[ARC5] 274N's in 1942

[Mike Hanz]

Great rundown, Dave.  Just to add another data point, and although not 
always an unbiased document, the *History of Engineering and Science in 
the Bell System* records this: 

"In August 1940 the Signal Corps approached Western Electric and Bell 
Labs with a request to manufacture an aircraft command radio set very 
similar to the SCR-183, which had been developed by a small radio 
company that did not have the capabilities for large scale production.  
The new set was subsequently coded the SCR-274 aircraft radio 
equipment.  A first contract for 1,500 sets [possibly 1470-NY-41?] was 
awarded to the original developer, but the sets were produced entirely 
by Bell labs and Western Electric, except for mounting racks and 
hardware; this was viewed as an effective means for Bell Labs and 
Western Electric to ease into the problems encountered in quantity 
production.  Subsequent contracts for the radio sets were awarded 
directly to Western Electric, which made them in shops at Kearney, New 
Jersey."

 - Mike

David Stinson wrote:
> The first production run of SCR-274N was order # 1470-NY-41,  
> contract # W-227-SC-2576.  
> An unknown number of the sets were completed 
> under A.R.C. nomenclature before A.R.C., having their hands full
> with Navy work, sub-contracted Western Electric to build 
> the set, the first W.E.Co run of which was 
> order # 1509-NY-41, contract #W-227-SC-2586, 
> which was let in May of 1941.
>  
> There is some controversy over whether A.R.C. ever actually
> built any of the sets, beyond the usual first 50 sets built 
> for evaluation and modeling, or if Western Electric actually
> built them all.
> I know of no documentation one way or the other, but there
> are subtle differences in quality points between
> a 1470-NY-41 and the following W.E.Co 1509-NY-41.   
> My personal belief is that A.R.C. did build at least some of the
> production sets, but I have no way to prove it.