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63-626: The Yamaha R-MAX and its predecessor, the Yamaha R-50 , were developed in the 1990s in response to demand in the Japanese market for aerial agricultural spraying. Fixed-wing manned crop dusters had been in use in Japan for many years, but the small size of most Japanese farms meant that this method was inefficient. Manned helicopters were sometimes used for spraying, but were very expensive. The R-MAX allowed much more precise small-scale spraying, at

126-459: A combat zone was installed in Ba Queo, near Saigon , led by Warrant Officer Jack Inman. This enabled trustworthy communications to Hawaii, and thereby to Washington, D.C. From north to south, communicating across the varied landscapes of Vietnam presented a variety of challenges, from mountains to jungle. The answer came by utilizing the technology of "troposcatter". A radio signal beamed up into

189-603: A lower cost and lower risk than manned aircraft. The R-MAX was approved for operation in the United States by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2015. As of 2015, the R-MAX fleet has conducted over two million hours of flying time in agricultural roles and several other capacities, including aerial sensing, photography, academic research, and military applications. In the spring of 2000,

252-736: A more capable fleet as described in The Signal Corps: The Outcome (Mid-1943 Through 1945) : The first task was to obtain ships more suitable than the Harold or the Argosy . Such a ship was the freighterpassenger, FP-47, acquired by Signal Corps in March 1944, at Sydney. The Army had built her in the United States in 1942, a sturdy, wooden, diesel-driven vessel only 114 feet long, but broad, of 370 tons, intended for use in

315-566: A regular Signal Corps for the duration of the war. Some 2,900 officers and enlisted men served, although not at any single time, in the Civil War Signal Corps. Myer's Civil War innovations included an unsuccessful balloon experiment at First Bull Run , and, in response to McClellan's desire for a Signal Corps field telegraph train, an electric telegraph in the form of the Beardslee magnetoelectric telegraph machine . Even in

378-733: A seamless global information network that supports knowledge dominance for Army, joint and coalition operations. While serving as a medical officer in Texas in 1856, Albert James Myer proposed that the Army use his visual communications system, called aerial telegraphy (or "wig-wag"). When the Army adopted his system on 21 June 1860, the Signal Corps was born with Myer as the first and only Signal Officer. Major Myer first used his visual signaling system on active service in New Mexico during

441-1112: A single radio signal, increasing security and range and relieving frequency spectrum crowding. In December 1942, the War Department directed the Signal Corps General Development Laboratories and the Camp Evans Signal Lab to combine into the Signal Corps Ground Service (SCGS) with headquarters at Bradley Beach, New Jersey (Hotel Grossman). The Department also directed the Signal Corps Ground Service to cut total military and civilian personnel from 14,518 military and civilian personnel to 8,879 by August 1943. In June 1944, "Signees", former Italian prisoners of war , arrived at Fort Monmouth to perform housekeeping duties. A lieutenant colonel and 500 enlisted men became hospital, mess, and repair shop attendants, relieving American soldiers from these duties. One of

504-534: A spy ring still existed in the Signal Corps labs. At first, McCarthy conducted his hearings behind closed doors, but opened them to the public on 24 November 1953. Extensive Congressional hearings were continued in 1955 under the chairmanship of Senator John McClellan of Arkansas. In the 1950s the Army Pictorial Service produced a series of television programs called The Big Picture that were often aired on American television. The last episode

567-476: Is informally referred to as crop dusting , involves spraying crops with crop protection products from an agricultural aircraft . Planting certain types of seed are also included in aerial application. The specific spreading of fertilizer is also known as aerial topdressing in some countries. Many countries have severely limited aerial application of pesticides and other products because of environmental and public health hazards like spray drift ; most notably,

630-409: Is to say, a unit whose only mission is to provide communications links between the Army units in their area of operations and other signal nodes in further areas served by other signal units. Sending radio signals across the vast Pacific Ocean had always been unreliable. In August 1964, radio communications across the sea were given a huge boost in quality: The first satellite terminal ever installed in

