Mr. Wood,
I'm not sure if this is what
you're looking for, but we have a small collection of photos and a few reels of
(personal) footage shot by Cpl. Floyd E. Ross. Cpl. Ross was a
photographer attached to the 509th Composite Group (the group organized to drop
the A-bombs during the war). Our collection consists primarily of shots
taken by Ross during "off time" in Wendover Utah, and on Tinian
Island. His job with the 509th consisted of making motion pictures of
practice bombing runs and then transferring them to still shots frame by frame
for study of how the various bomb shapes fell in order to improve accuracy in
the high altitude bombing that the B-29 performed (the first pressurized
aircraft, it bombed from 30,000 ft.). All of the actual footage was highly
classified and everything he kept was reviewed and approved by censors. I
have no idea where the original footage of the test runs may be, you might check
the National Archives or the National Air and Space Museum. The 509th is
still in existence as an Air Force group so they may have more info at their
home base. (Unfortunately I don't know where that is, perhaps Peter A.
(researcer extrodinaire) Kurilecz will have a suggestion.)
I hope this run-on helps,
Tom Anderson; Collections
American Museum of Science and Energy 300 S. Tulane Oak Ridge, TN 37830 (865) 576-3228 (Voice), (865) 576-6024 (Fax)
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