[ARC5] Inflicting Your Collection on Relatives

Leslie Smith vk2bcu at operamail.com
Mon Jul 26 19:36:21 EDT 2010


At the conclusion of WW-II my cousin, Ivan Kingston, bought the front end of a Spitfire for Twenty Pounds.  (The DoD only sold half aircraft, never the full deal.)  He took the "thing" home and set the Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine up on the workbench in his workshop.  He supplied oil, a 5 gallon drum of fuel and turned the engine over.

It ran beautifully for a few minutes - and stopped.  It took some time for Ivan to figure the 5 gallons of fuel had all gone.  Idling, a Spit consumes around 90 gallons per hour.  

The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine ended up on the scrap heap.  I remember looking at the various bits lying on the ground in the early 70s and thinking - crikey!  

Pity, that.  Perhaps history IS a reason for keeping some of the older gear working.


Les 
formerly VK2BCU.





> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Roy Morgan <k1lky at earthlink.net>
> To: "Discussion of AN/ARC-5 military radio equipment." <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: Re: [ARC5] Inflicting Your Collection on Relatives
> Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:02:44 -0400
> 
> 
> 
> On Jul 26, 2010, at 1:57 PM, Robert Eleazer wrote:
> 
> ... "Oh, I don't think we will have any trouble getting rid of this
> piece of equipment."
> >
> > He was right.  The hangar held a perfectly preserved Lockheed 
> > P-38  Lightning.
> 
> 
> I know of a P-51 that was sold about 10 years ago for some 1.5 million
> dollars.  I wonder if the P-38 would be now in that same price range.
> 
> Roy
> 
> 
> Roy Morgan
> k1lky at earthlink.net
> K1LKY Since 1958 - Keep 'em Glowing!
> 
> 
> 
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