693-563: The Army Air Service . During World War I. Chief Signal Officer George Owen Squier worked closely with private industry to perfect radio tubes while creating a major signal laboratory at Camp Alfred Vail ( Fort Monmouth ). Early radiotelephones developed by the Signal Corps were introduced into the European theater in 1918. While the new American voice radios were superior to the radiotelegraph sets, telephone and telegraph remained

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756-541: The Army Ground Forces and the Army Air Forces . The Army Chief Signal Officer (CSO) was responsible for establishing and maintaining communications service schools for officers and enlisted soldiers, ranging in qualifications from those holding doctorates to functional illiterates. The single pre-war Signal training site was Fort Monmouth , New Jersey. To keep up with the demand for more signallers,

819-723: The European Union banned it outright with a few highly restricted exceptions in 2009, effectively ending the practice in all member states. Agricultural aircraft are highly specialized, purpose-built aircraft. Today's agricultural aircraft are often powered by turbine engines of up to 1,500 shp (1,100 kW) and can carry as much as 800 US gallons (3,000 L) of crop protection product. Helicopters are sometimes used, and some aircraft serve double duty as water bombers in areas prone to wildfires . These aircraft are referred to as SEAT, or "single engine air tankers." The first known aerial application of agricultural materials

882-670: The European Union prohibited aerial spraying of pesticides with a few highly-restricted exceptions in article 9 of Directive 2009/128/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for Community action to achieve the sustainable use of pesticides , which effectively ended most aerial application in all member states and overseas territories. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provides guideline documents and hosts webinars about best practices for aerial application. In 2010,

945-1100: The SYNCOM satellite communications service, and a commercial fixed-station system known as the Integrated Wideband Communications System, the Southeast Asia link in the Defense Communications System . During the Korean War and Vietnam War the Signal Corps operated officer candidate schools initially at Fort Monmouth in 1950–1953, graduating 1,234 officers, and at Fort Gordon in 1965–1968, which produced 2,213 signal officers. (The World War II Signal OCS program at Fort Monmouth, from 1941–1946 graduated 21,033 Signal Corps officers.) Modern warfare utilizes three main sorts of signal soldiers. Some are assigned to specific military bases ("Base Ops"), and they are charged with installation, operation and maintenance of

1008-660: The Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA) formed a fleet, unofficially known as the "Catboat Flotilla" and formally as the CP fleet, that served as command and communication vessels during amphibious operations, starting with two Australian schooners Harold and Argosy Lemal acquired by the Army and converted during the first half of 1943 by Australian firms into communications ships with AWA radio sets built by Amalgamated Wireless of Australia installed. These initial vessels were joined by Geoanna , Volador and later by

1071-522: The Spanish–American War of 1898 and the subsequent Philippine Insurrection was on a grander scale than it had been in the Civil War. In addition to visual signaling, including heliograph , the corps supplied telephone and telegraph wire lines and cable communications, fostered the use of telephones in combat, employed combat photography , and renewed the use of balloons. Shortly after the war,

1134-455: The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Army Signal Corps ' research station at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio . Under the direction of McCook engineer Etienne Dormoy , a United States Army Air Service Curtiss JN4 Jenny piloted by John A. Macready was modified at McCook Field to spread lead arsenate to kill catalpa sphinx caterpillars at a catalpa farm near Troy, Ohio in

1197-554: The United States . The first test was considered highly successful. The first commercial cropdusting operations began in 1924 in Macon, Georgia by Huff-Daland Crop Dusting, which was co-founded by McCook Field test pilot Lt. Harold R. Harris. Use of insecticide and fungicide for crop dusting slowly spread in the Americas and, to a lesser extent, other nations in the 1930s. The name 'crop dusting' originated here, as actual dust

1260-677: The United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Major Albert J. Myer , and had an important role in the American Civil War . Over its history, it had the initial responsibility for portfolios and new technologies that were eventually transferred to other U.S. government entities. Such responsibilities included military intelligence , weather forecasting , and aviation . Support for

