1 - The Black Vault

PRAETORIAN STARSHIP
Photo courtesy of John R. Lewis
Project 46 nose strain static test for a 15,000-pound
static load.
August four successful fends were completed using
the new six-man line and the larger P-46 balloons.
On the four test runs, the knives on the
aircraft’s fending lines cut the pickup line on a
single run, but the propellers made a second cut
that caused minor sheet-metal damage to the
left helicopter refueling pod. Additional test
missions were flown during the remainder of
August. During September tow tests of two-,
four-, and six-man packages were successfully
completed. The packages were stable, the lift
line could be reached to engage the parabomb,
and bringing the packages into the aircraft
posed no problems. 55
With the fending line and tow test complete,
the test engineers were ready for actual lift-line
engagements by the sky anchor. During the
week of 28 September to 4 October, three Project
46 sorties were completed. During the first
sortie the attempt to retrieve a six-man package
failed due to the inability of the sky-anchor cup
to rotate enough turns to lock in the lift line. On
the second sortie a standard two-man line could
not be picked up by the Project 46 sky anchor.
Before the third sortie, the sky anchor was replaced,
and the new sky anchor successfully retrieved
a standard two-man package. When a
heavier load was engaged, however, the sky anchor
failed again. A Fulton Company engineer
determined that the spring tension in the sky
anchor was not sufficient to overcome the force
exerted on the lift line at engagement and subsequently
decided to increase the spring tension
by 80 percent with a new spring. The new
spring was designated the 2X. 56
With the new spring manufactured and installed
in the sky anchor, three more Project 46
sorties were flown in November on the 15th, 22d,
and 23d. The 15 November sortie was terminated
early due to a nacelle overheat indication on one
engine. Heavy rains made the normally dry, hard
lake bed at Edwards AFB wet and soft, thus causing
a week’s delay before operations could resume.
During the last two sorties, 15 intercepts were attempted,
with one being fended after the pilot
missed the line with the Fulton yokes. Of the remaining
14 pickups, 11 were successful and three
were failures. The Fulton Company representative
determined from the test that, although the 2X
spring handled most sky-anchor engagements, a
heavier 4X spring was needed to ensure consistently
successful results. The 2X spring turned
only once in the first one-half second after engagement,
whereas the system required one and onehalf
turns in that time. The 4X spring was ordered,
and a January 1987 delivery date was
established to continue the tests. During the
course of the fall test, periodic meetings were held
at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and at Detachment
4, LAS Ontario, to keep track of progress
made in the Project 46 tests. As 1986 came to a
close, the test team felt that the effort was on
track and looked forward to completing the tests
in early 1987. 57 * * * * * *
Jahnke had moved mountains to keep his Combat
Talons operational in the Pacific. As had been
the case for the other two Talon squadrons, his
operations tempo had been extremely high, having
participated in annual SOF training events
and exercises in Korea, Thailand, the Philippines,
and throughout the Pacific area. To correct the
long-standing maintenance deficiencies experienced
since relocating to Clark AB, the squadron
was assigned an in-house maintenance organiza -
tion by midyear. Some of the personnel transferred
from the 374th Operational Maintenance
Squadron located at Clark AB, but the majority
came to the squadron from stateside locations. By
27 June personnel had arrived to form the nucleus
of the squadron’s dedicated maintenance
flight, and by year’s end 140 maintenance specialists
had been assigned to the special operations
squadron. 58
During most of 1986 the 1st SOS was plagued
with a lack of airframes, especially during the
third quarter of the year. Aircraft 62-1843 and
63-7785 were both in PDM at LAS Ontario, and
306