[2] In 1935, Lt. Orville served as the meteorologist for the U.S. Navy's sole entry in the James Gordon Bennett International Balloon Race held in Warsaw, Poland.

The pilot was Lt. Raymond E. Tyler, an experienced airship man with a service record dating back to World War I.

[9] Project Cirrus was an attempt by the United States government in 1947 to modify a hurricane by seeding the clouds with silver iodide.

[10] On May 11, 1953, a Texas A&M University student observed some unusual cloud activity on a 10 cm radar system and recorded it with a picture.

[11] By 1958, Orville became an advocate for researching the use of weather control as a weapon, fearing that the Soviet Union may develop the technology before the U.S.[12] The final report of Orville's Advisory Committee on Weather Control, issued in January 1958 just a few months following the launch of Sputnik, stated that they believed the Soviets had already such a program in place.

During his career, Orville became notable for being the first person to advocate a national array of radar stations to monitor severe weather patterns.