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Historically Significant Space Artifact Seeking Good Home



Dear Archives List:

I am interested in donating to a suitable collection a unique artifact that
was given to me by the developer of the trapeze mid-air recovery system used
to snag re-entered space capsules descending under a parachute, as well as
other items.  (The system evolved from an early ground to air pickup system
developed to retrieve downed pilots in Southeast Asia during World War II
and Korea), which itself evolved from a glider pickup system developed by
the Delaware-based All American Engineering Co. in the 1930s.  The trapeze
based systems were extremely successful.

I wrote what I believe is the first unclassified paper on this subject
entitled "To Fall From Space" which was presented at an AIAA Aerospace
Conference several years ago.  Subsequently, as information on the Corona
satellite reconnaissance program was declassified during the past few years,
a couple of other papers have appeared on this topic.

The inventor, Harry, gave me the artifact for my paper presentation, but
sadly he died shortly after.

The artifact is a large brass multi-arm fishing hook approximately 8 inches
cubed which was one of three such hooks used on the edge of the trapeze used
to snag the space capsule reentry parachutes.  It is, ironically, an actual
fishing hook that was used as one of the recovery hooks for the second or
the third Discoverer (Corona) capsule recovered in the air, either
Discoverer 17 (launched 11/12/60) or Discoverer 18 (launched 12/07/60) --
only Harry knew for certain.

I would like to donate it to a suitable aeronautical- or aerospace-oriented
collection, in exchange for postage reimbursement if possible.  I can
provide limited provenance.  Please contact me privately if interested by
October 28th.

Michael Ravnitzky
mikerav@mindspring.com

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