[Milsurplus] XTB2D-1 Skypirate avionics

[Hubert Miller]

Here's something I wonder about. A friend sent me a copy of the "Right Hand Pilot's Console XTB2D-1 Skypirate".
Two prototypes were flown in 1945; the plane would have been the largest carrier plane of the time, but was shortly
cancelled.  Anyway, the control boxes shown are:
ARB tuner; ARB control box ( actually, ICS box is labeled as this. No actual ARB control box is shown, just the tuning head. Drawing mistake.
The ARB control equipment is captioned, "FOR FERRY FLIGHTS ONLY".
ATC  control box
APX-2 IFF control box
C-38 / ARC-5 control box
ARC-1 control box
unid interphone control; narrow unit has from top to bottom:  ICS / RADIO;  CHANNEL A, B, A&B ; ICS VOL / OFF.

There is no tunable ARC=5 head. The C-38 has a tuning knob but shows only a "4" in the window, kind of like the ARR-2 control box.
( I have not owned a C-38 for many years, so I don't remember its particulars. )

My question is, so in this case, the ARC-5 was used in channelized operation with the ATC, okay.
What was the ARB included for, for ferry flights. ( Which though anticipated in the design phase, but never actually flown in this aircraft.
-H

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