After Mao’s communists took control of mainland China in 1949, the CIA developed a partnership with the nationalist Chinese government on Taiwan.
The B-17 was subsequently fitted with the Fulton Skyhook and flown in Operation Coldfeet, when it dropped and then extracted two Americans who investigated an ice station that the Soviet Union had abandoned in the Arctic.
Project Coldfeet showcased the Fulton Skyhook's real-world guts in 1962, when CIA agents parachuted onto a crumbling Soviet ice station in the Arctic Ocean to snag intel on submarine detection tech.
Lt. Leonard LeSchack and Major James Smith HALO-dropped from a modified B-17 onto abandoned NP-8 station, grabbing acoustic gear, documents, and bio samples revealing Soviet under-ice sonar advances and anti-submarine tricks—gold for U.S. Navy planners.
After seven freezing days dodging pressure ridges, the B-17 returned: first snagged 170 lbs of Soviet equipment, then LeSchack, finally Smith in three hair-raising extractions at 125 mph over cracking ice. No landings needed, pure Skyhook wizardry that proved agents could raid and vanish from the frozen frontier.
Lt. Leonard LeSchack and Major James Smith HALO-dropped from a modified B-17 onto abandoned NP-8 station, grabbing acoustic gear, documents, and bio samples revealing Soviet under-ice sonar advances and anti-submarine tricks—gold for U.S. Navy planners.
After seven freezing days dodging pressure ridges, the B-17 returned: first snagged 170 lbs of Soviet equipment, then LeSchack, finally Smith in three hair-raising extractions at 125 mph over cracking ice. No landings needed, pure Skyhook wizardry that proved agents could raid and vanish from the frozen frontier.
The same B-17 became a movie star when the Skyhook was used to pick up James Bond and his girlfriend at the end of the film ‘Thunderball.’
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