Sep 14 1977
From The Space Library
NASA reported that its Nimbus 6 had helped rescue from the Atlantic off Iceland a 2-man balloon crew attempting a transatlantic flight. The balloonists -Maxie Anderson, 44, and Ben Abruzzo, 47 were unharmed after an after-sunset pickup Sept. 12 by a USAF helicopter. They had lifted off Sept. 9 near Bedford, Mass., carrying a compact satellite-tracking unit giving out signals received by the satellite and relayed to GSFC, which plotted the balloon's location and forwarded it to the control center at Bedford. The balloon ran into a snowstorm that blew it off course and broke radio contact; it splashed down 1930km (1200mi) short of its target in France. The crew owned the balloon, gondola, and tracking equipment, the latter purchased from a commercial firm. GSFC bad cooperated earlier in search-and-rescue tests of the tracking unit. (NASA Release 77-190)
The Natl. Aeronautic Assn. announced it would present the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy for 1977 to Lt. Gen. (ret.) Ira C. Eaker, former chief of air staff and a central figure in U.S. military and civilian aviation. He would receive the trophy -a miniature silver replica of the original plane flown Dec. 7, 1903 -at the annual dinner Dec. 9 sponsored by the Aero Club of Washington.
Gen. Eaker had been commissioned lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1917 and received pilot. rating at the age of 21. After World War I, he and other Army flyers set world flying records including the first transcontinental flight using refueling, and a transcontinental blind flight on instruments in 1936. In 1942 he had led the first attack by Army bombers in Europe. He had retired from the USAF in 1947; since then, he had been an executive for Hughes Tool Co., Douglas Aircraft, and the U.S. Strategic Institute, and had set up a program to hire physically handicapped persons in the aircraft industry. (NAA newsletter Sept 14/77)
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