WC-121 EC-121 Project Stormfury Constellation Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico National Archives NARA скачать в хорошем качестве

WC-121 EC-121 Project Stormfury Constellation Roosevelt Roads Puerto Rico National Archives NARA

The stars of this film are the Navy WC-121 Warning Star versions of the elegant triple-tail Lockheed Constellation airliner. Filmed at Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, in August 1966, the white-topped Warning Stars mapped storm movements. The event is Project Stormfury, an ambitious scientific effort spanning many years, using aircraft to test whether cloud seeding could make hurricane eye walls larger in diameter, dramatically weakening their potential for destruction. Following earlier storm-seeding experiments, Stormfury had precise guidelines to determine which storms were proper for the seeding tests, including their unlikely chance of making landfall, in case the experimental seeding produced harmful results instead of the expected benefits. Other aircraft, including Navy A-3 Skywarriors a U.S. National Weather Bureau radar-equipped Douglas DC-6, and a C-54 are filmed taking off from Roosevelt Roads. Ultimately, the efforts of Project Stormfury did not produce the desired, and repeatable, results in hurricane mitigation. Such is the nature of experimentation. The EC-121 Warning Star was a radar early warning platform used by the U.S. Navy as well as the Air Force. Nine Navy EC-121s were converted for weather reconnaissance as WC-121s. Some accounts say the WC-121s did not have wingtip tanks; one specification implies the tip tanks were removable on the weather reconnaissance versions. The basic EC-121 was based on Lockheed's Model L-1049 Super Constellation airframe. Four Wright R-3350 engines powered the Warning Star, giving a top speed of more than 320 miles per hour at 20,000 feet. I'm Fred Johnsen for the Airailimages Channel. As we wrap up another year of bringing you rare and unique videos, both new and vintage, we thank you for watching.