Evening Star Newspaper, April 28, 1935, Page 59

By Joyce McGhee. LMOST 4 miles above the A Naval Air Station at Ana- costia, an airplane circles and soars. It is 5:30 in the morn- ing and pilot and observer are heavily bundled, and necessarily 80. They are in an open cockpit type of ship, the temperature up here is well below the freezing point and a furious gale is buffeting them. Suddenly a peculiar thing happens. Poesibly a thousand feet below a heavy mass of snow-white cloud turns inky- black. There is a terrific clap of thunder. And three or four flashes of lightning. A veritable torrent of rain bursts forth. But it doesn’t touch the airplane or its occupants. They are having the treat of viewing a great thunderstorm | from aloft. For fully half an hour it continues its spectacular downpour, | gradually calms down and finally, mov- ing ever eastward, disappears from view. Such was a recent thrilling expe- | rience, in regular line of duty, of two members of one of the least known but most important aviation units— the Dawn Patrol, or early morning, | high flying section of the Navy's | aerological division, Every morning of the year, rain or shine, snow or | fog, these sky riders zoom high into the heavens, seeking information | about the wierd whims of the weath- | er’s “third dimension.” | AT 5 AM. eight pilots and a like | number of observers, located at eight aviation flelds throughout the country, step into their planes. Me- chanics tune them up. “Contact!” Propellers start to whirl. The clock strikes 5. The planes take off. Soon they're lost to view. Fastened to each &hip is an aerometeorgraph. Sounds tongue-twisting, but it simply refers to an automatic device which measure humidity, temperature and barometric pressure in the blue heavens. Our Navy is plaving an important part ip the enlarged observational program 8 the Wwather Bureau, which was inaugurated on July 1 of last year. Regular daily flights are being made from the Naval Air Sta- tions at Anacostia, Lakehurst, Nor- | folk, Pensacola, San Diego and Sun- | nyvale, Calif., and Pearl Harbor. A few other stations such as Philadel- | phia, Dahlgren and Coco Solo makes occasional flights for local forecasting purposes, the data obtained being like- | wise transmitted to the Weather Bureau. In addition, the following ships of the fleet make flights of this | nature both in port and at sea: Sara- | toga, Lexington, Ranger, Wright, Cal- | ifornia and Chicago. | The reason the take-off is made so early in the morning is so that the data obtained aloft will be available | for use in time to prepare the morn- | ing weather forecasts. The average | altitude obtained on these flights is 17,000 feet, the plane climbing at the | rate of about 300 feet per mmute.‘ levelling off at intervals of 3,000 feet in order to reduce the effect of lag in | the temperature and humidity ele- ments of the recording instrument. The average cruising speed of the planes used is 80 to 110 miles an hour. | Most naval air stations are located on airways teletype circuits so that the hourly weather reports along the various commercial airways enable aerological persnnel to keep close watch on the changing weather con- ditions. Advantage can be taken of every hour of favorable flying and permit the issuance of warnings of sudden squalls or storms in time to recall planes in the air and to secure against damage those on the field or on board ship. Out at Anacostia the personnel of the dawn patrol consists of only one aerological officer, Lieut. Comdr. J. B. Anderson, and four enlisted men, designated as aerographers. How- ever, this tiny unit has a fairly in- teresting time of it. Probably no man in the United States, with the exception of W. R. Gregg, chief of the Weather Bureau, but recently chief of the bureau’s aerological division, knows more about weather conditions eloft than does Comdr. Anderson. But he dislikes | personal publicity and is not quoted directly. Nevertheless, his observations | concerning the work of the sky chas- | ers are exceedingly interesting. Normally, Comdr. Anderson says, | Navy aerologists, as a result of their early morning flight, can tell up to| 12 hours in advance whether storms | will strike a certain region. Often- times their observations will foretell | weather conditions when no other | method will, as far ahead a5 36 hours. CCASIONALLY, when weather| conditions are particularly un- settled, three or more flights are deemed necessary. Several years ago, for instance, Weather Bureau reports | into a thunderstorm until they got within a couple of hundred feet of it and then only because they saw lightning flash Of course, the sky riders quickly withdrew from the scene. But they didn’t have to go more than 600 feet away. Meantime, the storm had passed to the southeast® of the air station. The rain had stopped, so they landed on the field. Then one of the weird freaks of Mother Nature oc- curred. Ordinarily you would expect fair weather to