Simultaneously became apparent the critical necessity of airborne logistics via Brazil, Africa, and the Middle East in order to supply the USSR, China, and even Australia.
[1] In February 1942, Colonel Paul T. Cullen and Captain Elliott Roosevelt were ordered to conduct aerial photographic reconnaissance staging out of Accra in the Gold Coast (later Ghana).
He had briefed the Allies on his project during the Argentia (Atlantic Charter) summit in August 1941, and had specifically advocated for the African route while visiting Churchill in England.
[2] Under the aegis of the “special flight,” 1st Mapping Group, two Boeing B-17Bs were modified at United Airlines modification center, Cheyenne, to carry 6 K-17 cameras[3] in Trimetrogon configuration, and to fly at extreme altitudes and very long ranges.
[8] During April, long range missions were conducted over most of North Africa, obtaining imagery of the major French, Spanish, and Italian support points, notably railways, ports, and aerodromes.
By early May Major Roosevelt returned to the White House bringing back “18,000 plates” and “they photographed everything they went after.” His mother wrote to a friend, "Almost had to come down in the desert the last day.
[15] Project Rusty was a highly ambitious and, the loss of one aircraft notwithstanding, successful mapping operation which would presage future Allied long-range reconnaissance over denied territory.