| Following the September 11 attacks in New York, you will
remember that all civilian air traffic in the US and Canada was halted.
All planes en route to the US were diverted (mostly to Canada) and the
skies were clear for a number of days. At the time, commentators
talked about the event (empty skies) as being the first time this had ever
happened in North America. They were wrong. It was the fourth
time!
The first time was on September 10, 1960, between 1AM and 7 AM (CST).
NORAD (North American Air Defense Command) needed to test its
effectiveness in detecting Russian bombers approaching and crossing North
America. The US and Canada had been working for years to build
detection points throughout
 Canada.
There were three lines of detection, the Distant Early Warning or DEWLine,
the Mid-Canada Line and the Pinetree Line.
Operation Sky Shield II was a similar exercise on October 14, 1961
between 11 AM and 11 PM (CST). This time the airlines and a couple
of airports turned the inconvenience into a marketing effort. They
invited visitors to tour aircraft and terminals in LA, Washington and New
York OSS II was the largest of the exercises with some 1800 flying
6000 sorties. The attack scenario simulated attacks on 250 US
missile silos. For those12 hours hundred of aircraft and thousands
of passengers sat idle while B52 bombers from SAC and Vulcan bombers from
the UK attempted to penetrate the North American defenses.
The details of Operation Sky Shield (especially Sky Shield II) remained
secret until 1999. Prior to that time, the US and Canada had
delivered a line that the exercise was highly successful. When the
files became public it was obvious that not everything went as planned.
While all the SAC bombers were "discovered", seven of the eight British
Vulcans got to their targets and returned home unscathed. They flew
under the radar. I bet that the Russians would have like to have
known that!
Operation Sky Shield III, which happened on September 2, 1962 (1PM to
6:30 PM CST), was North America's first and so far only test of clearing
civilian air traffic at short notice in the event of a Soviet attack.
Hundreds of military aircraft were used to simulate normal civil traffic
levels and routes.
These exercises however were forgotten during the September 11 attacks
when a similar evacuation of North American airspace was required.
CHECK out this
video newsreel from 1961.
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