Eastern Carolina Aviation Heritage Foundation

09/27/2024

History on September 26th in 1580, 1924, and 1996: an aviation history threefer

Good evening fellow ECAHF’ers,

Everyone loves a bargain. I got a BOGO at Harris Teeter here in Southern Pines yesterday on our favorite Greek yogurt and felt like I had scored a real deal! And today we have a three for the price of one history vignette!

Navigation is an integral skill and ability for aviators. “I’ve not lost. I’m just temporarily disoriented” is a common refrain (that I’ve used myself) amongst aviators who, like me, have been completely lost and hopelessly disoriented due to failing at the basic skill of navigation. But Sir Francis Drake had extraordinary success in navigation, even around the world.

According to History.com, “On September 26, 1580, English seaman Francis Drake returned to Plymouth, England, in the Golden Hind, becoming the first British navigator to sail the earth and accomplishing this almost two hundred years before a precise means of determining longitude was finally invented in 1762.

On December 13, 1577, Drake set out from England with five ships on a mission to raid Spanish holdings on the Pacific coast of the New World. After crossing the Atlantic, Drake abandoned two of his ships in South America and then sailed into the Straits of Magellan with the remaining three. A series of devastating storms besieged his expedition in the treacherous straits, wrecking one ship and forcing another to return to England. Only the Golden Hind reached the Pacific Ocean, but Drake continued undaunted up the western coast of South America, raiding Spanish settlements and capturing a rich Spanish treasure ship.

Drake then continued up the western coast of North America, searching for a possible northeast passage back to the Atlantic. Reaching as far north as present-day Washington before turning back, Drake paused near San Francisco Bay in June 1579 to repair his ship and prepare for a journey across the Pacific. Calling the land “Nova Albion,” Drake claimed the territory for Queen Elizabeth I.

In July, the expedition set off across the Pacific, visiting several islands before rounding Africa’s Cape of Good Hope and returning to the Atlantic Ocean. On September 26, 1580, the Golden Hind returned to Plymouth, England, bearing its rich captured treasure and valuable information about the world’s great oceans. In 1581, Queen Elizabeth I knighted Drake during a visit to his ship. The most renowned of the Elizabethan seamen, he later played a crucial role in the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The explorer died 1596 at the age of 56.

And it took another 344 years before the same feat was accomplished in the air. According to the National Air and Space Museum, “On April 6, 1924, eight U.S. Army Air Service pilots and mechanics in four airplanes left Seattle, Washington, to carry out the first circumnavigation of the globe by air. They completed the journey 175 days later on September 28, 1924 after making 74 stops and covering about 27,550 miles.

“The airplanes were named for American cities and carried a flight number: Seattle (1), Chicago (2), Boston (3), and New Orleans (4). They flew over the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans and encountered climatic extremes from arctic to tropical. Only the Chicago, flown by Lts. Lowell Smith and Leslie Arnold, and the New Orleans, flown by Lts. Erik Nelson and John Harding Jr., completed the entire journey.”

And by the way and not really a part of our threefer but worth mentioning from the perspective of considering how long it took to circumnavigate the globe on the surface of our Earth to doing it in the air and then how little time it took to circumnavigate the globe from space. It was only 37 years after the first flight around our “Pale Blue Dot” (as Carl Sagan described a photograph of Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from an unprecedented distance of approximately 6 billion miles away) on April 12, 1961, that Russian Lt. Yuri Gagarin became the first human to orbit Earth in Vostok 1.

And today in 1996, the third item in our threefer, according to History.com, “U.S. astronaut Shannon Lucid returned to Earth in the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis following six months in orbit aboard the Russian space station Mir.

“On March 23, 1996, Lucid transferred to Mir from the same space shuttle for a planned five-month stay. A biochemist, Lucid shared Mir with Russian cosmonauts Yuri Onufriyenko and Yuri Usachev and conducted scientific experiments during her stay. She was the first American woman to live in a space station.

“Beginning in August, her scheduled return to Earth was delayed by more than six weeks because of last-minute repairs to the booster rockets of Atlantis and then by a hurricane. Finally, on September 26, 1996, she returned to Earth aboard Atlantis, touching down at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Her 188-day sojourn aboard Mir set a new space endurance record for an American and a world endurance record for a woman.

According to Wikipedia, “Lucid retired from NASA to care for her husband Mike, who had dementia. He died on December 25, 2014. She later wrote about this experience in her book No Sugar Added: One Family's Saga of Dementia and Caretaking (2019).”

