ww 2 south pacific typhoon / storm chasers

[tom d. friedman]

read an interesting obituary in the newspaper re: a guy named william b. foster........ among his credentials as a cia spy, he was a ww 2 aerological engineer, today's equilvalant to a meteorologist. his obituary mentioned he flew through typhoons / hurricanes in that region during the war for research purposes. i've known that the usaf has conducted research such as this for decades out of keesler airforce base, biloxi, mississippi since the war. what i'm not aware of is the fact that these experiments took place at all. if so, where in the pacific?? what aircraft were used?? results achieved?? all was done under authority of the u.s. navy. somebody enlighten me on a little known & refreshing trivia fact!

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

They used to fly from Guam as Typhoon hunters until satelites replaced them in the 60s

[tom d. friedman]

interesting fact, but that is post war, & guam was occupied by the enemy during the war. so it has to be elsewhere in the region. & what aircraft were used??

[Tim Landers]

Here is some interesting info.
http://home.att.net/~sallyann4/robison-col.html

Tim

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

Try Ed Hoydt's book " The Typhoon that stopped a War" or "Halsey's Typhoon" By HC Adamson.

[tom d. friedman]

thanks guys!!

[ACarey]

The Navy also flew hurricane hunter missions using the P4Y-2 Privateer.

[Dave Homewood]

Not on the same topic but this relates to WWII Pacific and weather, did you know development was done here in NZ to attempt to create a bomb that would make a man-made tsunami?

For more, go here
http://www.arc.govt.nz/arc/index.cfm?33 ... B8C980C283

And click on How To Dismantle a Tsunami Bomb for the article

[tom d. friedman]

sounds like some thing out of a james bond movie!!! but fascinating!! any details??

[TimAPNY]

The Navy also flew hurricane hunter missions using the P4Y-2 Privateer.

I bet that was a wet ride. Talk about a Massive set of ...

Tim

[Originalboxcar]

While on the topic of wartime typhoons, this is what a typhoon did to the USS Pittsburght that sailed with our combat fleet in June '45



regards,

t~

[tom d. friedman]

amazing it's afloat minus the bow!! looks like it was attacked by a bath tub godzilla!!!