1944-Contin ued

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

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Fire spreads from napalm dropped by Marine fighter f7ying air support dUljng Peleliu invasion USMC 97976

1 September Project Bumblebee (as it was later

known) came into being as the Bureau of Ordnance

reported that a group of scientists from Section T of

the Office of Scientific Research and Development

were investigating the practicability of developing a

jet-propelled, guided, anti-aircraft weapon. Upon com-

pletion of the preliminary investigation, a develop-

mental program was approved in December by the

Chief of Naval Operations. In order to concentrate

upon the guided missile phase of the anti-aircraft

problem, the OSRD and Applied Physics Laboratory of

Johns Hopkins University, completed withdrawal, also

in December, from the proximity fuze program which

thus came completely under the Bureau of Ordnance.

3 September Lieutenant Ralph Spaulding of Special

Air Unit, Fleet Air Wing 7, flew a torpex-laden drone

Liberator from an airfield at Feresfield, England, set

radio control and parachuted to ground. Ensign James

M. Simpson, controlling the Liberator's flight from a PV,

sought to hit submarine pens on Helgoland Island; how-

ever, he lost view of the plane in a rain shower during

the final alignment and relying only upon the drone's

television picture of the terrain hit the barracks and

industrial area of an airfield on nearby Dune Island.

3 September Fourth Wake Raid-A strike group of

one carrier, with cruisers and destroyers, hit enemy

positions on Wake.

6 September A contract was awarded to McDonnell

Aircraft Corporation for development of the Gargoyle,

or LBD-I, a radio controlled low-wing gliding bomb

fitted with a rocket booster and designed for launch-

ing from carrier-based dive-bombers and torpedo

planes against enemy ships.

6 September As the scope of the aviation safety

program was enlarged, a Flight Safety Section was

established in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval

Operations (Air), and was assigned the direction and

supervision of the aviation safety program.

9 September Fleet Air Wing 17 moved forward to

the Schouten Islands to direct patrol plane operations

supporting the occupation of Morotai by Southwest

Pacific Forces.

11 September Commander, Fleet Air Wing 1, based

on Hamlin, transferred from Espiritu Santo in the

South Pacific to Guam to direct the operations of

patrol squadrons in the Central Pacific.

18 September The Pelican guided missile produc-

tion program was terminated and the project returned

to a developmental status. Despite reasonable success

during the preceding six weeks, this decision was

made because of tactical, logistic and technical prob-

lems involved in its use.