WWII RPV camera unit

[OPCOM]

Found and bought today.. I took pictures, as it will be going to its new owner soon.

This is an Iconoscope camera from a WWII remotely piloted bomb. Note the many vacuum tubes. The rest of the system (TV transmitter, power supplies, flight control receiver, etc.. whereabouts unknown). These rode in the nose of the huge bomb and were therefore expendable so they are quite rare. Made by RCA of course! Hope the images are pleasing. Any comments are welcome. Many more high resolution ones are in the Bunker of DOOM website. http://www.bunkerofdoom.com/mil/block3/index.html

 

[maddawg308]

Man, I know a ham radio guy and military ordnance enthusaist near me who would drool over that thing. Looks very high tech for the 40s.

For the uninformed, the old vacuum tube technology beats our current solid state and surface mounted technology hands down. Hollow state technology can be easily repaired or built from scratch, unlike solid state. Also, tube tech is EMP proof - any blown circuits can be repaired easily, but the solid state is fried forever.

 

[OPCOM]

I believe it was classified in those early days. The new owner is attached to it primarily because of the type of imaging tube and he is a collector of television equipment, but as always if someone is more interested due to the militaria value of the entire unit, a satisfactory arrangement could likely be made. In any case I am happy to have had the chance to photograph it.