Friday, February 28, 2025

State of the art at one time. Do any still exist?

 


10 comments:

  1. I think the FAA is still using these for air traffic management in the DC airspace around National Airport.

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    1. 3 years ago bought a very nice Continental engined gen set that was for back up power for that system, for the radio system, the specs are very fine in order to avoid interference due to voltage variation, it was in pristine condition when we picked it up, the log book came with it, maintenance was meticulously followed, written in was its installation date of July 1952, we learned it was finally replaced by an entire new digital diesel powered system, what I got for 1500 bucks was a 25,000 watt full duty cycle, propane powered generator as good as new along with spares for every serviceable part, from gas carb fuel tuning diaphragms to relays to Even new in box vacuum tubes, oil filters, speed controllers etc. Basically given away, because the spares alone are worth about 10 grand by themselves. The unit is one piece built on an I beam chassis, engine to control cabinet, log book showed it was used briefly two times, and started up monthly for service. It us basically brand new, the Continental engine is a flat head straight six, hours in it are under factory specs for its full break in hours, uts a beautifully made engine, runs so smooth there is no noise thru the concrete pad we mounted it on into the house. Sips propane, its built to max torque at the gen set speed of 1800 rpms, a four pole 110% rated duty cycle generator, puts out a strange voltage if 32VDC so it has three twelve volt dc diesel rated batteries. Still have a hard time believing we got it for 1500 bucks.

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    2. My dad was in charge of a lot of FAA equipment back in those days. His name could be in that log book back in the 50s :)

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  2. Yeah, there's a Bendix on the starter on my vehicle. Might be one on yours too!

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    1. Might just be, they had another full gen set for sale cause they had back up for the back up, guess that was civil defense thinking back then

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  3. Back in the 1940s-50s, "Bendix" was commonly used instead of washing machine.

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  4. Check out the YouTube channel Usagi Electric. He just restored one and has videos of the process.

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  5. This guy ( Usagi Electric) has one that is (or will be) running
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9IxVi24R5Q

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  6. Yeah they’re around, think my state’s DMV uses one….

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  7. Fascinating how the tech guy who is running it was a young nerd, while the suits stand around trying to figure out what he's doing. Things never change.

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