BRYAN, Texas — Why did flying into hurricanes to collect scientific data start in Texas?
The short answer is -- it’s all thanks to a bet. In 1943 during World War II. British pilots were stationed in Bryan, Texas at the Bryan Army Airfield. According to reports, those English flyboys started making fun of their American counterparts for moving planes out of the way of a coming hurricane.
Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Duckworth got sick of the jokes so he bet the brits he could fly into that hurricane and return unharmed.
Duckworth took off with just a navigator on board. They headed south into the storm. Air traffic controllers in Houston told them to keep updating their position so they would know where to find their wreckage. But Duckworth and his navigator made it, flying through the rough outer bands and through the eye before turning back to Bryan Field.
Almost as soon as they landed, the field’s weather officer asked to be flown into the hurricane. Duckworth agreed and the men went back into the storm to collect scientific data. So immediately after making history by intentionally flying to a hurricane, Duckworth did it again and the idea of hurricane hunting was born.