ARIA July 2009 Newsletter

796

Special Donation Items

You have the opportunity to support the construction of the ARIA 328 Memorial in Walkersville, Maryland, and receive some very special items.

We have a very limited supply of the 1982 Ascension Island 40th Anniversary Wideawake Field stamp sets. The stamps in the set are of the Fairey Swordfish, North American B-25C Mitchell, Lockheed Hercules, and our own ARIA Aircraft 61-0330. Also, we have a 40th Anniversary Wideawake Airfield First Day Cover and a AMtech ARIA/Alots model just waiting for your donation.

https://www.ariamemorial.com/Donate/Special-Offerings/

You can view higher resolution images of the ARIA stamp and first day cover at http://www.flyaria.com/ascensionisland-2.html.

Donation Request

The accounting software for the ARIA 328 Memorial Foundation has reached its end of life. Intuit no longer supports QuickBooks Premier 2006 that the foundation is currently using. The primary feature that has ceased working in Quickbooks 2006 is the email interface which prevents sending out donation related information to donors by email.

To upgrade to Quickbooks Premier 2009 we are looking at a cost of around $370.00 for the features needed for the foundation. Please consider donating to the General Fund to provide the funds for purchasing Quickbooks Premier 2009; no minimum donation amount required.

https://www.ariamemorial.com/Donate/General-Fund-Donation/

National Geographic's Big Bigger Biggest - Skylab

On April 28, 2009 Lt. Col. Michael Kiley, retired ARIA pilot, was interviewed by the film crew with Windfall Films from London, England for an upcoming television special to be aired on the National Geographic channel. The special, which will be a documentary about the evolution of Space Stations, is scheduled to be shown in the fall of 2009 on the National Geographic program titled Big, Bigger, Biggest. The interview involved a description of ARIA's and Lt. Col. Kiley's involvement in the Skylab mission which was launched in 1978. During the interview he describes failures with the space laboratory during launch from Florida, ARIA's role in recording the failures transmitted from Skylab, and NASA's subsequent repairs during manned space missions the enable Skylab to be operational. The filming occurred at the Pima Air and Space museum in Tucson, Arizona. A KC-135 formally operated by NASA for training astronauts in a weightless environment was used a background for the filming. Time constraints did not allow the British crew to obtain permission to film on Davis-Monthan AFB using a retired ARIA aircraft as the backdrop. Lt. Col. Kiley was the Aircraft Commander for the mission which recorded the failures with the unmanned Skylab launch and also participated in two of the following manned launches of Skylab using astronauts to man the space station.

I will provide updates to air dates of Big, Bigger, Biggest when known.

ARIA 60-0374 Lives Anew As Scale Model

The ARIA aircraft pictured at http://www.flyaria.com/ariamodels-1.html is a 1/72 scale AMtech model built by Keith Kossow of Metropolis, Illinois. Keith spent approximately four months building the aircraft as 60-0374, which in real life sits on the tarmac at the National Museum of the Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio, awaiting restoration in 2011.

The photos were taken by Keith’s wife Donna at the local Metropolis airport on June 20, 2009, at 6:45 AM. The photo shoot took close to two hours as real-life aircraft had priority on the runways.

Many details not included in the original kit for this model were “scratch-built” by Keith. The completed model and its diorama were based upon 75-100 photos taken of 60-0374 at the Museum over the last three years. The diorama itself is a replication of the area surrounding 60-0374 as it awaits restoration.

Keith served on the ARIA project as an Airman at Patrick AFB in the late 1960’s.

Rescue of the Lahela K

The two people aboard the Lahela K had been missing for over a week. Rescue teams had searched over 80,000 square nautical miles without success, when an ARIA aircraft, in transit to Wake Island, detected a weak distress call . . .

The aircrews aboard the ARIA aircraft, call sign AGAR 21 aircraft 61-0326 and AGAR 27 aircraft 60-0374, were outbound from Hickam AFB, Hawaii, in support of a Command-directed test over Wake Island on 26 August 1992. As the task force was departing Hickam, the aircrews were alerted by the Coast Guard to an ongoing search and rescue effort for the surface vessel “Lahela K”, that had been missing since 17 August. The boat had been transmitting distress calls on channel 23 of a citizen’s band radio, reaching ham radio operators as far away as the Marshall Islands. The two people on board had been without food and water for several days. The Coast Guard, Navy, and Army had extensively searched over 80,000 square nautical miles looking for the vessel.

