[Milsurplus] Radio movies

[Mike Morrow]

Brian wrote:


>Not that they used it in the movie, but did anyone ever notice the
>ART-13 in "The Flight of the Phoenix"?

Another great movie, if you're talking about the original Jimmy Stewart
movie and not the recent re-make.

The transmitter was the proper Signal Corps T-47A (slightly improved model
over the USN's T-47), determined by observing the Signal Corps type of
nomenclature tag on the right side of the T-47A.  The other main part of the
AN/ARC-8, a BC-348, was under the T-47A.

The howler here is the solitary AN/ARC-5 (not SCR-274-N) transmitter sitting
next to the BC-348.  The white paint in the lower half of the antenna
inductance window is the most obvious ARC-5 give-away there.  That unit
didn't appear to be in a rack or connected to anything.  Had there been a
similar transmitter on board, it would have been an SCR-274-N unit, not an
AN/ARC-5 unit.  (A prop department continuation of the myth that AN/ARC-5 =
SCR-274-N = ARA/ATA, I guess.)

There's a new war-time biography of Jimmy Stewart just out:  "Jimmy Stewart,
Bomber Pilot" by Starr Smith.  Prettty good reading, but no radio info.

Mike / KK5F