ARIA September 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.

I was very excited to acquire 24 AMtech ARIA/A-LOT model kits this past month. AMtech produced 5000 of these kits in 2003 and has since gone out of business. Currently, they are packaged in a bulk pack the way AMtech would have received them from the manufacturer. When AMtech received these bulk kits they would then repackage the kits in a retail box. These kits will be repackaged in a plain box and will be available online towards the end of the month. These are complete kits except for the instructions. Instructions will be provided online in a downloadable PDF file.

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

Apollo 11 40th Anniversary Landing on the Moon
Stan Anderson with his wife Bette traveled to Australia for the 40th Anniversary celebration of the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon. The celebration took place in Canberra, Australia, from July 19, 2009 thru July 22, 2009. On the "Day of, Time of" banquet held on July 21, Stan brought greetings and congratulations from the ARIA Alumni.

In an email to me Stan Anderson states "At the “Day of, Time of” banquet Mike Dinn, the former Deputy Director at Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station during Apollo 11, was seated at the table next to me. I went over to Mike and said, “Mike, I’m sure that your folks had to come up with as many real-time solutions to problems as our ARIA people did that would have never met with the approval with the Standards and Procedures people.” Mike’s response, “You got that right, mate.” Lots went on behind the scenes that the world will never know. In the movie “The Wonder of It All” I believe it is Alan Bean who says, “If we don’t tell the story, soon there won’t be anybody left to do so.” I guess that gives each of us to impetus to document as many of the stories as we can."

At the former site of the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station an ARIA 328 Memorial Coin was placed in the time capsule along with a description of the ARIA program. The time capsule is 30 cm in diameter by 1.5m long made of stainless steel weighing approximately 100kg (~220 pounds). The time capsule was a hydraulic cylinder that was used on the 70 meter antenna at Tidbinbilla Tracking Station. The time capsule will be opened on July 20, 2069.

The Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station was decommissioned in 1981 and the 26 meter antenna was moved to Tidbinbilla, Australia. The antenna was due to be decommissioned in August 2009, however, currently the antenna is in standby status.

For many years Colin Mackellar has kept the memory of the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station alive by devoting a web site to the tracking station. Over the years Colin has shared information about ARIA with me to perserve the ARIA history. In appreciation, the ARIA 328 Memorial Foundation presented an ARIA 328 Memorial Coin, represented by Stan Anderson, at the Apollo 11 banquet to Colin.

On July 21, 2009 the Royal Australian Mint released a new 50 cent coin in recognition of the accomplishment of Apollo 11 landing on the moon.

You can view pictures of the Apollo 11 40th Anniversary Landing on the Moon celebration at http://flyaria.com/apollo1140thanniversary-canberra.html.

Did you attend another 40th Anniversary celebration? Send me your story and pictures for the flyARIA.com web site.

National Geographic - Big, Bigger, Biggest
I was contacted two weeks ago from Windfall Films for information clarification. They are finishing up on the production of the show. Big, Bigger, Biggest, will first be aired in the UK and then later in the US. This will be the second season for Big, Bigger, Biggest, and it will be exciting to see the ARIA segment with Skylab. From my understanding there will be an animation of the communications between Skylab, ARIA, and ground control. For our friends in the UK, if you see an air date for the second season of Big, Bigger, Biggest, please forward the information to me.

Book on Military Boeing C-135 and Boeing 707s used by the Military
I want to thank all of the ARIA Alumni that has contacted John Gourley to provide information and pictures for his current Squadron/Signal Publications book on C-135 series and military 707 aircraft. John will advise me when the book is available for purchase.

4950th Test Wing Picture
Over the past few years I have communicated with Aileen Lintzenich by email. She worked at the 4950th Test Wing and I finally had the opportunity to meet her this year at the annual 4950th Test Wing Reunion and Luncheon. The reunion is held every year on the first Friday of March and currently is held at Homer's Smorgasbord in Fairborn, Ohio.