While in transit to Wake Island, the aircrews detected a weak, intermittent distress call from the lost board. Responding immediately to the call, the crews initiated a search effort which entailed flying a grid pattern, with the navigator mapping the strength of the distress calls. This narrowed the search area down to a 1,000 square nautical mile area. In communication with the board, AGAR 27 instructed her to fire a flare. After two flares were fired without making a visual contact, both aircraft coordinated and executed independent search patterns at low altitude for over five hours.

Unsuccessful in their search, the crews devised a plan to utilize the cross-dipole antenna mounted on the seven-foot steerable telemetry antenna in the nose of the aircraft. Making the decision to change the aircraft’s precise mission configuration in order to accommodate the rescue effort, both Mission Commanders led their crews in developing an electronic configuration modification real-time, taking only hours to accomplish what normally took many days. They continued working until they developed an effective method of homing in on the distress calls. The signals from the ARIA’s antenna were routed directly to the HF radios tuned into the citizen’s band channel 23. While swiping the antenna on AGAR 27 left to right, The Mission Commander monitored a signal strength meter and assisted the antenna operator on determining the origin of the Mayday calls. The crew then computed the heading and vectored the aircraft. After two passes, the survivors aboard the boat spotted AGAR 27 and fired a flare, later exclaiming “it was the most beautiful aircraft they had ever seen” AGAR 27 then radioed the vessel’s coordinates to the primary rescue forces. Both of the aircraft when circled over the lost vessel until help arrived.

Of the many accomplishments one is capable of achieving in a lifetime, none can compare with the saving the life of another human being. General Yates, Commander of the Air Force Material Command, in recognizing this heroic effort, stated, “to be involved with saving human life is reason enough for recognizing the efforts of the crews, however, the ingenious way in which this event was accomplished deserves special accolade.” By capitalizing on the ARIA’s high tech systems in unconventional configurations, the crews not only demonstrated their ability to adapt to high-demand, short-notice taskings, but their willingness to apply their knowledge for the sake of others.

Source: History of the Miami Valley 1994

I need your help in updating/correcting this story. I have the names of the crews aboard 61-0326 and 60-0374 and will be updating the web site. I would like your input on the events of that day.

Help Identify ARIA Alumni

If you go to http://flyaria.com/theequipmentomtu-1.html you will see two pictures taken in the OMTU, Operational Maintenance Training Unit, at Patrick Air Force Base. I have been unable to identify the person at the tracking receivers in the RF section at the bottom of the page.

Video Request

The ARIA The Vital Link video was produced in 1985. You can go to http://flyaria.com/theheritagevitallinkvideo.html and watch the 17 minute video. Unfortunately, the source of the video was poor quality and the conversion to view the video on the web has added to the poor quality playback. If you have a digital version that you would like to share or be willing to loan the original VHS tape for conversion please contact me.

Apollo 11 40th Anniversary Celebrations

My schedule prevents me from attending the Apollo 11 40th Anniversary Celebrations. If you are attending any Apollo 11 Anniversary Celebrations don't forget to take plenty of pictures. I welcome everyone to submit pictures of the celebrations to place on the flyARIA.com web site.

Apollo 11 40th Anniversary Celebration and Reunion July 19-22 Canberra, Australia

John Saxon has organized a Apollo 11 40th Anniversary and Reunion. If you are interested in attending you can obtain the latest updates at http://jsaxon.org/space/hsk/Reunions/40th2009/. You can also contact John directly at jsaxon@pcug.org.au.

Apollo 11 40th Anniversary Celebration and Reunion July 18, 2009 Wanneroo WA, Australia

As Terry from crotrak.com, Carnarvon Tracking Station History Web Site, pointed out to me in an email there are other Apollo 11 40th Anniversary and Reunions being held in Australia. If you are interested in attending the Carnarvon Tracking Station Apollo 11 40th Anniversary and Reunion you can sign up at http://www.crotrak.com/CRO_40th_Anniversary.htm. If you have any questions you can contact Terry at info@contrak.com.

Correction - ARIA Wooden Model

In the June newsletter I mistyped Gerald's contact email address. His email address is g.r.heuer@att.net.

Gerald R J Heuer has approached a vendor to produce a wooden model of A/RIA. If you are interested in purchasing a wooden model contact Gerald at g.r.heuer@att.net. The hope is to be able to get a quantity discount to reduce the cost from just purchasing a single model.

Correction Submissions

I want to thank Terry Moore and Bill Abballe for submitting web site corrections this month. Your help is greatly appreciated.

ARIA Donations

The donation shopping cart has been updated to the latest release. This will require you to set up a new account when donating through the donation cart.

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Contact Information

I can be contacted through the ARIA Memorial web site or by Randy.Losey@ARIAMemorial.com. You can also use this email address to submit information to be included into the ARIA Newsletter.