In the post World War II years, the US Navy saw the need for a new, larger flying boat to patrol the seas of the world. Eventually, the perceived mission of this huge plane was expanded to include medi-vac, tanker, amphibious assult, passenger, and cargo duties. In the end, the main use of these flying boats was as tankers and ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) patrol.

After some "fits and starts", this new airplane, designated the Convair R3Y "Tradewind", took its first flight in 1950. There were only 11 examples of the type ever built. Persistent trouble with the Allison turboprop engines doomed the aircraft to a short service life lasting only four years, from 1954 to 1958.

Four Tradewinds were built as tankers, for air-to-air refueling. The jet fighters of the era had terribly thirsty engines, and needed to be refueled often. Many missions demanded that this be done enroute to a destination.

Whilst watching a television documentary, recorded from Speedvision, I noticed two odd white objects pacing a Tradewind tanker in the act of retracting its fuel hoses after filling up a flight of Navy F9F Cougar jets. Hisorical records dictate that this incident happended in 1956 or 1957.

These object persisted, flying along with the planes at THEIR SPEED. The film clip only lasted five seconds, so it was impossible to track the objects any longer than that. Also, they were not seen at the beginning, appearing at about the two second mark. The objects were fading in and out of visibility, and this clip being so short did not lend itself to the usual animated GIF. So, we have prepared three still frames for your inspection.