EAA’s Airventure at Oshkosh, WI for most aviators is a unique experience each year. The event is the same, the venue is the same, most of the stalls are the same. Yet, nothing about AirVenture each year is the anything but the same. This is one of the reason why 700, 000 plus visitors come to Oshkosh, WI each year. I have personally been there every year since 1997 (when I moved to Chicago) with the exception of perhaps a couple years when my work called for trade overseas and I wasn’t in town to make the trip. Other than that, I do my best to ensure that the third week of July each year is blocked off from anything that needs me to travel away from Oshkosh. This year, I went in mid-week for my annual pilgrimage to AirVenture. But by evening I knew I hadn’t had enough. So, I woke up really early on Saturday morning and went back again! It was a scorcher of a day. A heat index of 96 degrees. Really hot. But few things deter aviators or those with an aviation passion from doing the rounds at Oshkosh. I was proud to be one of them.
On this trip though I took a slightly different route around the grounds. They say that the cosmos has nice surprises in store for those who take the unbeaten path… and indeed it had. I struck upon a used parts stall. The inventory of used, discontinued parts was unbelievable. I have been to another such store in Chicago, but to find a store like that in a airshow/convention venue was just a surprise. I couldn’t resist the desire to walk inside. What as meant to a quick 5 min browse, turned into 90 minutes of looking at all of these gauges, fan blades, props, dash mounts, even a few seats from old airplanes. Amongst all of those, my heart got set on two things. One of them was a Gables radio – a NAV unit. The other was very interesting. It was a display cum control unit for a Rockwell Collins Doppler Radar Navigation system. An analog computer! I was just amazed by the very construction of this panel. A piece of aviation history! It go me so interested that I waited to get back home and start searching for what it did or how it worked. What follows below is the result of the research.
The panel was part number 162C-1 of a larger ecosystem that collectively made up the Collins Doppler Radar Navigation System. The part was made in 1959. Upon further research, I found a few different interesting facts. A full description to come in future posts.
Thx, CJ
