[ARC5] Re: [Milsurplus] rare ARC-5s

[Gordon White]

I at one time had one of the crystal-controlled ARAs, a  BC-455 modified 
for the British blind landing system,  several RAV models,  a set of RAT 
and RAT-1 receivers and an R-20, R-21, R-22. Most of these went to the 
Smithsonian's Air & Space museum some 20 years ago. Regrettably, they 
have done little with them except put some of the more common stuff into 
restored aircraft. They were going to do a display, but have not gotten 
around to it. The above all turned up in various surplus channels, most 
notably the now-defunct Aircraft Radio Industries in Connecticut, that 
bought a lot of the stuff A.R.C. had to dispose of in settling the WW 
II  contracts. If A.R.C. had kept the stuff they'd have been charged  
the full price for it. By selling it (pennies on the dollar) they  1) 
got paid to produce it and  2) had to deduct from their settlement only 
the "surplus" value.

    "Radio Row" in downtown New York City was another great source, 
Dozens of surplus stores, now the site of "ground zero."

    There was a great deal of waste in the system, as manufacturers were 
required to scrap some very usable stuff, like the Merlin engines 
Packard threw in  scrap metal and melted down.  It was before my 
interest in AN/ARC-5, but in 1945-46 when I was 13 years old, there were 
some amazing bargains in surplus - like Norden bomb sights for $5.00 
(great optics. The analog mechanical computer was beautiful, but of no 
use I could think of.) There were very few jeeps in surplus, at least 
not in decent shape.  There were some smart folks who figured out 
civilian uses for a lot of military gear. Those were the days!

    Two of my race driver friends, both pilots, bought recon version 
P-38 fighters for less than the value of the tanks full of av gas, even 
at 25 cents a gallon. One of them yanked out the two Allisons to put in 
a world record race car.
  The other was rigged up with a seat in the nose.

- Gordon White