[ARC5] 1940 Aircraft Radio Prices

[Gordon White]

    I have in front of me the original Army Signal Corps contract # 
1470-NY-41 for the SCR- 274-N, dated October 31, 1940.  (Fiscal years 
then began July 1st of the preceding calender year)
This contract was obviously adapted from the Navy contract for the 
GT/RBD series as there are any number of places in it where it is noted 
to change from Navy to Army nomenclature.

    This contract covers 1,500 sets of three receivers, three 
transmitters, modulator BC-456- A, racks, cabling, plugs, control units, 
etc.

    The face value of the contract was $3,960,997.50 or $2,640 per 
complete set of receivers, transmitters, control boxes, etc. Using 
current Bureau of Labor Statistics data, $2,640 in 1940 would equal 
$37,997 today.

    The price of a receiver, such as BC-453-A, less dynamotor, was $353, 
equal to $5,080 in 2007 dollars.  (This is more than I said the other 
day, calculating from a 1943 base.)  If a single receiver in 1940 was 
worth half of a current Ford automobile, well , today a single receiver 
for your Cessna or Beech is going to cost as much as a 2007 automobile.

    The BC-450-A and BC-496-A receiver control boxes cost the U.S. $66.  
The BC-456 modulators cost $223, the DM-33 dynamotors $73 each, the 
DM-32 dynamotors $47 each and the transmitters $205 each.

    In my estimation 30 years ago, these were very reasonable prices at 
the time.  This WAS state-of-the-art then. Other contemporary avionics 
equipment was costing a great deal more.  Keep in mind that the contract 
prices included a large number of government requirements, spares, 
packing for shipping to war zones, delivery to the Army in either New 
York or Philadelphia, etc. As anyone who has ever dealt with the U.S. 
Government knows, there are so many requirements that you need a lawyer 
to determine that you are complying with them all. A 1940 Ford was not 
even at the time, state-of-the-art.

    - Gordon White