[Milsurplus] Last flight of the LBG

[Mike Morrow]

Marty wrote:

>Mike u sed
>
>> had SCR-269 ADF
>
>They'd never been lost with this
>
>MUST have had SCR-263 DF that gave non-unique loop readings (no sense
>antenna PLUS in-radio null combinatorial ckt.s)


Hi Marty,

I do not think USAAF B-24Ds were fitted with the SCR-263.  The SCR-263 was
out of date by 1942.  At least some SCR-263s were under order number
1658-NY-41, and manuals for those are actually dated 1940.  The only
possible reason for using one is that it required only a 28 vdc supply (had
internal dynamotor DM-30), and needed no 400 cps AC like the SCR-269
required.

The Radio Operator Information Files and Consolidated's "B-24D Airplane
Radio Service and Instruction Manual" for November 1942 specify the
SCR-269-C, and earlier editions apparently specified the SCR-269-A.

>SCR-269 ADF (not DF) was automated DZ.  A &^%$ing miracle at it's
>introduction


I agree on the use and technology assessment of the SCR-269.  It is a now
underappreciated marvel of the time.

But stuff happens.  There was a report that the crew reported their ADF as
inoperative.  Again, other reports following aircraft location say the ADF
equipment was OK.  Somewhere I've even read that the ADF was found tuned to
311 kc.

Who knows what the real truth is?  I believe there is a crew competency
question at the center of all this, particularly for the navigator and the
pilots (an also the ADF operators).  The most gross, crude attempts at dead
reckoning, had the effort been made, should not have led the crew to think
they were still over the Mediteranean when in fact they were 400 miles
inland of North Africa.

>AND Mike.  Never heard the story of APS-13 voting fuzes on the
>"Hiro/Naga deliveries."  GREAT info


It adds a little interest to the otherwise ignored little AN/APS-13.

73,
Mike / KK5F