The Dart

A high performance aircraft is a marvel of complexity. At Mach 1, the speed of sound and beyond. Failure of any one of its components can mean disaster. We go all out to prevent mechanical failure. It takes a lot of doing. But complex as it is, an F-100 is as simple as bread pudding compared to the other half of the partnership. The man inside it. Preventing that kind of failure is my job. I'm Ernie Tedesco, flight surgeon. [Music] This is an instrument of flight. our most advanced aerial gunnery target known as the dart. It's the first so far that can stand the stress of supersonic flight. Our story is about the dart, about stress and supersonic flight, and most of all about two men, members of the United States Air Force Weapons School. [Music] The weak point today, the point where the searching fingers of stress would find a soft spot wasn't in the aircraft. It was here. Charlie, his name is a fine pilot and a good friend of mine. With 100 missions in Korea under his belt, he'd still circle today as the toughest one in his life. Come on. Come on, Ernie. Can't you hurry this up? Hurry it up, will you? Relax. Relax. You only take a physical once a year. Let's make it a good one. Sure. Sure. Okay. Button up. Who'd you hit? Oh, I got a caught in a revolving door. You wouldn't kid me, would you? I got to go. What are you doing now? Working on the new dot target. Huh? What's it supposed to do? Well, it's supersonic. If it works, we can train like actual combat. Teach firing from any position. Sounds pretty good. What about Ernie? I'm due permission in a half an hour. Maybe you better skip this. Why? Anything wrong? I wasn't talking about your physical. Something's easy. What is it? Nothing. You can help. Try me. Sorry. Okay. Thanks, Ernie. Hey, Charlie. Yeah. Watch out for those revolving doors here. [Music] Isn't Captain not going to be the first man to fire at the new dark target? Uh-huh. Who's going to fly a tow ship for him? Captain Benedict. Somebody had a great sense of humor putting those two together, [Applause] you know. Couldn't help hearing that, Lieutenant. What, sir? About Benedict or not? Oh, thought they were pretty good friends. Yes, sir. Then what do you mean by that crack? What crack, sir? All right, come on in. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Century target to century one zero. Are you reading me? Go ahead. Approaching gunnery range. Releasing the target now. Unreal. A full 1500 ft of cable. [Music] [Applause] To simulate a combat pass, make an overhead approach from my 12:00 Kai position. I know what the mission calls for. We already rebriefed it on the ground. Take it easy. I just wanted to make sure you had it right. This isn't the pass we make every day. You're rolling in too soon. I'll compensate. Look, you just fly the toll plane. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] You hit me, you dumb luck. Pull out of it. Pull out. seem to have lost all my boost. Both systems are out. Nice shooting. Bail out, Mike. Bail out. [Music] [Music] Look, I didn't ask for this, Benedict. The seal handed it to me and now I'm going to do my job. I told you all I know, Major. Did you? He came in high. Looked to me like he rolled in too soon. He opened up. Next thing I knew, my boost was gone. He missed his target by 1500 ft. He did. That's the length of the toll cable then. I guess that's what he did. That's all you can tell me, right? How much you That's the way it happened. Look out, you're one of the best gunners in the weapon school. That's why you were put on this project. But you missed your target by 1500 ft and hit the toll plane. I guess I must have. How can you possibly mistake an F100 for a target? Major, I told you five times. I had my sights. It was right in my sight. If you had it in your sights, you'd have hit it. Ah, you wouldn't have hit the toe plane. You'd have hit the target. Well, then the guns must have fall. The guns were checked out an hour ago. You're right on the button. The film shows you were aiming at the F100. But that's impossible. The film's still in the projector. Go look at it. Well, then I don't know. That's all I can tell you, Major. I don't know anymore. I'm sorry. Yeah, you're sorry. I'm sorry, too. We just traded a half a million dollar airplane for a hole in the ground, and everybody's sorry. Good night, Doc. Benedict. Well, bailout didn't hurt, Jenny. I'm not complaining. Look, I know it's none of my business. You're all right. Thanks for the check. [Music] Hey, don't rush off. Look, you shouldn't have flown today. Something was chewing on you. What was it? Thought we were friends. Ernie, you're the best friend I got. But you're not going to change what happened. I'm trying to help you, Charlie. Will you get that through your thick head? Now you've got to tell me what went on up there. You heard what I told him. There's more. You were wound up tighter than a watch spring. What's that got to do with it? Everything. You might have done something without knowing it. Like what? You mean I might have zeroed in on Mike? I don't know. But one thing you didn't do, you didn't goof bad enough to miss that target by 1500 ft. Ernie, you better stick to your stethoscope. [Music] Mike, wait a minute. Save it. Mike, I didn't mean it. It was an accident. Will you listen to me for pizza? [Music] Captain, something wrong, Captain? Uh, nothing, Lieutenant. I thought I might have left my cigarette lighter on the ship this morning. [Music] When Art went into this gunnery project, I checked him out. He's in top shape physically. Physically? Yeah. You mean there might be something wrong with him mentally? No. No. Well, Ernie, there's got to be some answer. Flying three, four missions a day, that's a pretty heavy schedule. You think that might have had something to do with what happened yesterday? I don't know. Talking about stress now, that's a pretty big subject. Well, I'm only interested in knowing whether or not it could have made him miss his target by 1500 ft. Now, you testify that he's 100% sound psychologically. Nope. Oh, nobody's 100% s psychologically, Willie. We're only beginning to learn what happens to a human being under the stress of flying a high performance airplane. And we do know a couple of things. One of them is that stress is cumulative. And what does that mean? It adds up like a bank balance. guy might be able to fly a half a dozen missions a day and still worry about his love life, but you pile a few more problems on him and then put him in a spot where he has to make a lightning decision at 800 knots might crack up. It doesn't mean he isn't sound psychologically. It only means he has his limits. We all do. Well, you mean he um might have had some uncontrollable impulse to shoot at Benedict's plane, a psychological