On the evening of the ball I struggled into my costume with a great deal of help from Glyn. My body, from shoulder to knee, fit into a long rectangular box, similar to the ones the airlines now use to encase garment bags. Another box, a one-foot cube, with a large funnel on top and a smaller one on the front for a nose, went over my head. My arms and legs were wrapped in heavy aluminum foil, and my shoes and gloves were painted silver. On the back of the box on my head, Glyn wrote in red nail polish, "My wife made me wear it!" We ran into a problem immediately — I was not able to get into the car. I had to remove my head and body boxes, put them on the backseat, and climb gingerly into the front seat, trying to disturb the foil wrappings as little as possible.
Glyn kindly let me out at the side of the officer's club, and while she parked the car, I took my boxes behind some bushes and donned them once more. Carrying my axe, I emerged from the bushes, whereupon, because of my limited peripheral vision, I bumped into a man who was cutting through the open area next to the club. He sprang back and emitted something between a gasp and a scream. When I apologized, he said, "You scared me half to death, and I'm not afraid of anything." I judged from the smell of his breath that he was as well oiled as the original Tin Man, only with a different lubricant.
Glyn joined me, and we entered the club together. We met Don and Fran Dessert in the entrance, and right away I knew it was going to be a long evening. When Don finally stopped laughing, he blew cigarette smoke into my nose funnel and said, "Are you really in there, Lope?" As I was not able to sit down, I spent much of the evening standing against the wall drawing curious stares, raucous remarks, several more visits by Don and various squadron mates, and a bit more smoke. I could not drink anything until Glyn brought a Coke with a bent straw that would reach my mouth. I tried to dance a few times without a lot of success, but then I was not much of a dancer, even unboxed. I was standing for more than four hours, something that is especially difficult for fighter pilots, who even fight sitting down.
Finally, at midnight, the contest for best costumes got under way. After we all marched by the judges' table a few times, they announced the winners. Glyn's inspiration and labor and my ordeal had not been in vain. I won first prize for men's costume and the prize for best overall costume (overalls would have been more comfortable). Both prizes were twenty-dollar bills, which we used to begin a collection of Russell Wright pottery.
Meanwhile, the squadron had begun conducting tests with the F-84D, a much improved version of the earlier models. As part of the operational suitability testing, there was an extensive evaluation of the use of JATO (jet-assisted takeoff, sometimes more accurately called RATO, for rocket-assisted takeoff) on F-84s to allow takeoffs with heavier loads from shorter runways. Two JATO units, solid-fuel rockets providing 1,000 pounds of thrust each, were mounted below the fuselage just aft of the wing, one on each side. They were ignited together by activation of a cockpit switch and burned out in approximately fourteen seconds. The object of these tests was to determine the optimum point of firing in the takeoff run at various gross weights. Firing too late minimizes the effect of the JATO in reducing the takeoff roll, but firing too early can leave the airplane in a dangerous nose-up attitude at too low an airspeed.
For me, by far the most exciting part of a JATO takeoff was not when the rockets ignited, but when they burned out. The pilot must climb more steeply after liftoff than would be possible without JATO to ensure clearing obstacles at the end of the runway. If the pilot doesn't keep track of the burn time and lower the nose at thirteen seconds, the expression "Up the creek without a paddle" applies quite well to the situation, except in this case the canoe has about 800 gallons of flammable fuel on board.
We determined that the units should be fired so that one half of the burn occurred before liftoff and one half after. Applying this rule meant firing them at speeds ranging from 85 mph with no external loads up to 135 mph with the maximum load. With full fuel and ammunition, eight 5-inch rockets, and two 500-pound bombs, the takeoff distance was reduced from 5,500 feet for a maximum performance takeoff without JATO to 4,200 feet with JATO.
Before we leave the subject of JATO let me relate an incident at one of our firepower demonstrations. After the morning demonstration at Range 52 the dignitaries were transported to the officer's beach club for lunch followed by some additional events. One of these was a water landing and JATO takeoff by a Grumman SA-16 Albatross amphibian flying boat flown by Capt. Pete Branch, its test officer. The Gulf was rather rough that day, but Pete made a good landing and, after taxiing into position, started his takeoff run. At the proper time in the run the nose came up, the airplane bounced off a wave into the air, and slammed back into the water, nose high, with a tremendous splash. Then out of the splash the Albatross emerged in a steep climb with the JATO burning. It was a spectacular sight; the Albatross looked like a submarine-launched Polaris missile emerging from the deep. Later, Pete told us that just as he pulled back the wheel to start the climb and reached for the JATO switches on the cockpit ceiling, the plane hit a large wave, causing him to miss the switches. As soon as he hit the water he tried again and succeeded. We told him that it looked so good he should make it part of his act in future demonstrations, but he wisely demurred.
The deficiencies (a mild word for wing failure) encountered on the tests of the earlier models of the F-84 had supposedly been corrected in the D model. The major modification was the installation of a stronger wing. The test program for the F-84D was wide-ranging, as evidenced by the following excerpt taken from the Headquarters USAF directive authorizing the test: "This test should include an evaluation of the aircraft with respect to dive-bombing, ground strafing, aerial gunnery, range (both as a dive bomber and escort fighter), and instrument, night and formation flying. Also, the ease with which maintenance and inspection can be accomplished."
Three production F-84Ds were used for the tests along with seven J35-A-13 engines, five of which had been provided by Republic Aviation and which produced 200–300 pounds more thrust than the average production engines. This attempt to influence the test results did not have the intended effect. During the interceptor phase, actual intercepts of B-29s and of F-80s (simulating jet bombers) were run in the same manner as during Project Highball. The F-84 was scrambled from a position next to the active runway. Times were recorded from scramble signal to start of takeoff roll, to achieving best climb speed at sea level, to reaching target altitude, and to reaching best operating speed for the attack. The target aircraft flew missions at 5,000-foot increments from 20,000 to 40,000 feet. We immediately found that the ground radar was unable to paint (track) the F-84D, so the tests were delayed until a transponder beacon (AN/APN-19) could be installed on one F-84D, On the 40,000-foot mission the tail-pipe temperature exceeded the upper limit above 35,000 feet at 100 percent rpm. To remain within limits it was necessary to reduce the rpm, which materially reduced the climb and acceleration of the aircraft. Later it was discovered that this problem existed only in the higher-thrust engines.
The average time from scramble signal to start of takeoff roll was one minute and thirty seconds, and the time from start of takeoff roll to best climbing speed was one minute and fifteen seconds. The total time from scramble signal to 40,000 feet was twenty-three minutes, during which the interceptor covered 122 miles. (Today, an F-16 can climb to 40,000 feet in a small fraction of that time.) It was noted that improper pilot technique in holding the recommended best climbing speed at each altitude, which decreases from 370 mph at sea level to 235 mph at 40,000 feet, and failure to transition smoothly between these speeds can add three to four minutes to the climb. Also, on the return leg, descents for maximum range with minimum fuel consumption should be flown at 0.8 Mach, descending at 3,000 feet per minute. Later, shorter times to climb to 40,000 feet were achieved by leveling out at 35,000 feet, accelerating to maximum speed, and zooming to 40,000 feet.