Editing 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (section)

====Hurricane hunting====
Aerial reconnaissance of tropical storms first began in September 1935. In that year the [[United States Weather Bureau]] decentralized its hurricane warning system, which depended to a great extent on reports from ships at sea, opening three warning centers in [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]]; [[Jacksonville, Florida]]; and [[New Orleans, Louisiana]]. In August the Jacksonville center followed the progress of a developing hurricane east of the [[Bahamas]], determining that it would pass through the [[Straits of Florida]] and strike the north coast of [[Cuba]]. It contacted the Cuban weather service when ship information was no longer available, but track of the storm was lost when the Cubans observed no evidence of it. Acting on a report from a [[Pan American Airlines]] pilot, a weather observation flight was requested of the Cuban Army Air Corps and on 2 September 1935 its chief training pilot, American expatriate Capt. Leonard J. Povey, volunteered to locate the system. Although he was unable to penetrate the storm in his open-cockpit [[Curtiss F11C Goshawk|Curtiss Hawk II]] biplane, Povey provided information that indicated the hurricane was moving north into the [[Florida Keys]].<ref>[https://noaahrd.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/80th-anniversary-of-the-labor-day-hurricane-and-first-hurricane-reconnaissance/ "80th Anniversary of the Labor Day Hurricane and first hurricane reconnaissance"], NOAA Hurricane Research Division. Retrieved 6 September 2015.</ref> The destructiveness of the [[1935 Labor Day hurricane]] prompted Povey to recommend a regular aerial hurricane patrol.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=esI0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=r4UFAAAAIBAJ&pg=738%2C2516662 Cuba May Use Planes to Scout for Hurricanes], AP, Schenectady Gazette, 23 Sept. 1935, p. 7]</ref>{{efn|Leonard James Povey was born in 1904 in [[Nashua, New Hampshire]] and served in the [[United States Army Air Service]] from 1922 to 1925. Also a [[barnstorming|barnstormer]], he was recruited in 1934 by Col. [[Fulgencio Batista]] to reorganize the Cuban air force. Nicknamed "Upside-Down Povey", he is credited with inventing the [[Cuban Eight]] aerobatic maneuver in 1936 while flying a demonstration at an air show in Florida. In 1938 he returned to the United States to become a flight test inspector for the new Civil Aeronautics Authority (precursor to the FAA), and in 1941 became vice president of flying operations at the [[Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University|Embry-Riddle School of Aviation]]. During World War II he worked for [[Fairchild Aircraft]] developing training aircraft. ([http://www.utdallas.edu/library/specialcollections/hac/general/Povey.pdf Biography of Len Povey], University of Texas at Dallas).}}

The [[1943 Surprise Hurricane]], which struck [[Houston]] during World War II, marked the first intentional meteorological flight into a hurricane. That summer, British pilots being trained as instrument instructor pilots at [[Riverside Campus|Bryan Army Airfield]] heard that the school was evacuating its [[T-6 Texan|AT-6 Texan]] trainers in the face of the oncoming hurricane, and began teasing their instructors about the airworthiness of the aircraft. Instrument flying school commander [[United States Army Air Forces|USAAF]] [[Lieutenant Colonel (United States)|Lt. Col.]] [[Joseph Duckworth|Joseph B. Duckworth]], a former airline pilot with [[Eastern Airlines]] who had developed instrument procedures for the carrier, bet his RAF students that he could safely fly into the storm and return. On 27 July 1943 he took out one of the trainers with [[Lieutenant|2nd Lt]] Ralph M. O'Hair [[navigation|navigating]] and flew it straight into the eye of the storm. After he returned safely, the base's only weather officer, 1st Lt William H. Jones-Burdick, took over the navigator's seat and Duckworth flew into the storm (now over land) a second time, this time recording their observations and measuring temperatures within the storm.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Bob Sheets |author2=Jack Williams | title=Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth | publisher=Vintage| isbn= 0-375-70390-X| year=2001}}, pp. 98–100</ref><ref name="sfss">{{cite news|url=http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-first-hurricane-flight-20130725,0,7436751.story |title=First 'hurricane hunter' flight was made on a bet |last=Kaye |first=Ken |date=25 July 2013 |work=South Florida Sun-Sentinel |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130727163711/http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-first-hurricane-flight-20130725%2C0%2C7436751.story |archive-date=27 July 2013 |access-date=27 July 2013 }}</ref> The flights demonstrated that hurricane reconnaissance flights were feasible.<ref name="53fs">{{cite web|url=https://www.403wg.afrc.af.mil/About/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/192529/53rd-weather-reconnaissance-squadron-hurricane-hunters/|title=53d Weather Reconnaissance Squadron 'Hurricane Hunters' Fact Sheet|publisher=403rd Wing AFRC|access-date=2 September 2010}}</ref><ref name="noaa">{{cite web |author=Fincher, Lew |author2=Read, Bill | url= http://www.history.noaa.gov/stories_tales/surprise.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100527233542/http://www.history.noaa.gov/stories_tales/surprise.html |archive-date=2010-05-27 |title = The 1943 "Surprise" Hurricane| publisher =NOAA.gov| access-date=30 August 2010}}</ref>

24 days later, on 19 August 1943, the AAF weather station at [[Waller Air Force Base|Waller Field]], [[Trinidad]], recorded unusually low pressures and received a similar report from [[Beane Air Force Base|Beane Field]] on [[Saint Lucia]]. Together with a report of high winds to the east from a U.S. Navy aircraft landing at Naval Operating Base Trinidad, the data prompted the first weather reconnaissance mission to locate a previously unreported tropical disturbance, which was flown the next morning. The flight, made by a [[North American B-25 Mitchell|B-25 Mitchell]] medium bomber assigned to the [[25th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing|25th Bombardment Group]] (an anti-submarine unit at nearby [[Carlsen Air Force Base|Edinburgh Field]]), proceeded from Waller to [[Barbados]] and then due east at altitudes between {{convert|8000|and|600|ft|abbr=on}} into the heart of [[1943 Atlantic hurricane season#Hurricane Three|Hurricane III of 1943]]. Using standard navigational position fixes, the mission plotted observations inflight on a chart as they proceeded and transmitted them to Beane Field for relay to Waller and [[Borinquen Field]], [[Puerto Rico]].{{efn|The B-25, serial 43-5052, was flown by Capt. R.A. Field of the [[10th Bombardment Squadron]] and carried weather officers Major I.I. Porush, Captain J. R. Fleming, and 1st Lt. P.W. Allen. A second flight, similar to Duckworth's, took off from [[Antigua]] with weather officer Capt. C.H. MacDougall aboard and also observed the storm.}}<ref>Tannehill, pp. 92–93</ref>