exist. Actually the sun was shining brightly. But Old Sol was almost completely blotted out within five minutes' time. For an- other storm began to the southwest of the river. For some mysterious reason it joined with the one that had just passed over the station! And, as if this was not strange enough, the two storms changed their directions and together struck the field with furious force and simul- taneous with the landing of the ob- servation plane. Astonished and somewhat befuddled at this unex- | pected turn of things, the observer and pilot at least had presence of mind enough to jump out, catch hold of the wing exposed to the oncoming storm and hold on. This prevented the plane from turning over. -Undoubtedly if they had not done this it would have been seriously damaged from the terrific force of an almost 60-mile gale that accompanied the deluge. Dawn patrol planes often are called upon to work under certain disadvantages. Ordinarily their early morning flights must pass through the clouds and be out of sight of the ground for the better part of an hour. Meantime pilot and observer haven't the slightest notion as to what's hap- pening below or even where they are. Occasionally a patrol pilot will have this sad experience: He will zoom through the clouds, make important observations and when the flight is finished and he's descending, catch a glimpse of the ground only to find he is 40 to 60 miles away from where he thought he was. All this, mind vou, owing to the treacherous effect of strong winds aloft, whose actual strength and direction it was im- possible for him to gauge at the time. THE SUNDAY STAR, ® WASHINGTON, D. C, APRIL 28, 1935—PART FOUR. HIGH ABOVE WASHINGTON WITH THE “DAWN PATROL” Capital From Thousands of Feet Into the Heavens— to Discover All About W eather Prospects. WITH WASHINGTON'S “DAWN PATROL.” F-3 thunderstorms or hail resuit n't seem strange then that is ever on the alert for falling clouds. On his heavenly journey he also is very much interested in whether the air is stratified. In other words, whether it is formed in fairly definite layers like strata of rocks on a hillside. If such layers are on hand their beauty is unlike anything else in nature’s scheme of things. Filmy, foamy, hazy, milky, jewel-like—these are the adjectives that first come to mind in an attempt to describe stratified clouds. If you're flying above one of these layers it looks like & gleaming white field of virgin snow, and as level as a prairie field. How- ever, far more important than this— the more stratified the air on an early morning flight, or indeed, at any other time, usually means the less likeli- hood of thunderstorms and other violent outbursts in the heavens. Then, too, the experienced aerial ob- server also watches carefully for all changes in the size, shape and direc- tions of flow of cloud formations of all sorts—notably at high altitudes. This is the best way of studying just what is going on up here—at first range. All this probably will be of vital concern to aviation interests six to eight hours hence. | “In the Winter the sky watchers study and record the altitudes at which ice forms on the plane, noting particu- larly the type of ice—whether white | clouds.” | in the way of strong windp aloft, and Customarily, however, each pilot Conditions did not look very threat- knows well in advance of his early ening, although the weather was con- morning flight, thanks to soundings gigered unsettled. - At about 5:15, by pilot balloons, just what to expect| oy ;10 the ghservation plane was head- ing heavenward, teletype reports reached the flying field from sur- rounding stations as far as New | York City to the north and Atlanta to the south, stating positively that rapidly lowering ceilings and decreas- ing visibility were making landings at any fields within these areas unsafe. Washington, too, had become un- safe for landing. Yet the patrol plane and observer had to come down. They certainly couldn’t stay up in the sky when a serious storm was liable to break at any moment. A quick survey of all surrounding reports indicated that only three stations within a radius of 150 miles were known to be curred during the past Winter. A |safe. These were Baltimore, Frederick certain pilot took off in the early and Richmond. Of these the latter | morning from Naval Air Station when | two were supposed to be by far the he can make his plans accordingly. BEAR in mind that while the pilot is two or more miles above the clouds, a journey which requires at least an hour and usually more, it is possible for weather conditions below him to become extremely dangerous. Clouds may lower, severe rains or fog set in, and reduce visibility and ceil- ing to such an extent that it is posi- | tively unsafe to descend to the landing field, even though it is certain the air | station is directly below. | A case of this sort actually oc-| imi Richmond. However, treacherous head | winds had pushed him all the way from Washington to