RESCUE BEACON PINPOINTS CRASH VICTIMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-03300A001100010013-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 3, 2011
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: July 6, 1953
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP78-0330OA001100010013-3
Rescue Beacon Pinpoints Crash Victims
First U. S. details of operation of a
new radio rescue homing device to
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guide air rescue planes to personnel
lost in an ocean or untraveled land
area have been disclosed by Simmonds
1Inc., Tarrytown, N. . Y Y.,
Aerocessories,
A---'---
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Developed in England by Ultra
Electric, Ltd., the device consists of a
lightweight battery-operated radio bea-
con designed to be attached to life
rafts or May West flotation gear.
Homing equipment is carried in air or
sea search-and-rescue craft.
-Military Tests-The device has been
named Sarah, indicating initials of
search and rescue and homing (equip-
ment). Grumman Aircraft Engineering
Corp. has contracted for flight test of
the first sets Simmonds will make in
this country (AVIATION WEEK June 8,
p. 10). The device already has been
evaluated by Royal Air Force and dem-
onstrated for U. S. Air Force, Army
Field Forces and the Naval Air Test
Center.
The Sarah equipment was designed
to meet these requirements:
? Facilitate rapid, accurate search over
wide areas under all visibility condi-
tions.
? Provide positive, continuous direc-
tional information with constant or in-
creasing accuracy as the search plane
approaches wrecked personnel to pin-
point their location within a few feet.
- 66-Mile Range-Equipment carried
by the wrecked personnel includes the
beacon, weighing 6 oz. with folding
antenna; a 12-oz. speech modulator
and receiver for two-way communica-
tion between wrecked personnel and
plane, and a 32-oz. battery and 2-oz.
cable. Total unit weight is 31 lb.
Beacon transmits a coded 243 mega-
cycle pulse repeated in groups that may
be spaced to permit identification of
different downed personnel in the same
area. This is radiated from the folding
antenna, which when erected, transmits
an omni-directional radiation in the
horizontal plane and an inverted 30-
deg. cone pattern vertically.
Peak power output of approximately
16 watts provides a maximum range of
66 mi. to a rescue plane at 10,000-ft.
altitude and six mi. to a rescue ship,
if shipboard receiver antenna can be
elevated to a height of 30 to 40 ft.
Battery capacity is adequate for 20 hr.
of continuous operation.
At an altitude of 500 ft., the rescue
plane can get a fix on the beacon that
is accurate to within plus or minus 100
ft., adequate for pickup by helicopter
or surface craft.
- Voice Transmission-When the SURVIVOR switches to microphone . SENDS verbal directions to sighted plane.
DOWNED AT SEA, survivors in Mae Wests or on rafts signal search craft with Sarah.
HOMING UNIT and folding aerial are available with (left) or without speech modulator.
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP78-0330OA001100010013-3
 Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP78-0330OA001100010013-3
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Search thus would cover a band ap-
proximatel5 200 mi. wide on the course
taken by the down plane, using maxi-
mum expected ranges of 66 mi. with
a 16 mi. overlap at the center.
Canada Boosts F-86
Orders at Canadair
The Canadian government has placed
orders for approximately 200 additional
F-86 Sabre jet fighters with Canadair,
Ltd., Montreal.
Part of the contracts were in final
stages of negotiation when the U. S.
canceled Beech T-36 trainer orders, in-
cluding those placed with Canadair.
- RAF Sabres-One of the new Sabre
contracts covers 120 Avro Canada
Orenda-powered F-86s to replace a simi-
lar number of earlier planes diverted to
the USAF. The other contract is for
less than 100 General Electric J47-
powered Sabres, which will be sent to
Great Britain for use in the Royal Air
Force.
A previous order for 370 Sabres for
the RAF is being taken care of jointly
by the U. S. and Canada, with the for-
mer paying for J47 turbojets and the lat-
ter for airframes.
- Other U. S. Orders-Canadian aircraft
and parts plants still have U. S. con-
tracts totaling $80 million, according to
the authoritative Toronto Financial
Post.
These include $7 million in Beech
T-34 light trainers with Canadian Car &
Foundry, Ltd., Montreal, and a number
of L-20 Beaver liaison planes with de
Havilland Aircraft of Canada, Ltd.,
Toronto.
Other awards have been placed with
Sperry Gyroscope, Ltd., Montreal, for
instruments; Canadian Pratt & Whit-
ney, Montreal, for crankshafts and spare
parts, and with the Aluminum Co. of
Canada, Kingston, Ont., for aluminum
forgings.
RECEIVING gear weight totals 24 lb.
wrecked person is within visual or au-
dible range of rescue aircraft or ships,
he may transmit voice by operating a
three-position switch. However, peak
power is about one-fourth that of the
beacon mode and is only to be used
when ranges are very short.
Selector switch is designed to require
a definite effort to hold it in any posi-
tion except beacon; and it is returned
by spring force to that position as a
safeguard against depression for long
periods by confused or delirious
wrecked personnel.
When the switch is turned to re-
ceive, a small signal from the receiver
is sent on the beacon antenna, produc-
ing a display in the rescue craft show-
ing the downed personnel are ready to
receive voice instructions.
Current rescue receiving equipment
carried by search plane or ship includes
receiver, power pack, suitable. search and
homing and voice transmission antenna
and interconnecting cable.
A new subminiaturized design being
engineered will permit attachment of
powerpack to receiver, making up a
single unit. This will weigh 13 lb.,
compared to 24 lb. of present design.
- Effective Search-A cathode ray tube
receiver shows the search area, with
right and left antenna on the aircraft
arranged so that beacon indications ap-
pear on either side of a vertical refer-
ence trace on the tube, providing direc-
tional information.
Right and left antenna patterns are
inclined forward and overlap ahead,
providing means for homing on
beacon as the airplane descends t.
search altitude. Other aids are an auto-
matic scanning device and a strobo-
scopic control, which effectively shuts
out . all received signals except that
selected for viewing.
When an airplane flies over the bea-
con, the signal suddenly vanishes due
to the vertical radiation pattern of the
beacon antenna-thus giving a fix.
A search plane, flying at 10,000 ft.
and following the known bearing of
the wrecked aircraft, would fly a parallel
heading 50 mi. to one side of the
downed plane's course and then return
on the opposite bearing, flying 50 mi.
to the other side.
Talbott Pledges
USAF Will Be `Best'
Our Air Force "cannot and will not
be second best," AF Secretary Harold E.
Talbott has warned, because defeat is
the fate of the second position in war."
Addressing a dinner honoring Leon
Swirbul, president of Grumman Air-
craft Engineering Corp., Talbott
pledged that as long as he was head of
the Air Force the U. S. aviation industry
also would remain "best in the world."
"In my opinion," the Secretary said,
"it is only to air attack that Communist
Russia is vulnerable. Air alone offers
the capability for effective action against
the heart of the Soviet's war-making
capacity."
- Barrier to Attack-Therefore, he
AVIATION WEEK, July 6, 1953
Approved For Release 2011/05/03: CIA-RDP78-0330OA001100010013-3