354 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1961 



about two orders of magnitude more heat energy would seem to be 

 required. 



FIRST FLIGHT FROM TAKEOFF TO LANDING BY INSTRUMENTS ALONE 



Though we were all disappointed, we were there, and the fog was 

 there, so I decided to make a real fog flight. The NY-2 was pushed 

 out of the hangar and warmed up. The ground radios were manned, 

 and the radio beacons were turned on. I taxied out to the middle of 

 the field and took off. Coming through the fog at about 500 feet and 

 making a wide swing, I came around into landing position. By the 

 time I landed 10 minutes after takeoff, the fog had started to lift. 



About this time Mr. Guggenheim, along with several other people, 

 arrived, and we decided to do an "official," under-the-hood flight. 

 I had just made a real flight in the fog and wanted to go alone, but 

 Mr. Guggenheim insisted that Ben Kelsey be taken along as safety 

 pilot. The fog had lifted considerably by this time, and he was 

 afraid there might be other aircraft in the vicinity. 



We both got into the airplane, and the hood over my cockpit was 

 closed. The engine was again warmed up and I taxied the airplane 

 out and turned into the takeoff direction on the radio beam. We took 

 off and flew west in a gradual climb. At about 1,000 feet the airplane 

 was leveled off and a 180° turn was made to the left. This course 

 was flown several miles and another 180° turn to the left was made. 

 The airplane was lined up on the left of the radio range located on 

 the west side of Mitchel Field, and a gradual descent started. I 

 leveled off at 200 feet above the ground and flew at this altitude 

 until the fan beacon on the east side of the airfield was passed. From 

 this point the airplane was flown into the ground, using the instru- 

 ment landing procedure previously developed. Actually, despite 

 previous practice, the final approach and landing were sloppy. This 

 entire flight was made under the hood in a completely covered cockpit 

 which had been carefully sealed to keep out all light. The flight, 

 from takeoff to landing, lasted 15 minutes. It was the first time an 

 airplane had been taken off, flown over a set course, and landed by 

 instruments alone. This was just 10 months and 3 weeks after the 

 first test flight of the NY-2. 



INDICATIONS FROM EARLY TESTING OF INSTRUMENTS 



The tests carried out thus far indicated, among other things, that 

 before all-weather flying would be practical, there was a need for — 



1. Better coordination between the long-range aural beam and the 

 short-range visual landing beam. 



2. Accurate measurement of distance along the landing beam. 