Onward and upward!

Kind regards,
Barry

09/25/2024

Barry Fetzer
ECAHF Historian

Good morning fellow ECAHF’ers. In doing just a little research about the numbers of flying deaths since the Wright Brothers, a post on the website Quora.com states, “According to this website: Airplane Crashes Since 1908, the total number of people killed in aviation accidents since early in aviation history is 105,479 as of sometime last year (posted six years ago). Most losses by airline: Aeroflot. Most losses by aircraft: DC3. War losses were not included.”

Another post states, “In the beginning, most everyone in aviation died. And sooner than later. So much so that the industry soon took up the motto of “Never again”.

Another post on Quora.com states, “As others have mentioned the data is inconsistent and you can’t really get a reliable number. However, consider this: there are likely more people flying these days, on any given day, than have died in the entire history of flight. Hundreds of thousands of people, maybe even millions, fly every day all around the world and make it to their destination safely. It really is the safest way to travel.”

And finally, another post states, “There have been about 40,000 fatalities since planes existed from 1902 to 2020. This is an estimate not exactly accurate. Governments didn’t track the data early-on.”

So, we may not actually know, and we may never know, how many people have died in aviation, even with AI scouring all the websites and data in the world. But we can accurately state that there have been many thousands killed since 1903, whatever that tragic number is. And that number doesn’t include the Greek myth of Icarus and Daedalus, where according to Wikipedia, “Daedalus created two sets of wings made of wax and feathers to escape from an island. He warned his son, Icarus, not to fly too close to the sun, as the wax would melt. Icarus ignored the warning and fell into the sea and drowned”.

Still, in balance I think, aviation history is comprised of more triumphs and successes, more victories and accomplishments than it is comprised of failures. Yet there is a great truism in the quote commonly attributed to Captain Alfred Gilmer Lamplugh, British Aviation Insurance Group, “Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.”

And perhaps this quote is no more strongly illustrated than in the tragic San Diego mishap on this day in 1978. History.com reminds us that 46 years ago today, “A Pacific Southwest Airlines jet collided in mid-air with a small Cessna over San Diego, killing 144 people on September 25, 1978. The wreckage of the planes fell into a populous neighborhood, doing extensive damage on the ground.

“David Lee Boswell and his instructor, Martin Kazy, were in the process of a flying lesson in a single-engine Cessna 172 on the morning of September 25, practicing approaches at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field airport. After two successful passes, Boswell aimed the Cessna toward the Montgomery Field airport northeast of San Diego.

“At the same time, Pacific Southwest Flight 182 was approaching San Diego. The jet, a Boeing 727, was carrying 135 passengers and crew members from Sacramento, after a stopover in Los Angeles. Though air-traffic controllers at Lindbergh had told Boswell to keep the Cessna below 3,500 feet altitude as it flew northeast, the Cessna did not comply and changed course without informing the controllers.

“The pilots of Flight 182 could see the Cessna clearly at 9 a.m., but soon lost sight of it and failed to inform the controllers. Meanwhile, the conflict-alert warning system began to flash at the air-traffic control center. However, because the alert system went off so frequently with false alarms, it was ignored. The controllers believed that the pilots of the 727 had the Cessna in view. Within a minute, the planes collided.

“The fuel in the 727 burst into a massive fireball upon impact. A witness on the ground reported that she saw her ‘apples and oranges bake on the trees.’ The planes nose-dived straight into San Diego’s North Park neighborhood, destroying 22 homes and killing seven people on the ground. All 135 people on the 727 were killed, as well as both of the Cessna’s pilots.”

Onward and upward!

09/12/2024

Barry Fetzer
ECAHF Historian

Good morning fellow ECAHF’ers. Ah, to be first in something. Many of us hope (perhaps hopelessly) to be first, especially in our youth. But few of us achieve that dream. Should we use the gifts with which we’ve been born and use them to the maximum extent possible is, perhaps, the most realistic dream we can, and should, have.

Dr. Jemison, though, did achieve the dream of being first.

According to History.com, “On September 12, 1992, Dr. Mae Jemison, a Peace Corps physician who dreamt about space travel from a young age, became the first African American woman to go into space. Jemison, 35 at the time of the launch, is one of seven astronauts on the eight-day flight aboard the space shuttle Endeavor on mission STS-47, which made 127 orbits around earth.

“‘You have as much right as anyone else to be in this world and to be in any profession you want,’ Jemison once said. ‘You don’t have to wait for permission.’

