Weather Spy

To ferret out the secrets of weather conditions behind enemy lines, the Air Force last week was busily briefing a subtle new kind of spy. Its name is the Grasshopper; its job is to parachute into enemy territory and report back by radio. When it goes into action, the Grasshopper looks for all the world like one of the intelligent mechanical monsters of an animated movie cartoon.

As soon as the Grasshopper hits the ground, it plunges into a flurry of activity. First, a small explosive charge goes off and cuts the automatic parachute loose (to keep the Grasshopper from being dragged by the wind). Then a pre-set timer sets off another explosion. Out pop three metal legs, and the Grasshopper rises to a standing position. Another explosion shoots out a thin, fishpole antenna and turns on the batteries. From then on, the Grasshopper is ready for duty.

At predetermined intervals, perhaps three hours apart, the Grasshopper sends out a series of coded radio signals. One of them identifies it to the monitoring station. Others give the temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, etc. in the spot where it is taking observations. The batteries that power the Grasshopper's radio enable it to transmit every three hours for more than 15 days. When the batteries start to run down, they send a special signal to warn the receiving operator that the Grasshopper is about to go off the air.

In practice, a single fast airplane could lay a line of Grasshoppers all across a thinly inhabited stretch of enemy territory. They would lie dormant for a while. Then, just before an important bombing mission was due to take off, they would rise on their folding legs, poke out their antennas, and tell the oncoming bombers what kind of weather to expect over the target.

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