[ARC5] ARC-5 in the X-1

[Mike Morrow]

Wayne wrote:

> Another bit of trivia is the radio used as the ground station for the X-1
> in the movie, '"The Right Stuff" I believe was an RT-68/GRC.

How were you able to distinguish it from the RT-66/GRC or RT-69/GRC?

Of course, none of those would have been used in the that application, not to mention that in October 1947 there were none of these AN/GRC-3 series radios in service yet.

WRT the question of when the small A.R.C. VHF transmitters were available, the A.R.C. Type 11A was being advertised in "Flying" magazine by April 1947. (The full A.R.C. Type 12 was not yet out at that time.)  The Type 11A used a beacon band R-11A receiver and a VHF-AM T-11 transmitter (1.1 watts output, 5 channels in any 1 MHz band between 121.5 to 132.0 MHz).  I think I'd prefer the Western Electric VHF AN/ARC-5 rather than the post-WWII A.R.C. civil aviation stuff.

Mike / KK5F