1323-644: The United States Forest Service collected public comments to use within a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), which was developed because the Montana Federal District Court ruled that aerial application of fire retardants during wildfires violated the Endangered Species Act. Signal Corps (United States Army) The United States Army Signal Corps ( USASC ) is a branch of

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1386-554: The University of California Berkeley , UC Davis and Virginia Tech have also used R-MAX units for research. In May 2014, Yamaha partnered with the American defense firm Northrop Grumman to produce the fully autonomous R-Bat variant of the R-MAX which they see having military and civilian applications. General characteristics Performance Avionics Aerial application Aerial application , or what

1449-718: The anti-aircraft artillery and guided missile firing systems. Following the arrest of the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg in 1950, two former Fort Monmouth scientists, Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant , defected to the Soviet Union. On 31 August 1953, having received word of possible subversive activities from Fort Monmouth's commanding general, Kirke B. Lawton, the Chairman of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), Senator Joseph McCarthy , suspected

1512-645: The early 1860s Navajo expedition . Using flags for daytime signaling and a torch at night, wigwag was tested in Civil War combat in June 1861 to direct the fire of a harbor battery at Fort Wool against the Confederate positions opposite Fort Monroe . For nearly three years, Myer was forced to rely on detailed personnel, although he envisioned a separate, trained professional military signal service. Myer's vision came true on 3 March 1863, when Congress authorized

1575-569: The transistor , Fort Monmouth scientists were among the first to recognize its importance, particularly in military applications, and did pioneer significant improvements in its composition and production. Everything was to change as world tensions increased with the Cold War and the Berlin Airlift . To sustain the Army's worldwide commitments, it again became necessary to enlarge the capacity of every activity on-post. In June 1950, with

1638-539: The 1930s, radar was the most important communications development of World War II. During World War I, women switchboard operators, known as the " Hello Girls ", were sworn into the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Despite the fact that they wore U.S. Army uniforms and were subject to Army regulations (Chief Operator Grace Banker received the Distinguished Service Medal ), they were not given honorable discharges but were considered "civilians" employed by

1701-539: The Aleutians. Instead she had sailed to Australia as a tug. The Signal Corps fitted her with Australian transmitters and receivers, also with an SCR-300 walkietalkie, two SCR-808's, and an SCR-608, plus power equipment, antennas, and, finally, quarters for the Signal Corps operators. The Australian sets were intended for long-range CW signals operating in the high frequencies; the SCRs were short-range VHF FM radios for use in

1764-500: The Army Pictorial Service (APS) to produce motion pictures for the training, indoctrination, and entertainment of the American forces and their Allies . The APS took over Kaufman Astoria Studios in 1942 and produced over 2,500 films during the war with over 1,000 redubbed in other languages. The Army left Astoria studios and film production in 1971. Julius Rosenberg worked for the Signal Corps Labs from 1940 to 1945. He

1827-559: The Army, with the rank of Colonel. To confuse things even more, the 6 officers and 100 men authorized for the Signal Corp were to be chosen from the Corps of Engineers. Thus the Signal Corps was officially born. The electric telegraph, in addition to visual signaling, became a Signal Corps responsibility in 1867. Within 12 years, the Signal Corps had constructed, and was maintaining and operating, some 4,000 miles of telegraph lines along

1890-498: The CSO opened more training facilities: Camp Crowder , Missouri; Camp Kohler , California; and Camp Murphy , Florida. The Eastern Signal Corps Training Center at Fort Monmouth consisted of an officers' school, an officer candidate school , an enlisted school and a basic training center at subpost Camp Wood. The officer candidate school operated from 1941 to 1946 and graduated 21,033 Signal Corps second lieutenants. The term " RADAR "

1953-661: The Civil War, the wigwag system, restricted to line-of-sight communications, was waning in the face of the electric telegraph. Initially, Myer used his office downtown in Washington, D.C. to house the Signal Corps School. When it was found to need additional space, he sought out other locations. First came Fort Greble , one of the Defenses of Washington during the Civil War, and when that proved inadequate, Myer chose Fort Whipple , on Arlington Heights overlooking

