[ARC5] Early Helicopter Radios

[Robert Eleazer]

Said the esteemed Mr. Stinson:

"They obviously had good tastes in radios... ;" 

At one time, at the Air and Space Museum in downtown DC they had an excellent photo of one of those same helicopters take from head on.  You could clearly see a single 274-N transmitter and receiver behind the pilot, probably the most obvious radio installation I have ever seen. 

Considering the options of the time, I guess that if you want a "real" radio and not a BC-611 in your copter, a single 274-N receiver and transmitter was getting off about as cheap and light as you could.  Of course, a VHF ARC-5 setup would have been even better.  

I cannot see a transmitter in the photo I referenced, so I guess the radio installation might have been just a BC-453.

A friend of mine who was in the USAAF in the 1945 time period recalled seeing an early helicopter take off.  A guy standing next to him said, "I would not be too scared to ride in one of those things.  But I would be too embarrassed." 

Wayne