“During the space flight, Jemison was the science mission specialist who conducted experiments about factors like weightlessness, bone loss and motion sickness on both herself and fellow crew members. Jemison brought several personal mementos on the flight, including an Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority banner; an Organization of African Unity flag; and proclamations from the Chicago Public School system, where she grew up, and the DuSable Museum of African American History.

“Jemison—who entered NASA’s astronaut training program in 1987, as one of 15 from a pool of about 2,000 applicants—left NASA in 1993. Since then, she has taught at Dartmouth University and started the Jemison Group, Inc., a research company for advanced technologies. Jemison also started The Earth We Share, an international space camp for kids ages 12 to 16. In 1999, Jemison founded the BioSentient Corp., which uses medical technology to improve health and human performance. She is a frequent public speaker and promoter of STEM involvement for women and minorities.”

Onward and upward!

Dr. Jemison. Courtesy NASA

09/11/2024

Barry Fetzer
Historian

Good morning fellow ECAHF’ers. All of us older than 29 or 30 years old remember exactly where we were and what we were doing on this day 23 years ago. I was on active duty in the Marines and flying a Beechcraft KingAir simulator at McConnell AFB in Wichita, Kansas at the moment the first aircraft hit the north tower.

How about you?

History.com reminds us that, “At approximately 8:46 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors.

“Then, 17 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767—United Airlines Flight 175—appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about the 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under attack.

“The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. The 19 terrorists easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and boarded four flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming the ordinary commuter jets into guided missiles.

“As millions watched in horror the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington, D.C. and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:37 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building. All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.

“More than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New York took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The structural steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of 200 mph and a large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel. At 10:28 a.m., the other Trade Center tower collapsed. Close to 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including a staggering 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, many severe.

“Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane—United Flight 93—was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the phone that ‘I know we’re all going to die. There’s three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey.’ Another passenger—Todd Beamer—was heard saying ‘Are you guys ready? Let’s roll’ over an open line. Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were ‘Everyone’s running to first class. I’ve got to go. Bye.’”

“The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at 10:03 a.m. All 45 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known, but theories include the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, or one of several nuclear power plants along the eastern seaboard.”

But we should never forget that it was people who defined, and define, and will always define this event. What follows are just a couple of tidbits about the thousands of real people’s lives that define this day.

Again according to History.com, “On March 30, 2022, a firefighter working at Ground Zero found a bible fused to a piece of metal. The Bible was open to a page with fragments of the legible text reading “resist not evil: but whoseover shall smite thee on they right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

“On the morning of September 11, 66 year-old Robert Joseph Gschaar was working on the 92nd floor of the South Tower. At the time of the attack, he called his wife to let her know about the attack on the South Tower and reassured her that he would evacuate. Robert did not make it out the tower alive. A year after the attacks, his wallet and wedding ring were recovered. Inside his wallet was a $2 bill. Robert and his wife, Myrta, carried around $2 bills during their 11-year marriage to remind each other that they were ‘two of a kind’”.

Onward and upward! Teach our children. Never forget!

08/28/2024

Barry Fetzer
ECAHF Historian

Good morning fellow ECAHF’ers. Military airshows are vital for representative and open governments and militaries to show citizens how their tax dollars are being used. They give civilians a glimpse into military life and are recruiting tools. They encourage youth to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education and careers. They’re exciting and fun. Until they’re not.

Like many worthwhile endeavors, airshows also provide risk to the sponsors, actors, and spectators. While we can’t eliminate risk, we can mitigate it by good planning. Thirty-six years ago today, inadequate planning led to the world’s second most tragic airshow disasters at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

(Editor’s note: The Sknyliv Air Show held on July 27, 2002 near Lviv, Ukraine was the worst airshow disaster. According to https://aerocorner.com/blog/worst-air-show-disasters/, “a Sukhoi Su-27 piloted by a member of the Ukrainian Air Force crashed during an aerobatic stunt. 77 people were killed and 543 were injured, making it the deadliest air show accident in history.” A video of that airshow disaster can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL697AGVDoM&rco=1)

For this day in aviation history and according to History.com, “An air show at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany turned tragic on August 28, 1988 when three jets collided in mid-air and fell into the crowd. Sixty-nine of the 100,000 spectators died and hundreds more were injured.

