[ARC5] SCR-274N Update

[Mike Hanz]

The aircraft installation records I've pored over do support your view, 
David.  Even the "too hot to touch" atomic Silverplate aircraft, which 
received the absolute best and latest of everything, didn't begin 
getting the AN/ARC-3 until the spring of 1945.  The mods done at the 
Martin modification center involved removing the SCR-274N sets that had 
been installed in the original build and replacing them with weapon 
monitoring panels.   The radio operator control panels in the Enola Gay 
were still engraved with SCR-522 for the VHF link. Yes, it meant that 
the the majority of B-29s were carrying both the three receiver/two 
transmitter SCR-274N sets through the end of the war (as well as the 
SCR-522 for VHF), but that's just the way it was...

On 9/26/2013 6:33 PM, David Stinson wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Morrow" <kk5f at earthlink.net>
>> ...... I doubt too that many full SCR-274-N
>> sets were ever found on B-29s in WWII, except for the beacon band 
>> BC-453-B.
>> Most seem to have used the new (and excellent) AN/ARC-3 VHF command set.
>
> Man, I hesitate to cross swords with Mike Morrow!
> But we'll differ a bit on this.  B-29s  started-out in the CBI before
> making the jump to the PTO and there are photos of 274N in them.
> My research would indicate that AN/ARC-3 was a very late comer to WWII.
> I'm sure many B-29s were fitted with them before the end of the 
> Pacific war,
> but the ARC-3's real "time in the sun" was Korea.