Has there ever been an off-center gun?

From: (WaltBJ)

FWIW I understand the initial idea for the 'Puff' series gunships was
the technique of servicing missionary stations in the Amazon with
Piper Super Cubs by flying in a tight circle while lowering a bucket
on a rope. Due to aero drag on the rope the bucket lagged behind and
pivoted on the polar axis of the circle and the ground people could
remove their mail, etc, and place their outgoing mail and requests in
the bucket which was then hauled back up. The rotation was slow enough
to be no problem, and then the curvature of the rope reminded someone
of the trajectory of a gun so - voila!

There was a photograph in National Geographic where a man in the Amazon is
reaching up towards a can. He had either just released it or was reaching for
it. The aircraft that had lowered it was off in the distance in the same
photograph.

The particular article was printed in the mid 1960s. 1967 or so if memory
serves.

It amazes me I can't remember 24 hours ago yet I can remember 35 years ago.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired

This is wonderful. Can either of you or anybody point me to more
information about this service?

I realize there are only 12 issues of Geographic a year, but it would
help if I could narrow it down.

On 08 Dec 2003 06:06:09 GMT, (B2431) wrote:

FWIW I understand the initial idea for the 'Puff' series gunships was
the technique of servicing missionary stations in the Amazon with
Piper Super Cubs by flying in a tight circle while lowering a bucket
on a rope. Due to aero drag on the rope the bucket lagged behind and
pivoted on the polar axis of the circle and the ground people could
remove their mail, etc, and place their outgoing mail and requests in
the bucket which was then hauled back up. The rotation was slow enough
to be no problem, and then the curvature of the rope reminded someone
of the trajectory of a gun so - voila!

There was a photograph in National Geographic where a man in the Amazon is
reaching up towards a can. He had either just released it or was reaching for
it. The aircraft that had lowered it was off in the distance in the same
photograph.

The particular article was printed in the mid 1960s. 1967 or so if memory
serves.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 05:07:41 -0500, Cub Driver
wrote:


This is wonderful. Can either of you or anybody point me to more
information about this service?

I realize there are only 12 issues of Geographic a year, but it would
help if I could narrow it down.


I remember the same photo and I'm pretty sure it's a mid-'60s issue,
probably from 1965-1967.

The photo shows somebody either putting mail in or pulling mail out of
a bucket hanging on a rope, and you can see the aircraft that's
dropping the bucket flying at altitude in the background.

I did a lookup on NGS' pubs website at
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pu...s/explore.html
and got some possibilities:

keyword "Amazon" - Oct 1972 "Amazon--The River Sea"
Aug 1970 - "Colombia, from Amazon to Spanish
Main"
May 1964 - "Indians of the Amazon Darkness"
March 1959 - "Children of the Sun and Moon"
keyword "Colombia" May 1966 "Capturing Strange Creatures in Colombia"
Aug 1970 "Colombia, from Amazon to Spanish Main"
Feb 1966 "Flamboyant Is the Word for Bolivia"

There are many possibilities - try different keywords for various SA
countries and narrow down the results by date.

John Hairell )

Thanks, I'll look for it.

On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 11:35:02 -0500, John Hairell
wrote:

I remember the same photo and I'm pretty sure it's a mid-'60s issue,
probably from 1965-1967.

The photo shows somebody either putting mail in or pulling mail out of
a bucket hanging on a rope, and you can see the aircraft that's
dropping the bucket flying at altitude in the background.

I did a lookup on NGS' pubs website at
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pu...s/explore.html
and got some possibilities:

keyword "Amazon" - Oct 1972 "Amazon--The River Sea"
Aug 1970 - "Colombia, from Amazon to Spanish
Main"
May 1964 - "Indians of the Amazon Darkness"
March 1959 - "Children of the Sun and Moon"
keyword "Colombia" May 1966 "Capturing Strange Creatures in Colombia"
Aug 1970 "Colombia, from Amazon to Spanish Main"
Feb 1966 "Flamboyant Is the Word for Bolivia"

There are many possibilities - try different keywords for various SA
countries and narrow down the results by date.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

The mail/supplies in the bucket trick goes back farther than that. IIRC the
"bucket trick" was the inspiration for the AC-47 development for holding the
fire on the target in a steep banked turn.

In addition to the Amazon, the technique was used by missionaries in Borneo,
both sometime in the late twenties or early thirties.

Oxmoron1
Don't ask me where I read it,but it was a long time ago.

(OXMORON1) wrote:

The mail/supplies in the bucket trick goes back farther than that. IIRC the
"bucket trick" was the inspiration for the AC-47 development for holding the
fire on the target in a steep banked turn.

In addition to the Amazon, the technique was used by missionaries in Borneo,
both sometime in the late twenties or early thirties.

Oxmoron1
Don't ask me where I read it,but it was a long time ago.

As the legend goes, the missionaries discovered that by squaring
their groundspeed and dividing that figure by 15, they would arrive at
the proper "pivotal altitude" from which to fly circles allowing them
to lower a bucket of medicine and supplies to people on the ground.
Nowadays the maneuver is called Eights On Pylons.

On 08 Dec 2003 23:23:12 GMT, (OXMORON1) wrote:

The mail/supplies in the bucket trick goes back farther than that. IIRC the
"bucket trick" was the inspiration for the AC-47 development for holding the
fire on the target in a steep banked turn.

In addition to the Amazon, the technique was used by missionaries in Borneo,
both sometime in the late twenties or early thirties.


There's at least one on-line ref to a basket of eggs being delivered
this way in 1939, so it was probably done quite a few years before
that. I would think the technique grew out of all of the multiple
experimentations in the 1920s for dropping off air mail without
landing.

John Hairell )

"Cub Driver" wrote in message
...

This is wonderful. Can either of you or anybody point me to more
information about this service?

I realize there are only 12 issues of Geographic a year, but it would
help if I could narrow it down.

I've read about the same technique being used in Oz for back country
mail.

"B2431" wrote in message
...

It amazes me I can't remember 24 hours ago yet I can remember 35 years
ago.

Yet the rest of us are amazed when you make up things from 35 years ago,
Dan.

From: "Tarver Engineering"
Date: 12/8/2003 7:31 PM Central Standard Time
Message-id:


"B2431" wrote in message
...

It amazes me I can't remember 24 hours ago yet I can remember 35 years
ago.

Yet the rest of us are amazed when you make up things from 35 years ago,
Dan.

Tarver, I cited my source which is something you have never done.

Until you have something constructive to say go chew on a bowlful of rusty
double edged razorblades at let us grownups talk.

Dan, U. S. Air Force, retired