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2016-508: The FP-47 moved early in September, this one ship handled an average of 7,000 to 11,000 code groups a day. Many film industry personalities served in the Signal Corps, including Stan Lee , an American comic book writer, Tony Randall , the actor, and Jean Shepherd , radio storyteller, author and narrator of A Christmas Story . In 1942 General George C. Marshall ordered the creation of

2079-451: The Japanese government requested the use of an R-MAX to observe the eruption of Mount Usu , which had been dormant for 22 years, as close observation of the volcano was deemed too dangerous for manned helicopters. The R-MAX allowed scientific observers to spot and measure build-ups of volcanic ash which would have otherwise been missed, and improved the observers' ability to predict hazardous volcanic mudslides . Yamaha R-MAXs were used in

2142-550: The S-1. In 1957, The Grumman G-164 Ag-Cat was the first aircraft designed by a major company for agricultural aviation. Currently, the most common agricultural aircraft are the Air Tractor , Cessna Ag-wagon , Gippsland GA200 , Grumman Ag Cat , PZL-106 KRUK , M-18 Dromader , PAC Fletcher , Piper PA-36 Pawnee Brave , Embraer EMB 202 Ipanema , and Rockwell Thrush Commander , but multi-purpose helicopters are also used. Since

2205-719: The Signal Corps constructed the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System (WAMCATS) , also known as the Alaska Communications System (ACS), introducing the first wireless telegraph in the Western Hemisphere . In October 1903, Congress handed the then Chief Signal Officer Brigadier General Adolphus Greely what may be considered the supreme challenge. Accompanied by an appropriation of US$ 25,000 (equivalent to $ 0.85   million in 2023), it decreed that

2268-600: The Signal Corps participated in the First International Polar Year . One of the groups under the command of LT Adolphus Greely was to write another grueling chapter of suffering and extinction in the history of the Arctic. Greely's Signal Corps volunteers became separated from their base camp and were marooned on a huge ice floe. They were decimated by starvation and drowning; of the original 25 volunteers, only 7 survived. The Signal Corps' role in

2331-479: The Vietnam War caused an increasing need for more communications infrastructure. In the spring of 1966 the assorted Signal units were reassigned to the newly formed 1st Signal Brigade . By the close of 1968 this brigade consisted of six signal groups, and 22 signal battalions—roughly 23,000 soldiers. The first Vietnam War death on the battlefield was a Signal Corps radio operator, SP4 James Thomas Davis of

2394-421: The atmosphere is "bounced" back down to Earth with astonishingly good results, bypassing debilitating terrain. The Army had little experience with this technology, so they contracted the development of the systems to Page Engineering. In January 1962, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara approved the system of troposcatter units under the operational name of BACKPORCH. The escalation of the number of troops in

2457-412: The base communications infrastructure along with hired civilian contracted companies. Others are members of non-signal Army units, providing communications capability for those with other jobs to accomplish (e.g. infantry, medical, armor, etc.) in much the same way as, say, the unit supply sections, unit clerks, or chemical specialists. The third major sort of signaleer is one assigned to a signal unit. That

2520-627: The command and control of combined arms forces. Signal support includes network operations (information assurance, information dissemination management, and network management) and management of the electromagnetic spectrum. Signal support encompasses all aspects of designing, installing, data communications networks that employ single and multi-channel satellite, tropospheric scatter, terrestrial microwave, switching, messaging, video-teleconferencing, visual information, and other related systems. They integrate tactical, strategic and sustaining base communications, information processing and management systems into

2583-438: The country's western frontier. In 1870, the Signal Corps established a congressionally mandated national weather service . Within a decade, with the assistance of Lieutenant Adolphus Greely , Myer commanded a weather service of international acclaim until his death in 1880. The Weather Bureau became part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1891, while the corps retained responsibility for military meteorology. In 1881,

