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Retiree Stories ···
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| · · Stories Contributed by Collins Aerospace Retirees · · |
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Several retirees have added their special memories …just click on the read link below.
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| Name |
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Title |
Text… |
Contributed |
| Terald Lamb |
read |
Flying in the 1980 |
Before the late 1980's there was very little forma… |
March '15 |
| Terald Lamb |
read |
The Doppler Naviagton System |
In the late 1950's and early 1960's Bendix and Col… |
March '15 |
| Terald Lamb |
read |
Equipment On Art's Boat in Miami |
Collins hired summer engineers to allow individual… |
March '15 |
| Terald Lamb |
read |
Development of Flilght Control Guidance |
Art Collins owned the patent on the Horizontal Sit… |
March '15 |
| Terald Lamb |
read |
Flight Testing the Kineplex Modem System |
One of our flight test and transportation aircraft… |
March '15 |
| Russ Colton |
read |
Memorable Events Working with Art Collins and Dr. Lippisch |
Dr. Lippisch was a German scientist who came to th… |
September '12 |
| Terald Lamb |
read |
The First and Last Time I Met Arthur Collins |
Arthur Collins was a genius and scientist who had … |
June '12 |
· · Flight Testing the Kineplex Modem System · ·
By: Terald Lamb |
One of our flight test and transportation aircraft was a Convair 240. This aircraft had a configuration that replicated the primary cockpit displays at a rear console. The layout was designed with operator seats and couches so a number of people could simultaneously see most of the data being displayed in the cockpit.
In addition, the company was working on a type of modem for HF data transmission called Kineplex. This system was installed in the airplane and controlled from the rear console. The system was setup to type a message on a teletype machine, it was encoded (in later years, this unit would be called a modem), transmitted on HF radio to the Collins facility at Newport Beach, California, sent by land line to the Collins facility at Dallas, re-transmitted by HF radio to the aircraft, decoded and typed out on a second teletype machine. The technical problems on this system were difficult to solve. Arthur was deeply involved in the project and spent hours working with the system when he was flying on the aircraft.
One Saturday evening, I got a call from Harvey Hopp, the Chief Pilot. He said he just had a call from Art. Art had been on the airplane from Dallas to Cedar Rapids and was playing with the secure data system. It didn’t work well on the trip. Art had called Harvey and said that after they landed, he was so angry that he got a pair of wire cutters out of one of the mechanic’s tool boxes and had physically cut some of the system wiring. Art was concerned that he may have cut out some of the flight system wiring and the airplane should have thorough check before anyone flew it again. I spent Monday looking at the installation and found Art had NOT cut any critical flight system wires.
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| —March 16, 2015 |
| Terald retired in April 1996 after working 35 years in Certification. |
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| · · Add to the Collection · · |
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· Use an On-line form, click HERE
· Edit Existing Stories, click HERE
· Down-load a form, and instructions, for mailing back to us, click HERE |
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