Well i was watchin somethin the otherday an i was wornderin if they made a model of the suntracker if anybody knows of if they manufacture one or not pleas let me know
What is a suntracker?..What comes in mind is solar panels following the motion of the sun.
Yeah - just what is the Suntracker?
Web searches show lots of beach chairs, boats, and other items concerning programs that allow solar panels to track the sun…but not much that flies…
Hi Guys
Suntracker was a machine they put in a B29 to measure the heat of the sun at various altitudes. They would climb to 30+ thousand feet then dive to as low as possible. The suntracker is believed to be the forrunner of the sidewinders seeker head unit.
They had a show last week on undersea detectives, looking for the B29 that crashed carrying one, it went down in Lake Mead(?) in Nevada. Yes they found the B29 but not the Suntracker, they did talk to the scientist that was on board when it crashed though.
Saw that show, very interesting dive. Google only seems to bring up several links to that show. No pics I can find. You could try contacting John Hopkins University and see if they can offer any help.
If you do decide to do this watch the show again and note mainly the plexiglass bubble in the forward cockpit where the suntracker would have been located. The upper forward gun turret has the suntracker bubble located there in addition to having all of the turrets faired over. Im not sure if the scanners windows in the rear compartment were faired over either. This B-29 would also have Hamilton Standard props.
A Suntracker is…
The mission of the heliostat, or suntracker, is to capture the distinct radiative fingerprints of pollutants invisible to the human eye, including nitrogen oxides, which are precursors to acid rain, and ozone, a corrosive gas with documented adverse effects on vegetation and human health in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, an International Biosphere Reserve, and elsewhere.
from this website…
http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/insites/ins11-2.htm
Remember the time that this was 1948. The US had the bomb Russia detonated their first one in 1948. The mission of this plane was to search for ‘evidence’ of a Russian detonation.
This plane was flying over Nevada to calibrate the device to learn its limitations in order to better find evidence of a Soviet test detonation. Nevada is where the US military tested their own bombs. Thus the air would be thick with radioactive particles.
Get it.
There’s a B-29 in Lake Mead?
Converting a B-29 to suntracker would not be to hard just get an extra astrodome and use the monogram B-29 and cover all the turrets and your done. Considered doing it myself once but have it crashed at the bottom of Lake Mead.
The skies the limit,
V.A.
As I recall, this was a top secret project, so pictures of the device will probably be scarce…
Sounds like you’ll have to scratchbuild…and while you’re at it you ought to
throw in a microwave and a soda machine too…
Take care,
Tank