Baltimore. There, miraculously enough, he caught s glimpse of the airport and made rapid but excellent three-point larid- ing. landed an enormous fog had closed in, it was still almost as black as night. | best. The pilot was notified by radio | the entire city of Baltimore was en- Top, left: Collecting airway weather reports, which are first typed and then transmitted on the teletype circuit. Top, center: This photo- graph was taken 9,000 feet above Washington and shows a “dawn patrol” plane winging its way through early morning clouds. Top, right: Weather Bureau meteorologist and commercial pilot studying the weather reports received by teletype. Below, left: Around 5 o'clock on a Spring ‘morning above Washington. Below, right: Fastening an “aerometeorgraph,” or special weather-measuring device, to the wing of a Navy plane, of this situation and advised to land | gulfed and visibility for the airman mediately either at Prederick or | was at its lowest ebb. Under usual conditions it Within two minutes after he | can isn't | necessary for the sky riders to com- municate with the home flying field. However, as is well known, most first- | class sirports maintain radio beacons | and the aerological plane customarily tune in on these at all times | | when above the clouds and out of sight of the ground. This keeps the | sheerest aerologists pretty well located with respect to home territory and also rapidly from ice into vapor. enables them to receive emergency$ | messages. ‘What kind of a world is it up there in the blue heavens around 5 o'clock in the morning? Comdr. Anderson, one of America’s leading authorities on the subject, explains: “JT'S almost like darkest night in the late Fall and Winter. But in the Summer it would take a first- rate poet to describe the scenes of | rare beauty so frequently encoun- tered. Take the matter of ‘trailer To understand what these are, look up in the sky sometime at a huge cloud. Maybe vou will glimpse one that seems to be failing down and trailing away from the mother cloud. To the ground observer such a trailer looks tiny, a fragile looking wisp of white. But to the watcher in the air it may be of magnificent proportions and great beauty. “What causes a trailer? Air cur- rents that buoyed it up have shifted their course, leaving sections of the cloud without proper support. Re- sult? Large strands fall down. These in turn disintegrate, forming lesser strands. “Here's another little-known fact: Whenever one of these trailers falls it cools the air. Why? Well, this particular type of cloud is a ‘rain maker’ It is made up of thousands upon thousands of minute ice crystals, every one as transparent as a piece of clearest glass and as thin as the tissue paper. As these and soft or clear and hard. The latter is the most dangerous, for it will keep on building up and very soon might get too heavy for the plane's safety and easy maneuverability, and force a landing. The other type of ice formation tends to blow off, melt, or be dissipated by the vibration and bouncing about of the plane under the terrific buffeting by strong winds.” crystals fall, they evaporate, changing “Immediately the air all around be- comes many degrees cooler, Eome- times no actual rain strikes Mother Earth for the simple reason that not enough trailers fail and those that fdo, evaporate very quickly. However, | it is a wonderful sight to view a lot ! of these traflers fall away from the mother cloud. Literally speaking, it is a ‘rain factory.’ | “If there's a lot of this sort of thing going on, the observer can be pretty certain that a severe storm isn't far away. For an unstable con- ditton in the heavens is building up, ALTHO[‘GH the advent of aviation “™ has served to emphasize its in- fluence on naval operations the weather factor has to be considered in many phases of naval strategy and tactics. Thus, visibility often limits the range at which guns open fire and which simply means that a veritable turmoil in the heavens has started because cold air is heavier than warm air and its tendency is to come plung- ing down like a torrent of water. “However, as a batch of cold air sweeps ever downward the increase in pressure of the atmosphere heats it considerably. Few people realize that there’s a definite relationship which must exist between the tem- peratures of the upper and lower layers of the atmosphere if these two layers are to maintain their relative positions. ‘Translated into every-day American, here’s what is meant: Should a bunch of these trailer clouds come plunging down and cool the upper air sufficiently, & number of layers of upper air also start a downward journey and this in turn forces a good-sized portion of warmer air upward. Now, if this interchange of cold and warm air becomes violent enough, and humidity conditions are THOSE WERE THE HAPPY DAYS— ‘“round the Toun H COOLD SHOE | 4 Tom RILEYS MOLE WAS || GEORGE RANCROF T, ONTHE Si7e OF WAE WITH A GALLERY AL DisTaicy BLOG. \ 8 SHES RIGHT, VER 3 W MUsT & E%e ¥ ge O.K."BUIK FP CAUSE REV. SONES BAPIIZED, HIS FLOCK HERE LASY SUNDAY a"A Eugvs\\::z: JosT J0E, STICK. \G TOE 7 - an o \N AND SEEF \Ts WARM, wAYyS oN HANO. ME.S TROTTING =<UCKET,\T WAS J0ST TO BAZ .