[ARC5] A-36 Antenna

[Robert Eleazer]

I dug out my copy of the book "Walk Around Allison Engined Mustangs." The antenna situation is interesting.

The early Mustang Mk. 1 and P-51-1 airplanes had an antenna right behind the cockpit that looks like a tube that is transitions from a circular section to a flatter section a few inches from the fuselage.

The A-36 as deployed in the Med had an antenna located in the same place that starts out as a short section of streamline cross section about 6 inches long and maybe 2 inches wide and then goes to a circular tube. No wire antenna is evident attached to the mast.

Other A-36's had an antenna that looked very much like an AN-104, and the USAF Museum's A-36A is fitted with an AN-104.

The P-51A's in Burma had what seems to be a straight flattened tube mast.  We know those airplanes had SCR-274-N, which proved to be more useful than VHF when talking to ground forces. However the beautifully restored P-51A at the Yanks Air Museum at Chino, CA has what loosk just like such an antenna installed and it's pretty clear that they have it hooked to an SCR-522.

So I guess that just about clears it up!

Wayne

WB5WSV