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[[image]]LANA ONE team, Cdr. Lake, Ltjg. Cowart bettered old work record by four minutes.

F3D coordinator to assist tankers and the the F4H coming in for a drink, and two WF's to act as auxiliary air intercept controllers and divert advisors in the event the transfer had been unsuccessful. To maintain an accurate signal for homing, one A4D at each refueling site set up a UHF  frequency to allow the F4H to get a relative bearing. The Radar Intercept Officer, in addition to the above, used his long range radar to initially pick up the targets as far out as 100 miles. 
The final link to the transcontinental set-up consisted of a hot-line telephone established from the West Coast at the Ontario Airport to the finish line at Navy New York. Coordinator for the overall project was Capt. "Butch" Satterfield, USN, of ComNavAirLant who located himself at Norad in Colorado Springs, Colo.
After a week of practice plug-ins over the first leg of the profile, the aircraft headed of their positions. The F4H's landed at Ontario, the tankers at their version support fields. All aircraft positions by Saturday afternoon, 20 May 1961 . The first possible run could take place on Sunday, if the weather conditions were favorable in temperature, upper winds and in cloud coverage, in that order. 
On Sunday morning at 0800 EDST, all parties were on the hot-line with Dali Lana at Colorado Springs. Weather reports from the already airborne pilots reported conditions favorable, however, balloon soundings indicated the upper temperatures were far above normal and almost precluded an attempt that day. The engineers on station in Colorado who worked profile on each given log advised that the profile looked good on the first run. On the second leg a loss of about two minutes was predicted and on the last leg to the finish kubem the loss was estimated at 12 minutes, with a possibility of 15 to 20 minutes. Weighing these calculations to the planned two hour and 38 minute flight, the figures 
[[image]]LANA TWO LCdr. Lamoreaux and Lt. Johnson eclipsed F-101 mark by ten minutes.
were too close to the present record to attempt a try. The flight was cancelled until the following morning. The planned flight of two hours and 38 minutes was worked out on a basis of a 25-knot tail wind from the west, with average temperatures and an average speed. With any favorable set of conditions, the profile could be executed in shorter time. 

On Monday morning, the hot-lines were activated at 0800 EDST again (0400 Pacific time), and the weather aircraft in each of the sectors involved were again airborne relaying their information to Colorado Springs. F3D's, F9F-8T's, A3D's airborne over Ontario, Albuquerque, St. Louis, Fort Wayne and New York, gave fair indications for a possible try. Finish line weather was marginal and becoming worse. Required at New York was 10,000 feet and five miles, and it appeared that the overcast would drop to 1000 feet about the time the race would be over. Another requirement of FAA was that the last aircraft had to arrive in New York no later than 1530 EDST. This made take-off quite early on the West Coast and allowed for a minimum of time in making the final "Go or No Go" decision. Again the flight was cancelled and conditions indicated the same for Tuesday morning. Tuesday showed the same conditions with a minor change in the Midwest. The Eastern leg upper temperature was at -47 degrees which was unacceptable to the planned profile. The prospects looked better for Wednesday, 24 May. Wednesday morning, reports again indicated some questionable areas but conditions were better than the previous two days. Further, the meteorologists were positive that another day's delay would result in bad weather at the altitudes to be used for the refueling. The balloon soundings over New Your showed an upper temperature of about -53 degrees for 35,000 and about -54.5 for 45-50,000. This was barely acceptable. The Pittsburgh soundings, which came in through New York for relay to Colorado, showed an isothermal layer from 40,000 to 50,000 of -60 degrees. This was the final clincher in providing Dali Lana with the execute signal. Lima (launch) time was set for LANA One as 1500 Zulu (1100 EDST).

All stations along the line were alerted, and aircraft were prepared for the historic race. In New Your, the timers were notified and called to their station. New York center flashed out a notam and radio announcements were passed to everyone within 80 miles to
[[image]] LANA FOUR team of LCdr. Spencer and LT. Wagner finished despite refueling problems.

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