‘ \ > Eeom | WHEN BATATOBS affects scouting operations and the disposition of the fleet. The upper winds and the density of the air in the higher levels of the atmosphere enter into ballistic computations be- cause of their tremendous effect upon the motion of a projectile in its flight to the target. Even in time of peace considerable use can be made of weather forecasts in planning the operations of the various forces of the fleet. Thus fore- casts of unfavorable weather condi- tions for conducting certain maneuvers can result in considerable economy by avoiding the useless expenditure of fuel alone. Yet if we scan the pages of naval history we still find that fleet ecom- manders have often failed to cone sider the importance of the weather factor in formulating and executing their plans of battle. Further study —By Dick Mansfield reveals that the weather has exerted | a profound influence on the outcome of many famous engagements which have influenced the history of the world. To cite a few examples: Back in the ancient days of galley | warfare—at the battle of Salamis in 480 B.C.—we learn that 400 Persian ships were destroyed by a gale shortly after the battle and many more by | a thunderstorm after the first day. | Thus it was a lucky gale rather than | a display of strategical or tactical genius on the part of the victorious Greek admiral which brought victory to his side. In the days of sail we find again | that victory has usually gone to the | side which had the weather gauge. | The defeat of the Spanish Armada | in 1588 and the battle of Trafalgar | in 1805 are good examples. Although these galleys and sailing ships were much more affected by the weather elemerts than modern men | o'war, we have only to turn to the | history of the World War to prove that weather is still a factor of prime importance. In the battle of Jutland the effectiveness of the opposing fleets was greatly reduced by the fog and mist which prevailed. Likewise the campaign at the Dardanelles has been recorded as a glaring example of the failure of the allies to consider even the normal climatological conditions in the areas of operations, We find that the lack of water which could have been expected in the dry season was a serious handicap to the fight- ing forces. But when we read that a severe blizzard caused the death ¥OoR A SHORT CCY, or incapacitation of as many men as the fiercest battles of the campaign, QEMEMBEQ ?, the importance of the weather ele- __—— B |ment in warfare is strikingly fllus- v trated. RIGATN Back’o CENTER MARKET ON CATH “THE \SLAND —~O GEORGETOWNAN \F YOO WERE CAUGHT WITH- OUY ONE. Soy Beans Fill Need SOY beans are recelving a stimulus this year which may bring this valuable crop into more general use WERE A LUXURY KE BNO WE'DTAKS concerning a forecast for Washington, seemed strangely contradictory. A Navy plane made its usual early morning serial tour. But this didn’t clear things up. So another flight was made at 7. There was still no indication of a thunderstorm which had been hinted at in Weather Bu- reau forecasts. £till another flight was made at 9 and this time the data obtained aloft began to show a little | more of the characteristic flm’m: conditions. | Three more flights were made, and | esch time the conditions became more and more evident. During the final hop, starting shortly after 3 o'clock, a storm actually developed while the pllot was at an eltitude of about| 18,000 feet. It was a mild storm, but | it had certain peculiarities. At the outset the plane occupants, flying over an extremely heavy. black cloud fldn'z realize this cloud was developln’ s EMOREY TEE®_ WHAT Do You REMEMBERT | than heretofore. ag5werz YO LAST wr{-_(’; | Shortage of pasture land and forage &UES‘.‘! ON, | crops in the drought area made it | essential that a substitute be found HO WAS MARCOLS | ta care for stock and farm animals |in the affected area. Soy beans fill MooNEY P ONSWETR, | the feed needs and at the same time are more resistant to droughs and excess moisture than the ordinazy [ HAMp\ ON ?\E = EATEQ crops, such as Sudan grass, sorgo and OF WASHINGYON, ANEXT WEEK'S, WHAT FAMOOS WASHINGTON- millet. Last year the seed crop was 6,000,000 BE \AN RES\DED AT THE So\We CORNERZ OF 12¥2 £ MO. AVE. ¥4 T TIMES,) QREMEMBER TTHiS ONE P BEACH, Rememser 2 RIGAT '\N BACK OF THE BUREAL OF ENGRAVING * ANO PRIANTING, WHEN ABOLT THIS Time OF YEAR WE’O MAKE 00R CILGRIMAGE “THERE ¥For “THE OFFICIAL Tesv OF ‘THE WATER BEFORE GOING 1N For. OLR FIrsT SWiM. AN RICES CaviLLion Cireos, MRATINEE 2 NIGHT, { Aemory Sauace.| | bushels over the previous year. Ordi- | narily two pecks of good seed will | supply the need of an acre of the beans. Seed crops of some of the grasses normally used were con- siderably belmulmnmu last year.