“Toward the end of the NATO-sponsored show on August 28, Italy’s Frecce Tricolori team, flying Aermacchi MB 339 jets, began their routine. The team was led by Lieutenant Colonel Ivo Nutallari, who attempted a crossover move in which his plane passed very close to the other team jets. Nutallari miscalculated the daring move and his jet collided with the main group. Three of the jets exploded in mid-air, causing wreckage and jet fuel to rain down on the crowd. The three pilots died instantly, as did approximately 30 spectators. Even more people were seriously injured, many with critical burns. Over the course of the next two months, about 30 other victims died in hospitals because of their extensive burns.

“In the aftermath of the disaster, Germany banned public air shows for three years before once again allowing them once stricter safety measures were in place. Now planes must fly a designated distance away from the spectators and maneuvers may not be made in the direction of the crowd.”

According to Wikipedia, “The mid-air collision took place as the two heart-forming groups of aircraft passed each other and the heart-piercing aircraft hit them. One of the pilots finished the maneuver too early. The piercing aircraft crashed onto the runway and consequently both the fuselage and resulting fireball of aviation fuel tumbled into the spectator area, hitting the crowd and coming to rest against a refrigerated trailer being used to dispense ice cream to the various vendor booths in the area.

“At the same time, one of the damaged aircraft from the heart-forming group crashed into the emergency medical evacuation UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, injuring the helicopter's pilot, Captain Kim Strader. He died 20 days later, on Saturday, 17 September 1988, at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas from burns he suffered in the accident.

“The pilot of the aircraft that hit the helicopter ejected, but was killed as he hit the runway before his parachute opened. The third aircraft disintegrated in the collision and parts of it were strewn along the runway.

“After the crash, the remaining aircraft regrouped and landed at Sembach Air Base.

Scope
“Of the 31 people who died on impact, 28 had been hit by debris in the form of airplane parts, concertina wire, and items on the ground.[3] Sixteen of the fatalities occurred in the days and weeks after the disaster due to severe burns; the last was the burned and injured helicopter pilot. About 500 people had to seek hospital treatment following the event.

Criticism
“The disaster revealed serious shortcomings in the handling of large-scale medical emergencies by German civil and American military authorities. US military personnel did not immediately allow German ambulances onto the base, and the rescue work was generally hampered by a lack of efficiency and coordination. The rescue coordination center in Kaiserslautern was unaware of the disaster's scale as much as an hour after it occurred, even though several German medevac helicopters and ambulances had already arrived on site and left with patients. American helicopters and ambulances provided the quickest and largest means of evacuating burn victims, but lacked sufficient capacities for treating them, or had difficulty finding them. Further confusion was added by the American military's use of different standards for intravenous catheters from German paramedics. A single standard was codified in 1995, updated with a newer version in 2013 and an amendment to the current standard in 2017.”

Onward and upward!

The Midair. By osi.af.mil - https://www.osi.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2003058036/, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=72163356

08/27/2024

Smokey Bear is part of aviation history! Who doesn’t know about Smokey and his enduring message of fire safety? Smokey is one of the most successful marketing ideas of all time. And like most things, timing had a role in its success. And aviation had a role in Smokey’s success too. Read more history here..

Smokey Bear turned 80. He was flown from New Mexico as a cub to begin his long career. Good afternoon fellow ECAHF’ers. Who doesn’t know about Smokey and his enduring message of fire safety? Smokey is one of the most successful marketing ideas of all time. And like most things, timing had a role...

08/21/2024

Barry Fetzer
ECAHF Historian

Good morning, fellow ECAHF’ers. Way back a hundred and thirteen years ago on August 20, 1911 we were still using telegraph to communicate quickly. My how fast technology changes! If it changed so much, so quickly, between 1911 and then 1977, how fast will it change between now and just a decade from now?

Back on this day in 1911, according to History.com, “A dispatcher in the New York Times office sent a blazingly fast telegram around the world via commercial service. Exactly 66 years later, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sent a different kind of message—a phonograph record containing information about Earth for extraterrestrial beings—shooting into space aboard the unmanned spacecraft Voyager II.

“The Times decided to send its 1911 telegram in order to determine how fast a commercial message could be sent around the world by telegraph cable. The message, reading simply “This message sent around the world,” left the dispatch room on the 17th floor of the Times building in New York at 7 p.m. on August 20. After it traveled more than 28,000 miles, being relayed by 16 different operators, through San Francisco, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, Bombay, Malta, Lisbon and the Azores–among other locations–the reply was received by the same operator 16.5 minutes later. It was the fastest time achieved by a commercial cablegram since the opening of the Pacific cable in 1900 by the Commercial Cable Company.

