Early History -13- 



This question was so important that it was brought by Suits to the 

 attention of Vice President R. E. Luebbe, general counsel of the Company. 

 It was recognized mat the possibility of liability for damage from cloud- 

 seeding experiments was a very worrisome hazard in this new form of 

 cloud experimentation. Since such a threat to the share owners' money 

 would not be balanced by any known gain to the Company's products or 

 business, there was great reluctance to incur risks of uncertain but 

 potentially great magnitude. 



It was considered particularly important for this reason that any 

 seeding experiments be conducted under government sponsorship. No 

 further seeding flights were made until such sponsorship was provided. 



A contract (W-36-039~sc-32427 req. EDG 21190) was finally re- 

 ceived from the Signal Corps covering "research study of cloud particles 

 and cloud modifications" beginning February 28, 1947. It covered cloud 

 modification by seeding, plus investigations of liquid water content, par- 

 ticle size, particle distribution, and "vertical rise of the cloud in respect 

 to the base." 



An important part of the contract was a subparagraph stating that 

 "the entire flight program shall be conducted by the government, using 

 exclusively government personnel and equipment, and shall be under the 

 exclusive direction and control of such government personnel." The Re- 

 search Laboratory immediately notified all those involved in the research 

 "that it is essential that all of the G„E, employees who are working on this 

 project refrain from asserting any control or direction over the flight pro- 

 gram. The G. E. Research Laboratory responsibility is confined strictly 

 to laboratory work and reports." 



Although the contract was a Signal Corps contract, the project actu- 

 ally had joint sponsorship by the U. S. Army Signal Corps and the Office of 

 Naval Research, with the close -cooperation of the U„ S. Air Force, which 

 furnished airplanes and the associated personnel. 



The title of Project Cirrus was not applied immediately. It went into 

 effect officially on August 25 of that year. 



