[ARC5] Re: [Milsurplus] AM-26/AIC and A.R.C. type connectors

[Mike Hanz]

Michael Tauson wrote:

>The first question is probably the easiest, that being who created the
>AM-26?  There's no all fired hot reason to ask, I'm just curious.
>

Aircraft Radio Laboratory at Wright Field.  See snippet below from the 
Unsat Reports (UR) that I posted on my website:

Interphone     Interphone Equipment          Activity believes that   
       Due to the numerous failures reported on
Amplifier       becomes Intermittent and     the use of Vacuum Tube     
this equipment, ARL, Wright Field, has
BC-347 in      at times the Amplifier           VT-99 is the cause 
of        developed a new Interphone Equipment AN/
B-24             goes out completely at          this 
trouble.                      AIC-2 which corrects defects inherent in
                    altitudes above 
15,000                                                 the RC-36.  When 
sufficient quantities of
                    
ft.                                                                        
     the new equipment is available, interphone
                                                                                                    
equipment in B-26-( ), B-17-( ), B-24-( ),
                                                                                                    
and B-29-( ) airplanes now in service will
                                                                                                    
be changed with this new item. In the
                                                                                                    
interim, frequent exchange of Vacuum Tube
                                                                                                    
VT-99 is suggested.

>The second is a bit more amusing.  I know about the AM-26; ARC-3, -36
>and -49; and the ARR-2 but were the A.R.C. type connectors used
>elsewhere during the war? 
>

AN/APR-9, ARW-mumble, and some prototypes I've seen - on airborne 
equipment at least..  They had sealing issues the Navy couldn't live 
with unless you used the flex conduit backshells (which limited 
installation flexibility for random installations), and the lack of a 
keyway made connection in tight spaces difficult.  Not as difficult as 
those accursed Bendix connectors used on the ARN-7 and the like, where 
the entire connector shell spun around the insert, but bad enough.  The 
Amphenol and Cannon designs were vastly superior in operational use, so 
I'm sure no one except ARC shed a tear when their use came to an end.

73,
Mike