And on the same day 66 years later, again according to History.com, “On August 20, 1977, a NASA rocket launched Voyager II, an unmanned 1,820-pound spacecraft, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was the first of two such crafts to be launched that year on a ‘Grand Tour’ of the outer planets, organized to coincide with a rare alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Aboard Voyager II was a 12-inch copper phonograph record called ‘Sounds of Earth.’ Intended as a kind of introductory time capsule, the record included greetings in 60 languages and scientific information about Earth and the human race, along with classical, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll music, nature sounds like thunder and surf, and recorded messages from President Jimmy Carter and other world leaders.

“The brainchild of astronomer Carl Sagan, the record was sent with Voyager II and its twin craft, Voyager I–launched just two weeks later–in the faint hope that it might one day be discovered by extraterrestrial creatures. The record was sealed in an aluminum jacket that would keep it intact for 1 billion years, along with instructions on how to play the record, with a cartridge and needle provided.

“More importantly, the two Voyager craft were designed to explore the outer solar system and send information and photographs of the distant planets to Earth. Over the next 12 years, the mission proved a smashing success. After both craft flew by Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager I went flying off towards the solar system’s edge while Voyager II visited Uranus and Neptune before sailing off to join its twin in the outer solar system.

“Thanks to the Voyager program, NASA scientists gained a wealth of information about the outer planets, including close-up photographs of Saturn’s seven rings; evidence of active geysers and volcanoes exploding on some of the four planets’ 22 moons; winds of more than 1,500 mph on Neptune; and measurements of the magnetic fields on Uranus and Neptune. The two craft were expected to send data until their plutonium-based power sources ran out. After that, they will continue to sail on through the galaxy for millions of years to come, barring some unexpected collision.”


A telegraph office. Courtesy of History.com.

08/16/2024

Check out our Summer Newsletter!

08/13/2024

What a terrific group of students and teachers from the Cherry Tree House! We are so glad you visited today and experienced aviation activities.

07/30/2024

What a great group at the 2024 Elementary School Engineering Camp!

07/29/2024

While few of us send letters anymore, we may still hear complaints about the cost of first-class postage going up. In fact, some of you may be unaware that the price for a first-class stamp just over a week ago on July 14, 2024 went from 68 to 73 cents. “Five cents?!?,” you might hear, “That’s highway robbery!”

But when you think about, getting a one-ounce letter across our great country from North Carolina to California in three to four days (usually…there are, of course, exceptions) for 73 cents is really quite the bargain. Especially if that one-ounce letter is going by air. Read more here: https://ecaviationheritage.com/aviation-history/

07/26/2024

Day 4 of Engineering Camp. LtCol Donlin and Guy Nelson were our guest speakers. Both shared their knowledge of drones with the camp.
The drone flying challenge was held later. What a great day!

07/24/2024

Day 3 of Engineering Camp working with drones. Awesome!

07/23/2024

Day 2 of Engineering Camp at the Havelock Tourist & Event Center!
What a great day for exploring and learning about the past!😊

07/16/2024

Barry Fetzer
ECAHF Historian

Good morning, fellow ECAHF’ers.

What were you doing and where were you in 1965? Some of us were kids (I was 12). Some of us weren’t even a glimmer in our old man’s eye. Some of us (like Jimmie) were adults, already making a difference in our world, in Jimmie’s case as a US Marine aviator.

In 1965, we hadn’t been to the moon yet, computers were rudimentary (certainly compared to today) and yet, somehow, we figured out how to design, build, launch and successfully explore Mars. Where and how will we be exploring in 2065?

According to History. com, “On July 15th in aviation history the unmanned spacecraft Mariner 4 passed over Mars at an altitude of 6,000 feet and sent back to Earth the first close-up images of the red planet.

“Launched in November 1964, Mariner 4 carried a television camera and six other science instruments to study Mars and interplanetary space within the solar system. Reaching Mars on July 14, 1965, the spacecraft began sending back television images of the planet just after midnight on July 15. The pictures–nearly 22 in all–revealed a vast, barren wasteland of craters and rust-colored sand, dismissing 19th-century suspicions that an advanced civilization might exist on the planet. “The canals that American astronomer Percival Lowell spied with his telescope in 1890 proved to be an optical illusion, but ancient natural waterways of some kind did seem to be evident in some regions of the planet.

“Once past Mars, Mariner 4 journeyed on to the far side of the sun before returning to the vicinity of Earth in 1967. Nearly out of power by then, communication with the spacecraft was terminated in December 1967.”

Onward and upward!

A rendering of Mariner 4. Courtesy NASA.