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2646-640: The defensive need to counter the possibility of massive aerial bombardment . In 1941, the laboratories at Fort Monmouth developed the SCR-300 , the first FM backpack radio. Its pioneering frequency modulation circuits provided front-line troops with reliable, static-free communications. The labs also fielded multichannel FM radio relay sets (e.g., AN/TRC-1) in the European Theater of Operations as early as 1943. Multichannel radio broadcasting allowed several channels of communications to be broadcast over

2709-442: The effects of aerial applications of pesticides and the chemicals' effects as they spread in the air. For example, the aerial application of mancozeb is likely a source of concern for pregnant women. Since the 1970s, multiple countries started to limit or ban the aerial application of pesticides, fertilizers , and other products out of environmental and public health concerns, in particular from spray drift. Most notably, in 2009,

2772-710: The enemy, and the resultant need to quickly locate and destroy the mortar sites resulted in development of the Mortar-Radar Locator AN/MPQ-3 and AN/MPQ-10 at the Communications Electronics Research and Development Engineering Center, better known as the Albert J. Myer Center, or simply, the Hexagon. Korea's terrain and road nets, along with the distance and speed with which communications were forced to travel, limited

2835-428: The fleet net and for ship-toshore channels. Armed with antiaircraft weapons and machine guns (served by 12 enlisted men of the Army ship and gun crews), navigated by a crew of 6 Army Transport Service officers and the 12 men already mentioned, the FP-47 was ready for service in June. Her Signal Corps complement consisted of one officer and 12 men. The facilities of FP-47 were needed immediately at Hollandia to supplement

2898-464: The heavily loaded signal nets that could hardly carry the message burden imposed by the invasion and the subsequent build-up there of a great base. Arriving on 25 June, she anchored offshore and ran cables to the message centers on land. Her powerful transmitters opened new channels to SWPA headquarters in Brisbane and to the advance headquarters still at Port Moresby. At Hollandia, and at Biak, to which

2961-599: The late 1990s, unmanned aerial vehicles have also been used for agricultural spraying. This phenomenon started in Japan and South Korea, where mountainous terrain and relatively small family-owned farms required lower-cost and higher-precision spraying. As of 2014 , the use of UAV crop dusters, such as the Yamaha R-MAX , is being expanded to the United States for use in spraying at vineyards. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences keeps track of relevant research. Historically, there has been concerns about

3024-557: The major technology of World War I. A pioneer in radar , Colonel William Blair , director of the Signal Corps laboratories at Fort Monmouth, patented the first Army radar demonstrated in May 1937. Even before the United States entered World War II, mass production of two radar sets, the SCR-268 and the SCR-270 , had begun. Along with the Signal Corps' tactical FM radio , also developed in

3087-441: The manufacture of electronic components, and made the United States largely independent of foreign imports for this critical mineral. In 1949 the first auto-assembly of printed circuits was invented. A technique for assembling electronic parts on a printed circuit board, developed by Fort Monmouth engineers, pioneered the development and fabrication of miniature circuits for both military and civilian use. Although they did not invent

3150-465: The military should "build a flying machine for war purposes". Needless to say, the first attempts at flying were failures, but Greely handed the contract to the Wright brothers who piloted the first aircraft at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. For more details on this topic, see Aeronautical Division, U.S. Signal Corps and Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps On 1 August 1907, an Aeronautical Division

3213-548: The military, because Army regulations specified the male gender. Not until 1978—the 60th anniversary of the end of World War I—did Congress approve veteran status/honorable discharges for the remaining "Hello Girls". When the War Department was reorganized on 9 March 1942, the Signal Corps became one of the technical services in the Services of Supply (later Army Service Forces ). Its organized components served both

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3276-638: The more unusual units of the Signal Corps were the Joint Assault Signal Company (JASCOs). These companies were Signal Corps units that were made up of several hundred Army , Air Corps , and United States Navy communications specialists specially trained to link land, sea and air operational elements. They saw combat throughout the Pacific and European theaters during World War II in late 1943. JASCOs were much larger than normal signal companies. The joint assault signal companies were

