Major Ralph Royce and the First Pursuit Group's 1930 Arctic Patrol exercise

During the Fall of 1929, the higher authorities of the United States Army Air Corps, forerunner of the Army Air Forces and eventually of the United States Air Force, directed the First Pursuit Group to conduct a training exercise to test the capability of its men and aircraft to operate in cold winter weather. To simulate combat conditions, all aircraft were fitted with two .30 caliber machine guns, mounted within the fuselage directly in front of the pilot.1 This challenging exercise called for the pilots of the 1st Pursuit Group to endure severe weather conditions, for in the late 1920s, all single-seat Air Corps aircraft were open-cockpit aircraft, in which the pilots or other flying crew members were exposed to the wind and weather, protected only by their aircraft windscreens and the layers of clothing that they wore.