My son Bill and I were out at the National Air and Space Museum's Udvar-Hazy Center (out near Dulles Airport, where they display the really big stuff). We spotted these old military radios. The ARC-5 Command sets caught my eye. Of course I was thinking about the great VFO parts inside those boxes... The acknowledgement of the ARC-5's contribution to ham radio (on the card) was nice.
They also have an ART-13 on display.
We had a lot of fun looking at all the planes. We were especially impressed by the Autogyros.
The Bensen B-6 Gyroglider seemed to be really pushing the envelope (of good sense!). This was a an Autogyro with NO MOTOR. It was towed! No license required as long as you didn't release the tow line. Note that it was designed in 1954 to introduce teenagers "to the thrills of flight at minimal cost." The headgear and goggles were key. And the kit was only $100!
Remember, Moms in the Fifties said things like, "You get yourself killed, don't come crying to me." Kids were expendable, they knew how to make more.
ReplyDeleteI wanted a Gyrocopter in the worst way when I was a kid. Funny though, I guess I never noticed the tow line. I thought it had a pusher prop with motor.
ReplyDeleteI think Benson had plans you could buy that included pusher props. In fact, by the mid-60s that's all I recall seeing in the magazine ads. In spite of the placard the Bills saw at the museum, it may have been legal under certain conditions (or had changed by the 1960s), similar to the rules for "ultra-light" winged planes.
DeleteI remember ads for the Benson gyrocopters (and lots of other cool stuff) in Popular Mechanics and Popular Science magazines in the 1960s. I loved that kind of thing as a kid. I'd send off quarters and SASEs to get catalogs--Estes, Edmond Scientific, Perfect Scientific (I had one of their chemistry sets). My dad always had Heathkit, J.C. Whitney, and Allied Electronics catalogs on the back of the toilets. My mother saw to it there was always a Montgomery Ward and Sears catalog on hand. A kid could learn a lot about the world from poring over such sources. In fact, doing so made up a good share of my education (as distinguished from mere schooling).
ReplyDeleteNow when you want to know something, you scour YT!!
ReplyDeleteI had regular QSO's with a friend of mine, he was running an arq-5 in the 70's.
ReplyDeleteN6ors Keith
I had regular QSO's with a friend of mine, he was running an arq-5 in the 70's.
ReplyDeleteN6ors Keith