The National Museum of the Civil Air Patrol

The Cold War Years

With the post-war boom in private, airline and military flying generating a record number of accidents, demand was high for CAP’s leading role in domestic air search and rescue.

War surplus aircraft helped jump-start post-war search operations. These hand-me-down wartime observation and liaison aircraft included military versions of the 65-hp Taylorcraft (L-2), Aeronca (L-3), and Piper Cub (L-4) plus the larger Stinson L-5.

The CAP fleet was bolstered by thousands of member-owned planes. Command organizations flew larger USAF and surplus aircraft including the Beech C-45 and Douglas C-47.

Beginning in 1952, the Air Force made its 85-90 hp Aeronca
L-16 post-war observation planes available to CAP. Initially flown in USAF inventory by CAP pilots, some 332 of these military Aeroncas were transferred to CAP ownership in 1956 and given FAA “N” numbers. Used for both search and cadet orientation flights, many a baby boomer today can reminisce about his or her first airplane flight in the L-16.

RADMON

CAP in Nevada and elsewhere were prepared for air sampling, both to help monitor Nevada A-Bomb tests in the 1950s and for Civil Defense roles in case of nuclear attack.

See-Center-Saw

In 1957 when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite, America panicked! Early efforts to track satellites involved a system of ground observers scanning the nighttime skies. Satellite passage was so fast – 20 seconds from horizon to overhead to horizon – that ground personnel could only radio their timing of these events as “See – Center – Saw.”

How to train for this? How to simulate the passage of a satellite overhead? Air Force jets flew too fast or too high, so CAP planes towed a low-wattage light bulb protected in a low-cost aerodynamic shape: a bathroom plunger! In the nighttime sky, the set-up was exactly as bright at 7,000 feet as an orbiting satellite in space.