Just finished this one. What a great read. North Star Over My Shoulder, by Robert Buck. This guy flew for TWA, from DC-2s to 747s, so you can imagine he has a lot of stories to tell. During WW-II, in addition to flying for the Air Transport Command, he was given a B-17, picked his own crew, and spent the next year investigating weather. In particular, they were looking to solve the "p-static" problem, which was (is) static charge build-up on antennas when flying through snow and rain. During such conditions, you couldn't hear the radio range signal, or low frequency comms. After the war, Howard Hughes, owner of TWA, called on him for "special missions", such as when, in 1947, he was pilot for actor Tyrone Power and friends, as they flew on a tour of Africa and Europe, covering Puerto Rico, Liberia, S.W. Africa, Italy, British Guyana, Gold Coast, South Africa, Ethiopia, Brazil, Belgian Congo, Portugal, Sudan, Ireland, Goose Bay, Labrador, Canada, Kenya, Greenland, England, Iceland, France, and Greece. Hmm, Flight-19 material, mayhap? Movie Stars and DC-3s...? Good stuff!
Oh, here's a good one. While doing the B-17 weather research, they flew the B-17 from Adak to Midway. They didn't have an official navigator, but they did have an extra pilot, so Buck decided his self taught skills with the sextant and other matters would suffice to get them there. They also had an experimental "high altitude radar altimeter" which he used to tell if he was moving toward a low pressure or a high pressure system. Like this: Since they're flying over ocean, the radal altimeter Will indicate "true ASL". He compares that with what the pressure altimeter indicates. 30 minutes later, he does it again. The difference between the error tells him if he's flying towards a low or a high pressure region, and that tells him what the prevailing winds should be, since low pressure systems rotate in a CCW direction. This was used an a "confidence checker" to backup drift calculations made by other means, including sextant readings. That's pretty cool.
