252

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1963-Contin ued

never before seen by man. The plane which was pilot-

ed by Commander William H. Everett and carried Rear

Admiral James R. Reedy among its passengers, made

the 3,470 mile flight from McMurdo Station, south

beyond the South Pole to the Shackleton Mountain

Range and then southeastward to the pole of inacces-

sibility and returned to McMurdo in 10 hours and 40

minutes.

25 February The transmitter in the Navy-developed

Solar Radiation I satellite was restarted after 22 months

of silence. Launched 22 June 1960 with Transit 2A in

the first of the pickaback firings, the 42-pound satellite

provided detailed data on solar storms for eight

months and was turned off on signal from earth on 18

April 1961 when magnetic drag reduced the satellite's

spin to a level too low for useful scanning of the sun.

8 March The Department of Defense and National

Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

announced an agreement establishing working arrange-

ments concerning the nonmilitary applications of the

Transit navigation satellite system. Under it NASA

assumed responsibility for determining the suitability of

Transit equipment for nonmilitary purposes, while the

Navy retained its responsibility for overall technical

direction and for research and development as neces-

sary to meet and support military requirements.

1 April To bring their title in line with their func-

tions, Replacement Air Groups (RAG) were redesignat-

ed Combat Readiness Air Groups (CRAG).

8 May The Air Force announced that two squadrons

of A-IE Skyraiders would be added to the 1st Air

Commando Group at Hurlburt AFB, Fla. This decision

followed field tests of two Skyraiders loaned by the

Navy in mid-1962 and led to a further decision,

announced by the Secretary of the Air Force in May

1964, that 75 Skyraiders would be sent to Vietnam as

replacements for B-26 and T-28 aircraft employed

there by the 1st Air Commando Wing.

16 May Kearsage recovered Major 1. Gordon

Cooper, USAF, and his Faith 7 capsule, 80 miles south-

east of Midway, after his 22-orbit flight.

13 June Lieutenant Commanders Randall K. Billings

and Robert S. Chew, Jr., of NATC Patuxent River, Md.,

piloting an F-4A Phantom II and an F-8D Crusader air-

craft, made the first fully automatic carrier landings

with production equipment on board Midway off the

California coast. The landings, made "hands off' with

both flight controls and throttles operated automatical-

ly by signals from the ship, highlighted almost 10

years of research and development and followed by

almost 6 years the first such carrier landing made with

test equipment.

20 June The last student training flight in the P-5

Marlin by VT-31 at NAS Corpus Christi, Tex., marked

the end of the seaplane in the flight training program.

The pilot and instructor was Lieutenant Phillip H.

Flood; the student was Ensign Arnold 1. Hupp.

29 June FAW-lO was established at NAS Moffett

Field, Calif., Captain John B. Honan commanding.

1 July General Order No.5 set forth new policies

and principles governing the organization and admin-

istration of the Navy and directed their progressive

implementation. It redefined the principal parts of the

Navy, adding a Naval Military Support Establishment

as a fourth part under a Chief of Naval Material,

responsible directly to the Secretary of the Navy and

with command responsibilities over the four material

bureaus and major project managers and an overall

task of providing material support to the operating

forces of the Fleet and the Marine Corps.

1 August VMF (AW) squadrons equipped with F-4B

aircraft were redesignated VMFA squadrons.

2 August Shortly after midnight, an F-3B Demon

piloted by Lieutenant Roger Bellnap, launched the first

of a series of five planned space probes designed to

measure the ultraviolet radiation of the stars. The

probe, a two-stage solid-propellant Sparroair, was

launched from a nearly vertical altitude at 30,000 feet

over the Pacific Missile Range and reached a peak alti-

tude of 66 miles.

23-24 August In a joint Weather Bureau-Navy project

titled Stormfury, a Navy A-3B Skywarrior piloted by

Commander John F. Barlow of VAH-ll seeded

Hurricane Beulah with silver iodide particles in an

experiment to determine whether the energy patterns of

large storms could be changed. Although the second

day seedings appeared to have some effect, results were

considered too indefinite to draw firm conclusions.

6 September Five SH-3A helicopters of HS-9 based

at NAS Quonset Point, R.1., rescued 28 workmen from

two Texas Towers oil well platforms shaken by gales

and heavy seas off Cape Cod, Mass.

18 September To provide the continuing action

necessary for effective management of the inactive air-