[ARC5] [Milsurplus] [MMRCG] Aircraft Radio Corporation "Circle M" Sets - Photo

[gordon white]

    The"Morgue" at the Aircraft Radio Corp in Boonton, NJ was, as has 
been said, where various prototype and  first production models were 
stored, and marked with a stamped "M" in a circle. A few items "escaped" 
over the years after 1945 and before A.R.C. was sold and almost 
everything disposed of.  A few employees "liberated" a thing or two, but 
in the early 1980s as it was being closed down, I got the Smithsonian's 
National Air & Space Museum to send a curator up there, I accompanying 
him, chiefly to get the receiver with which Jimmy Doolittle made the 
world's first blind landing. Which they did . Of course I by then knew a 
lot of the A.R.C. people. A&S declined almost everything A.R.C. offered 
them beyond the Doolittle receiver Maybe they took another receiver or 
two, but not much, and those in authority almost begged them to take 
other stuff.

     I had by then acquired a lot of A.R.C. stuff, including some 
"circle M" items that had gone to Aircraft Radio Industries, a war 
surplus outfit in Connecticut that had bought a lot after the war when 
A.R.C. had to establish a value for the items they produced before the 
military quit accepting the equipment. It was sort of a fire sale deal. 
Lot of interesting items there.

     As it happened the people at A.R.C. prevailed on me to take stuff 
they were sure was going to be tossed, since they knew I appreciated 
it.  In addition to Circle M items there were other items including the 
original "Type K" equipment, all hand-made and very (to me) pretty. I 
went back a second time and they gave me a station wagon load of 
1920s-1930s-1940s company papers the Smithsonian had turned down.  I 
went through all of that and wrote a couple of magazine articles from 
it. I  intended to write a book, but could not find a publisher.

     At one point I tried to give the papers, again, to Air & Space but 
was again turned down. (Among other things there was a batch of letters 
to & from Doolittle when he was with Shell Oil Co, in the 1930s. My 
mother's brother, O'Neal Gordon, had been working for Vacuum Oil Co. in 
the far east in the 1930s and had engaged in a few flying competitions 
with Doolittle and Shell to sell his brand of oil. Told me some 
stories...) I offered them to the Air University at Maxwell AFB, 
Alabama, and was about to take them to Andrews AFB to be shipped there 
when the Air & Space library called and said they had changed their 
minds, so  most of those papers went to A&S.

     In 1987 I gave a lot of what I had collected to the A&S Museum, 
keeping things I most cared about, a lot of it "Circle M."

     And at this time I think I ought to move it on to others who 
appreciate it.

     In addition to the RAV units this is what I have:

receivers (All of these have local control cranks and the front panel 
plug-ins, several with the original local controls) All in _excellent_ 
condition.

with "Circle M"

ARA-2, .52 - 1.5 mc

R-20/ARC-5, 1.5-3 mc

R-21/ARC-5, 3-6 mc

R-22/ARC-5, 6-9.1 mc

BC-454-B, 3-6 mc

(no "Circle M")

R-25/ARC-5, 1.5-3 mc

R-27/ARC-5, 6-9.1 mc

R-148/ARC-5X, .19 - .55 mc, 14 volt, w/ dynamometer, in single receiver 
rack with shock mount

3-receiver rack with shock mount

pair of RAT receivers, 13.5-20 mc and 20-27 mc in twin receiver rack 
with shock mount; both with front switch panels and local control switch 
panels.

  - Gordon Eliot White


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