3339-523: The national capital. The size and location were outstanding. The school remained there for over 20 years and ultimately was renamed Fort Myer . Signal Corps detachments participated in campaigns fighting Native Americans in the west, such as the Powder River Expedition of 1865 . In July 1866, Congress decided that there should be a unit or at least a Cadre of Signal even in peace time. It thereupon provided: One Chief Signal Officer of

3402-625: The onset of the Korean War , President Harry S. Truman quickly received the necessary authorization to call the National Guard and Organized Reserves to 21 months of active duty. He also signed a bill extending the Selective Service Act until 9 July 1951. The Officer Candidate School was reestablished. The fighting in Korea brought to light the need for new techniques in the conduct of modern warfare. The use of mortars by

3465-494: The predecessor to the Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company that exists today. JASCOs represented but one of many unprecedented Signal Corps' activities in the Pacific theater. Shipboard fighting was a new kind of combat for Signal Corps soldiers. Army communicators sometimes plied their trade aboard Navy and civilian ships. Signal Corps personnel also served on Army communications ships. In particular

3528-604: The use of wire. The Signal Corps' VHF radio became the "backbone" of tactical communications throughout the war. The development of new equipment, however, placed requirements on the Signal Corps to provide increased numbers of trained electronics personnel to work in the fire control and guided missiles firing battery systems. To meet this need, Signal Corps Training Units—the 9614th and 9615th—were established at Aberdeen , Maryland and Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. These units provided instruction on electronics equipment used in

3591-456: The wake of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami to monitor radiation levels around the site of the Fukushima nuclear disaster from inside the "no-entry" zone. The R-MAX has been used by several universities worldwide for guidance and automatic control research. In 2002, Georgia Tech 's UAV Research Facility began using a Yamaha R-MAX for research into autonomous aerial guidance, navigation, and control systems. Carnegie Mellon University ,

3654-400: Was by John Chaytor, who in 1906 spread seed over a swamped valley floor in Wairoa , New Zealand, using a hot air balloon with mobile tethers. Aerial sowing of seed still continues to this day with cover crop applications and rice planting. The first known use of a heavier-than-air machine to disperse products occurred on August 3, 1921. Crop dusting was developed under the joint efforts of

3717-468: Was coined by the Navy in 1940 and agreed to by the Army in 1941. The first Signal Corps Field Manual on Aircraft Warning Service defined RADAR as "a term used to designate radio sets SCR ( Signal Corps Radio )-268 and SCR-270 and similar equipment". The SCR-268 and 270 were not radios at all, but were designated as such to keep their actual function secret . Although important offensive applications have since been developed, radar emerged historically from

3780-463: Was dismissed early in 1945 when it was learned he had been a member of the Communist Party USA secret apparatus , and had passed to the Soviet Union the secret of the proximity fuze . The Signal Corps' Project Diana , in 1946, successfully bounced radar signals off the moon, paving the way for space communications. In 1948 researchers at Fort Monmouth grew the first synthetically produced large quartz crystals. The crystals were able to be used in

3843-438: Was established within the Office of the Chief Signal Officer (OCSO). In 1908, on Fort Myer , Virginia, the Wright brothers made test flights of the Army's first airplane built to Signal Corps' specifications. Reflecting the need for an official pilot rating, War Department Bulletin No. 2, released on 24 February 1911, established a "Military Aviator" rating. Army aviation remained within the Signal Corps until 1918, when it became

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3906-558: Was produced in 1971. On 18 December 1958, with Air Force assistance, the Signal Corps launched its first communications satellite , Project SCORE , demonstrating the feasibility of worldwide communications in delayed and real-time mode by means of relatively simple active satellite relays. The Vietnam War's requirement for high-quality telephone and message circuits led to the Signal Corps' deployment of tropospheric-scatter radio links that could provide many circuits between locations more than 200 miles apart. Other developments included

3969-402: Was spread across the crops. Today, aerial applicators use liquid crop protection products in very small doses. Aerial topdressing is the aerial application of fertilisers over farmland using agricultural aircraft. It was developed in New Zealand in the 1940s and rapidly adopted elsewhere in the 1950s. In 1951, Leland Snow designed the first aircraft specifically built for aerial application,

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