thing? I don't know. Would I know? less than anyone else. Tenant measure talking. Sure, Doc. What's on your mind? Won't keep you long. What can I do for you? I asked you once. No. In my office this morning. I'd like you to tell me about Benedict or not. I thought you were a medical officer. Maybe this is a medical problem. Well, Lieutenant, now wait a minute, Doc. This is none of my business. And if you'll excuse me for saying so, sir, it's none of yours either. What happened between Odd and Captain Benedict is Lieutenant You want to testify at General Court Marshall? That's what it'll come to. You know, they'll put you on the stand, swear you in, and make you tell what you know. You tell me now. Maybe we can clean this up before it goes that far. This isn't going to help, you'll see. Hot's been spending a lot of time in Las Vegas. I know. There's a showgirl at one of the swank spots. [Music] I don't know, Major. How do you explain something like this? I was fond of him. How fun. Oh, Charlie and I went around together for a couple months. I guess I wasn't quite sure where we were headed, but it was a nice ride. You ever mentioned marriage? He used to kid about it sometimes. I used to wonder if he meant it. Charlie's a hard one to figure out. Up one day and down the next. Well, they've been working pretty hard at the base. Yes, I know. He was upset this morning. You got any idea why? You didn't tell him? No. Then I don't think I should. Mike Benedict picked you up at 9:00 last night. Took you on to town. Lieutenant Davis, half a dozen others saw you. It's all over the base. I don't want to get Charlie in trouble. Major, you see, I really love him. Miss Harvey, you can't get him into trouble. He's already in it up to his neck. I'm trying to help him. Now, shall we start with 9:00 last night? All right. You fought over a girl in Las Vegas last night. They find that out, they're going to have Charlie up for attempted murder on top of everything else. You said that. It doesn't seem to be sinking in. Well, what do you want me to do? Write it 500 times on the blackboard. You cut in on this girl. You fought with him the night before. I'm asking you, do you think Charlie was mad enough to try and shoot you down? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Was he planning to marry the girl? No. How should I know? Is it important? Is it important? Well, there's the same questions. First the investigating officer, now you. Why did you leave this in Williamson's hand? Because I happen to be Charlie O's friend. Well, maybe that's your trouble. Williamson just doing his job. All he wants is the truth. You stand for me, Major. Oh, yes. Odd. I'm just completing my report. I want your verification on that drawing. That's Benedict's plane, and that's yours. Well, let me look at it. Charlie. Oh, is that the report on Benedict's physical condition? His physical condition? There's nothing wrong, is there? Nah, just had to be turned in with the report. Oh, yeah. That's about the way it was. See you. What was that doing way up there? Well, they were experimenting with an over and ahead pass on the new dart target. He came straight down. Yeah. Isn't that uncomfortable? No. Not unless he has to push over like he did here. came in like this at a half roll headed down. This point he realized he was coming in ahead of his target. So about 700 knots he had to push back and that put him under a negative gravity force right there. Yeah, I guess it would. Let go of burst right here, too. What do you think of a pass like that, Will? Well, it's not a normal training pass, but we were experimenting with this new dark target simulating combat. Why something wrong, Doc? Puts the pilot under negative gravity conditions right there. You know much about negative gravity, Willie. Does anyone I want to show you some film that just came in from the school of aviation medicine at Randall. [Music] Section coming up illustrates what can happen under conditions of negative gravity. [Music] Turn around. [Music] Pretty [Music] extreme examples, aren't they? Sure. This is a whole new area for us. We don't know what sort of physical or psychological changes a man may suffer when in a negative G condition. Granted, how does that affect our case? What happened to Charlie Ike might have been a result of negative gravity. Might have been courts. Marshall was illegal proceedings. You need facts. Prove. How can I prove anything now? What is it? Of course. Pictures. We'll reenact the whole thing and make motion pictures of it. Well, what will that show? If I knew for sure, we wouldn't have to bother, would he? Well, who says that Benedict and Arat will reenact it? I'll vouch for art. You worry about Benedict. Now, you want the truth, don't you? Well, sure. Then let's make those pictures. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Approaching gunnery range. Head out your cable. Let's do it. Roger. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Remember now exactly like yesterday. Make your pass from 12:00 high slightly early like you did before. Want to if I talk to the major? Go ahead, Charlie. Remember this. It's important. You were coming straight down. Just before you reach firing range, you pulled over. Got that? Right, Ernie. [Applause] Try to pull the trigger the exact moment the targets in your sights. Roger. All right, make your approach. [Music] At this point, centrifugal force is pushing out up more than gravity is pulling him down. He's in a condition of negative gravity. [Music] [Applause] That does it. Let's go back and look at those pictures. [Music] The pictures you're about to see were taken without gun camera. The gun was fired when he was in a condition of negative gravity. Now, he thought he was aiming at the target. What he was actually aiming at, however, these pictures will show. Oh, yes. He uh carried no ammo with him today. [Music] That's what a had in his sights this morning when he thought he was zeroed in on the target. Bennett explained, "Are you trying to tell us that an experienced fighter pilot can miss a target by 1500 ft? body isn't used to negative g weightlessness. Gravity is the one thing every object on this earth is conditioned to. Take it away for even a few moments and some strange things happen. One of those things we're just beginning to learn is that you can't even trust your eye. In air medicine, that's known as spatial disorientation. $10 word for a lousy shot here. I'll be back in a moment to tell you more about Captain Hot was absolved of all blame in the accidental shooting. As a matter of fact, his experience was of service to those studying the problems of negative gravity, a subject of growing importance in modern flight. [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat.