[Milsurplus] 1950's Navy airborne HF question

Mike Hanz aaf-radio-1 at aafradio.org
Thu Jan 14 08:20:32 EST 2010


David Stinson wrote:
> I just sent Gordon a period photo 
> of a Wildcat with two "kill" marks which is equipped with
> GF/RU, yet there are still people who insist that the 
> Navy switched everyone to VHF just after the Titanic.
>   

Of course not.  It was the after the end of World War I.  Everyone knows 
that... :-P

> If they put MHF/VHF AN/ARC-5 in an aircraft in 1945, 
> and they were still flying that aircraft in 1955,
> I'd bet even money it would still have that AN/ARC-5 in it,
> especially if it was a training or utility aircraft.

I wouldn't take that bet, since in general I completely agree with 
you...*except* for the carrier based aircraft, which had more scrutiny 
than the ash and trash haulers elsewhere around the Navy world.  There 
was little money for acquisition of new aircraft avionics until the 
Korean conflict, but the best they had was put into the carrier 
inventory - after all, it was their pride and joy.  There was also 
considerably less room on a carrier to store oddball equipment, so the 
freedom of keeping unneeded equipment around  was reduced considerably.  
Frequent inventories prevented pack rats from saving stuff that "might 
come in handy" someday...Mike and Robert can probably attest to that, 
though there are always ways of hiding a few gems for possible later use.

Best 73,
Mike


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