1 - The Black Vault

THE COMBAT TALON WEAPONS SYSTEM
Lt Alex Doster, was picked up by a Stinson aircraft
utilizing the All American Aviation system. 27
The USAAF continued to improve the capability,
and by early 1944 it had developed an airdrop
kit containing telescoping poles, a transfer line,
and a parachute harness to be worn by the person
being extracted. In February 1944 the first operational
use of the system came when a C-47 extracted
a glider from a remote location in Burma
and returned it to a base in India. For the remainder
of the war, the USAAF refrained from using
the All American Aviation system for extraction of
personnel, but records indicate that the British
did use it for that purpose. 28
After the war further development of the retrieval
system was discontinued. Not until the
Korean War was interest revived. In the summer
of 1951 a B-29 of the 580th ARCW conducted trials
at Eglin AFB, Florida, to determine if a large aircraft
could be used for pickups. Although proven
technically feasible, safety considerations of flying
such a large aircraft close to the ground resulted
in the program being dropped for the B-29. 29
In early 1952 the CIA renewed its interest in
the All American Aviation system. The agency was
attempting to establish a resistance network in
Manchuria with its proprietary airline CAT drop -
ping agents and supplies into Kirin Province by
way of C-47 transports. The rugged terrain found
in Manchuria favored an extraction system such
as the All American Aviation system over airland
exfiltration by way of an unprepared runway. By
the fall of 1952, CAT C-47 pilots were making
static pickups in Japan and successfully retrieved
aircraft mechanic Ronald E. Lewis during a training
pickup. With the system tested and operationally
ready, a CAT C-47 aircraft equipped with the
All American Aviation system departed Seoul City
Airport (K-16) on the evening of 29 November
1952 for a scheduled pickup of team members previously
inserted into Manchuria. Along with two
pilots there were two CIA officers on board—John
T. Downey and Richard G. Fecteau. A double
agent had compromised the team, and Chinese
gunners were waiting to ambush the CIA crew. On
initial approach in preparation for extraction of
the team, the C-47 was shot down, resulting in the
death of the two pilots and capture of the two CIA
officers by the Chinese. After two decades of imprisonment,
the two officers were eventually released
from Chinese prison—Fecteau in December
1971 and Downey in March 1973. 30
The All American Aviation system was adapted
by the USAF for C-47 use late in 1952. Building
on knowledge gained from the B-29 test the previous
year, B Flight, 6167th Operations Squadron,
operating out of K-16 near Seoul, Korea, was assigned
the extraction mission by Fifth AF. On two
occasions in 1953, B Flight attempted to perform
extractions utilizing the system. The first attempt
was aborted when the downed airman was captured
before the aircraft arrived in the pickup area. The
second attempt resulted in heavy damage to the
C-47 aircraft during the run-in for pickup. The mission
had to be canceled, and the aircraft limped
back to its home station without the survivor. 31
The system proved to be an operational failure
for pickup of downed airmen in a hostile environment.
All American Aviation did develop a successful
engagement system, however, in the late
1960s. The follow-on system enabled C-130-
equipped aircraft to snag satellite packages in
midair as they parachuted to earth from orbit.
Robert Edison Fulton Jr.
During a demonstration of the All American
Aviation system in London after World War II, a
young inventor named Robert Edison Fulton Jr. observed
the process and undoubtedly thought that he
could develop a better system. During the war Fulton
had developed a first-generation flight simula -
tor, but was unsuccessful in marketing the device
to the US military. There was little interest in
flight simulators at the time, with the consensus
that aviators could only gain necessary flying
skills in an actual airplane. Not to be dissuaded
by initial rejection, Fulton converted his flight
simulator to an aerial gunnery trainer, which he
called the Aerostructure. The device used film to
simulate aerial combat and provided instant feedback
when the operator successfully hit the target.
Fulton demonstrated the device in May 1942
to Comdr Luis de Florez, who was in the process
of establishing a special training division for the
US Navy. With de Florez’ support, Fulton was
provided developmental funds, and the Navy
eventually ordered 500 trainers at a cost of $6
million. In addition to the trainer, Fulton developed
a complete training system that he would
later acknowledge as his greatest contribution to
the war effort. The US Navy documented a quantum
improvement in air-to-air gunnery performance
by its new pilots as the Aerostructure became
the primary gunnery simulator for the Navy
utilizing Fulton’s training system. 32
With the success of the gunnery trainer, Fulton
was recognized within the US Navy as a man
who could identify a need and apply his unique
25