[Milsurplus] Seeking information

[William Donzelli]

> I'm a researcher working with several ex-USAF B-52 crewmembers to document
> an event which occurred in North Dakota late 1968.  Part of the
> circumstances of this event relate to the ASQ-38 bomb/nav system of the
> B-52H, specifically the radar system (AN/APN-89A I think).
> 
> I've tried through FOIA to the USAF and through retired Navigator's groups
> etc. to locate information on this radar for our report without success.
> Specs, manuals, drawings and photos of this equipment - any of these - or
> even parts thereof - would be valuable.

I think you might have difficulty. Manuals for the 1950s era aircraft
radars tend to be really difficult to find. It is not so much that the
information was incredibly classified - it wasn't - it is just that nobody
kept the books! The World War 2 era aircraft maintenance manuals are rare,
certainly, but because of the aura of the war and the planes that used
them, people saved some of the information. The same is not the case with
the cold war era radars - nearly all of the collectors and historians of
old radar sets cut off their interest strictly at 1945.

I do not know where you should start searching. You might track down some
of the shops that would rebuild radars - they might have manuals kicking
around.

William Donzelli
aw288@osfn.org