the secret
> KH-1 thru KH-4B and KH-5 satellite programs by the USAF 6593 Test Squadron.
>
> Thought the picture would be interesting to the group to see the ART-13
> and BC-348 in its natural setting along with the often less photographed
> Nems Clark gear.
>
>
>
> The USAF Museum has a page with a bunch of the photos at:
>
>
>
>
> https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/197556/fairchild-c-119j-flying-boxcar/
>
>
>
>
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