Range Operations 



51 



Mr. Donald W. Stoner joined the Dahlgren Laboratory in 

 1935 and was closely associated with the range operations 

 for over 30 years. 



determine the range the bomb took. Out of this, information could be gained 

 that would tell how the bombsight was working, so far as the inherent errors in 

 the system were concerned, and also they could calibrate the bombs in terms of 

 aerodynamic performance. Different bombs all had a different ballistic 

 coefficient that was determined by these drops, so there was a lot of work on 

 calibration of bombs. 



Then there were experimental bombs that were brought down, and objects, 

 mines — all sorts of things to be dropped. Also during that period, the Navy was 

 developing some fuzes for bombs which were to be used against ships, and, of 

 course, they were primarily concerned with the ship's deck. The ship's deck that 

 you see looking down on the ship is normally the weather deck and is con- 

 structed of relatively thin steel on an armored ship — maybe not over V2 to 1 inch 

 thick. Then down under that is heavier steel which might be the armored deck 

 or you might go through one more deck before you get down to the real 



