P-38 Radio Installation

[MIflyer]

Scanned from the book "Escort Pilot" is what I think is the best shot have ever seen of the radio installation in one of the earlier P-38's, apparently with the pilot taking a nap on the wing. I am surprised to see that the SCR-522 VHF radio sits so high and is so exposed under the rear canopy.

 

[Wurger]

 

[eagledad]

The picture can be found on page 21 in the book "Eyes of the Eighth", a book about the 7th Photo Recon Group. According to the caption for the picture, the aircraft is a F-5 of the 13th PRS, the pilot in the picture is Lt Thomas O'Bannon, and the photo was taken in July of 1943. Sadly, on July 24th, 1943, then Capt. O'Bannon was killed in a flying accident when testing a F-5A against an RAF PR Spitfire and PR Mosquito.
FWIW

Eagledad

With Memorial Day in the US just a few days away, Capt. O'Bannon, RIP

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff. Coincidentally, this is something I've been trying to look into for my P-38F Zombie build. Do we have a definitive photo of the radio installation for a P-38F-15-LO?

 

[MIflyer]

Well, a key question is "Where?" is the airplane to be located? USAAF fighters sent to the ETO were equipped with the British designed SCR-522 radio as soon as they got there. They had to be compatible with what the RAF was using or else risk getting their arse shot off. The SCR-522 gave 4 VHF channels, each selected by just a push button. This was a great advancement and pretty quickly became the standard.

By the way, that standardization included the IFF equipment. A new very sophisticated UHF IFF set was developed by the US, called the BC-645. It even allowed aircraft to interrogate each other as well as the ground air defense system to interrogate aircraft. But the RAF would not change their system, so the BC-645 could not be used. By the end of WWII the BC-645 was obsolete so those sets got sold as surplus to ham radio operators for the next 40 years.

The standard fighter radio for both the USAAF and USN in 1942 was the ARA and ATA for the USN and SCR-274-N for the USAAF. These systems featured individual transmitters and receivers for each channel and were HF, using the range 3 to 9 MHZ and were so similar that many of the subassemblies were interchangeable. The USN had additional frequency areas covered by using some sets that were unique to the Navy but that would have worked in USAAF aircraft had they just plugged them in.

The SCR-274-N fit well with the way air traffic control was done in the USA, since it featured a receiver capable of tuning in the Adcock ranges and airfield control towers. So you see SCR-274-N installed in P-38's in the USA and SCr-522 installed in P-38's in the ETO and probably the Med as well. That photo shows an SCR-522 installed in a F-4 photo recon Lightning in the ETO but we have pictures of the same type of airplane in the same time frame in the USA equipped with SCR-274-N. As it turned out, the SCR-274-N installed in the P-51A was very useful for the Air Commandos in Burma because they could talk directly to the ground troops, who did not have suitable VHF sets but they began using SCR-522 in the Pacific as well.

The USN developed the ARA/ATA sets into the ARC-5, which offered the option to have both HF and VHF communications.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks. Good info. The model is a 1st FG bird in Operation Torch. I understand the group was in England first and then moved to North Africa. So sounds like the SCR-522 is my set.

EDIT: A couple of other pics of the SCR-522 set here: P-38 E-J under the rear glass RADIO CONFIGURATIONs

 

[MIflyer]

Yes, those are good shots of the 522. The receiver-transmitter is the big box located forward and the smaller box to the rear is the dynamotor unit,

The SCR-522 was British designed and American built. All the units I have seen have both US Army and British marking plates. The 522 was a big bulky unit and you can imagine how much fun it was to wrestle that thing in and out of airplanes. The answer was the ARC-3, which used similar technology but separated the receiver and transmitter into separate boxes, so if you had bad receiver or dead transmitter you could just swap that part out in the airplane, Line Replaceable Unit style.

The 522 was adapted for use in Jeeps for use by Forward Air Controllers on the ground and the SCR-622 was a ground version.

The old Monogram F-51D has the most correct radio arrangement I have seen, but it is in the 1950's configuration, not that used in WWII and the boxes do not look like anything I have seen in reality. When I build that one again I'll scratchbuild some ARC-3's.

 

[Crimea_River]

Great info thanks. So any idea what the antenna wire arrangement was on the P-38 SCR-522 package then? One wire to each fin? One wire to one fin? No wires?

 

[MIflyer]

The SCR-522 used an AN-104 mast type antenna and no external wires. On the P-38 that seems to have always been located on the bottom of the nose but on some recon models it was put atop the nose, presumably to keep it from interfering with the camera views.

As for the wire antennas, when the SCR-522 was installed that left fighter aircraft without the ability to receive the Adcock navigational ranges or standard LF control tower communications in the US. So one of the little BC-1206 type receivers was installed, along with a wire antenna. It seems likely that the BC-1206 was not installed in the ETO, but on the other hand fighter pilots did report homing on home airfield beacons in Great Britain so, who knows; some may have had it. Artists often depict ETO P-51's with a wire antenna going through the cockpit canopy and back to the tail, but I think in at least most cases this is pure artistic license.

After WWII, with P-51's referbed for Korea, the BC-1206 was deleted and the BC-453 receiver from the SCR-274-N installed, high atop the ARC-3 in the bubble canopy - but that probably was only for US based aircraft.

 

[DisplacedTex]

I'm digging the round rearview mirrors attached to both sides of the windshield frame. Not exactly factory, I believe.

 

[MIflyer]

Added on rear view mirrors were common on US WWII fighters. On some P-51's in the ETO you can see TWO Spitfire rear view mirrors attached above the windshield.

Was there an R&D program for side mirrors that can stand 450 mph airflow?

 

[DisplacedTex]

Added on rear view mirrors were common on US WWII fighters. On some P-51's in the ETO you can see TWO Spitfire rear view mirrors attached above the windshield.

Was there an R&D program for side mirrors that can stand 450 mph airflow?

I think the R&D was done at the field. It was a "we need it, so let's try it" affair. Very clever mods were created out of necessity.

 

[MiTasol]

For those who want a guide to what comms were fitted in 42 I have started a thread American Fighter Aircraft Radios 1942