At the reunion, Aileen presented me with a number of ARIA artifacts to include in the ARIA Archive. One of the items is a group picture of the 4950th Test Wing along with test wing aircraft. Due to the large size of the picture it has been a challenge to be able to scan and provide an online version of it. I wanted to provide a high resolution web version of the photograph to allow everyone to reproduce it at a high quality level for printing. I have finally been able to accurately reproduce the test wing photograph for everyone to enjoy. You can access the photograph at the 4950th Test Wing index page http://flyaria.com/4950thindex.html or the high resolution picture directly at http://flyaria.com/Images/4950th/4950THTWGROUPWITHAIRCRAFT-E.jpg. The high resolution picture is 8415 by 6611 pixels and is a very large file. This image accurately reproduces the quality of the original picture.

I want to thank Aileen for donating this picture to the ARIA Archive. I have two other pictures that Aileen has donated and I will be presenting them in the near future. Without this generous donation many of us would have never known of the existance of this wonderful piece of history.

ARIA Scale Models
If you haven't visited the flyARIA.com web site lately you may want to take a look at the ARIA models that are currently displayed on the site. You can access the pictures from the main menu under ARIA Art. For those of you who are currently in the build process of your model, please consider submitting pictures of your ARIA aircraft.

Help Identify Alumni
I have a photograph of the 4952nd Test Squadron which I received from Toby Rufty. What is great about this photograph is that the last names of the personnel are listed but it would be nice to have first names. To view the photograph go to http://flyaria.com/4952nd.html and click on the picture to enlarge.

I want to thank John Dyson for providing the following names for the group picture:

Col Richard Claxton
Lt Col Dave Brown
Lt Col John Mitchel
Lt Col Henry Bondurak
Maj Tom Schuppe
Capt Tom Straiton
Maj Steve Pearson

Middle Row:

Capt Roger Liska
Col Mauro Farinelli
Maj Richard Kobussen
Lt Col Vern Davisson
Maj Gary Bean

Front Row:

Col Chris Hopkins
Lt Col Bob Yunag
Lt Col Jim Marks
Maj Tony Novellino
Maj Ken Thompson

Thanks to John, we are almost half way there identifying everyone in the picture.

Video Request
While reviewing and converting the generous video donations of Larry Lowe and Greg Williams it struck me that I do not have any videos from Edwards Air Force Base. I know that at least one exists showcasing ARIA. Please consider a video donation. The ARIA alumni will thank you.

Information Donations
While visiting the National Museum of the Air Force my wife Melody inquired about ARIA and the 4950th Test Wing at the gift shop looking for some type of memento to come away with. For those of you that may be unfamiliar with the museum it is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. It didn't necessary surprise her that they didn't have anything available to purchase but what did surprise her was that no one knew anything about ARIA or the 4950th Test Wing. Unfortunately, this is the rule and not an exception even when an outfit and program was an integral part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for many years. Most history books fail to mention specific programs and organizations.

I would bet that you have a piece of the puzzle on the history of ARIA and the associated outfits. You may be the only one with this information. Please consider donating to flyARIA.com with information donations. You may not necessarily think that what you have to offer is important, odds are it is.

If we just look at 2009, we know that the flyARIA.com presence has spread the history of ARIA around the world. flyARIA has been an easy source to locate via the web for those who desire information for different projects.

Most importantly, flyARIA has been a beacon for ARIA alumni to return to the fold and become informed on current news and projects. flyARIA has reunited old friends separated by decades of time.

flyARIA.com would not have happened without the generous information donations from you. You are keeping the memory alive.

flyARIA.com Updates
August was a good month for the flyARIA web site. There have been many changes that have taken place; to many to mention here. The conversion from the old web site format to the new format is going well.

Correction Submissions
No corrections this month.

Did I Forget Something?
Please let me know if I have not included your submitted information in the newsletter. Have something you want to include in the newsletter? It is easy to do, just send me an email.

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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.