Unidentified Items
This page is the main reason for this website. It shows the Argus sub-contract items which have not been identified so far. Please examine the photos and send ID’s, corrections, additions, or suggestions for further research. Any input is welcome, so don’t hesitate!
Mike Reitsma and Pam Buckley
Burlingame, California
reitsma.mike@gmail.com
Page 25, GUIDED MISSILE COMPONENT: In trying to identify this component we learned that there were a number of attempts to develop and deploy guided weapons during WWII. Most of these were drones or bombs fitted with radio-controlled fins (e. g., the AZON program) that used more complicated guidance electronics than is shown. This component has a circular cross section of relatively small diameter (as indicated by the size of the vacuum tubes) that would make it appropriate for use in what we would think of today as a missile, but nothing known to us at this time appears to fit this component well. See Pre-1963 Designations of U. S. Missiles and Drones by Andreas Parsch.
Page 25, MULTIPLIER MECHANISM: This is clearly a mechanical component rather than an electronic component. It bears a rough resemblance to an aircraft throttle control except for the pointer and scale on the side, which would be on an upper surface in that application. It could be part of the tuning mechanism of a Bendix radio, or some mechanical part of any number of Bendix Aviation products.
Page 25, ANTENNA ROTATOR: Many of the components Argus did for Bendix were parts of airborne direction finding systems. All of these systems had some kind of device for rotating the DF antenna. The teardrop-shaped antenna at the right (which may be an LP-21-A) is an example (see aafradio.org/flightdeck/navigation.htm). The teardrop structure encloses a loop antenna. The square box below it is its rotator. The unidentified rotator could be for a ground based, airborne, or shipborne antenna.
Page 24, ANTENNA LOADING UNIT: This component is similar to the MT-36 antenna loading unit on the previous page. An antenna loading unit is an impedance matching device (usually consisting of a coil of adjustable length) that is placed between the output of the transmitter and the antenna. When it is in place, the antenna will resonate at the transmitter’s frequency with minimal loss. The scale of the photograph is not clear, so it is hard to say whether this one is for a ground-based or for an airborne system.
Page 26, HOMING ADAPTER: Homing adapters were used in WWII aircraft to allow the pilot to switch the regular command radio over to receive homing beacon signals. The control switch connected the homing adapter between the aircraft’s homing antenna and the antenna input of the command radio. In this mode the pilot would hear a tone from the homing beacon that changed modulation depending on whether the aircraft was on-course, left, or right of the beam from the homing beacon. Close examination of the two photos shows that they are in fact of the same device.
Page 22, TUNER FOR TRANSMITTER: This is the first of several photos from the Argus report that have relatively generic captions and which show hard-to-identify components. Only someone with a detailed knowledge of the insides of Bendix’s WWII production could be expected to recognize these components. It should also be assumed that whoever provided captions for the photos had a limited knowledge of their identities and functions.
Page 26, POWER SUPPLY
Page 22, POWER SUPPLY UNIT
Page 24, CONTROL PANEL
Page 24, R. F. MULTIPLIER: This item is quite a jumble of components, setting it apart from orderly and robust designs of typical Bendix Radio products. In addition, the base and its toggle switch are similar in construction to the tube tester shown on the previous page. It could be part of a high-frequency transmitter, but it seems more likely that it is a piece of in-house test equipment.
Page 24, RESISTOR ASSEMBLY: This component’s design is similar to scores of others in Bendix Radio products. Figuring out exactly which product employed it will be a matter of luck.
Page 27, TEST UNIT for GLIDE PATH RECEIVER: The box on the left is the Bendix TS-170 oscillator/transmitter for testing the AN/ARN-5 glide slope receiver. The two smaller devices to its right have not been identified yet, but presumably are related to the function of the TS-170 or to testing the AN/ARN-5.