2. Antenna Couplers
The Automatic Antenna Coupler production provided cash flow to keep the plants open in the '50s and early '60s. Couplers were needed for long range over the ocean communications. As illustrated on the right for the KC-135, tail tops or wing tip installations were common. See Warren Becker's story too. [lab]
The Antenna Coupler Program
Contributed by Marc Shoquist, Project Engineer on Antenna Coupler Development - 1951 U of M graduate, Electrical Engineering. Joined ERA in 1953 (34 years with ERA/Sperry)
ERA took on many study contracts from the government during its early years and one of the most successful was the Antenna Coupler program which resulted in the production of over 12,000 units for military and commercial aircraft communication systems during the 1953 – 1970 period, after which the program was transferred to Sperry Marine Systems. It was the largest production program ERA had in the mid 1950’s and during the 1953 – 1956 period represented over 25% of the sales and most of the profits for the division. During the 1953 – 70 period, there were three generations of antenna couplers developed; the initial model which used vacuum tubes, an all solid- state unit for the Boeing Jet aircraft developed in 1955 and finally a high tuning speed unit for the General Dynamics B-58 Hustler Bomber developed in 1958.
The coupler consisted of a variable vacuum capacitor and inductor coil, each driven by servo motors which were tuned to automatically match the antenna impedance to the coaxial transmission cable. The tuning elements were controlled by a discriminator which sensed the resistance and phase at the termination of the coaxial cable to the antenna. The coupler tuned wire, probe and tail cap antennas in the High Frequency (HF) 2-30 MHz range. The 707 used a probe antenna mounted on top of the tail fin so the coupler was exposed to the outside environment where temperatures were frequently below – 65 degrees F. Moreover, the coupler after being in a cold soak at this temperature had to start up an complete the tuning within 10 seconds, a no easy task. In addition, the probe antenna impedance was so miss-matched at low frequencies that the coupling voltage to the antenna was over 20,000 volts. The early units were pressurized with dry nitrogen and sealed with a soldered seal. Later a Teflon coated O-ring seal was developed which was able to hold a vacuum over a long period, which simplified maintenance of the unit.
In the early 1950’s RCA won an Air Force contract for the development of the new ARC-21 Airborne HF Communication System which included an antenna coupler. During its development, RCA experienced problems in developing the antenna coupler and the Air Force gave ERA a study contract as a fall back. The ERA coupler proved to be superior to the RCA unit thus ERA became the sole source production supplier of the coupler for the system. Initially, it was sold directly to Boeing who sold it as “contractor supplied equipment” in aircraft delivered to the Air Force. Over 7000 units were sold to the Air Force during the 1953-70 period and were used on about 10 different aircraft. The Coupler assembly line is shown at the right.
I joined the company in 1953 at the time the first generation coupler was entering production. The coupler engineering staff at that time was small and headed by Fran Biltz under the Communications Group directed by Carl Swanson. Other staff engineers included Leon Sabine, Robert Einfeldt, Bruce Sifford, Manny Block, Howard Peterson, and two technicians, Morris “Pappy” Pappenfuss and Oscar Haymen. Carl Hiat, a development engineer had transferred to manufacturing to assist in the transition of the Coupler into production. Fred Hargesheimer headed marketing and Don Blattie did the contracting. Al Meuller led Customer service, which included the training of the supervisors and technicians of the foreign airlines maintenance shops. {Editor's note: Al was the first VIP Club President in 1980.} My initial coupler assignment was conducting the Qualification Test of the coupler and writing the report. Later I was the field test engineer for system tests of the Arc 21 communication tests on the B-47 aircraft at McDill Air Force base. This was followed by my supervision of a coupler field modification program at Smoky Hill Air Force base in Kansas. I returned in 1955 to head a development group and became the project engineer for the 2nd generation coupler which was developed for the Boeing 707 aircraft. 
In 1955, Boeing developed the 707 Commercial jet aircraft and based on the performance of the ERA Coupler awarded ERA the contract to develop the coupler without a competition. This launched the development of the 2nd generation all solid-state coupler, which was the first of its type in industry. The Boeing 707 initiated Boeing’s return to the commercial aircraft business, which they continue to lead as the world’s largest supplier. The 707 was sold to over 40 airlines worldwide and there was an ERA coupler on every one of them. This was the model 3250 shown at the right. The tube-like unit was mounted either in the vertical stabilizer or at the end of a wing. The control unit (rectangular box) was mounted adjacent to the radio set.
One of the highlights of the military business was supplying the couplers for the Presidents Air Force One planes. There were six couplers including spares on every aircraft and their installation received special treatment by our engineers and field service staff. Robert Brown, who led our field service group made the initial installation in 1956 at Boeing before they were delivered. The system was upgraded in 1965 and Ernie Griffith a lead engineer on the coupler did the installations at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington DC where the fleet of Presidential aircraft and helicopters are based. I went along to chat with the Boeing representatives and just touring this specially equipped aircraft was worth the trip.
I was project engineer for the 3rd generation coupler for the Air Force B-58 Hustler Bomber. By the time the B-58 Coupler contract was won in 1958, the engineering staff which then included drafting had grown to 70 people and engineers which were added for the 707 project development included John Moe, Charles Class, Allen Anderson, Mick Alsop, Al Sorenson, Paul Richardson, Howard Chen, and Bob Rife. 
By this time, the division had become recognized as a specialist in the development of this product to the extent that when Hughes won the contract for the development of the new ARC-68 HF Communication system, they selected us as the coupler supplier, rather than develop it themselves.
While the initial coupler business was with the Air Force and Boeing, in 1967 the company was successful in displacing Collins Radio as the supplier of the Coupler on the Lockheed P-3C Patrol aircraft for the Navy. Winning this contract was a milestone in extending the airborne coupler business to other services. In 1984, I visited Sperry Marine systems 15 years after they the Coupler Business had been transferred to them and supplying couplers for the P-3C was the major source of their revenue for the coupler military business. The P3 coupler is shown here. [Marc Shoquist] 
The antenna coupler is very much a part of the military history of ERA/Univac/LM. I think that the first one was designed for the KC130 "flying filling station", the prototype of the Boeing 707. The USAF let Boeing build three 707s on government tooling and then made Boeing build their own tooling for the commercial plane. This gave Boeing several years to test fly those planes. In the early 1930's Boeing had built a few prototype B-17s. The depression stopped the production. A Dr. Reynolds invented modern flight testing and spent years working on those prototypes. That is why the B-17 was such a good plane. Dr. Reynolds designed the B-29 at the start of WW II. The first prototype killed him. His niece worked for Remington Rand Univac about 1958. I met her because her parents lived across the street from my parents in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It's a small world. At one time Margaret might have been the most knowledgeable person in the plant on transistor physics as a result of her programming in that area. [Harry Wise]
The photo above was taken in the 1950s at the then ERA plant 3, located on University Avenue between the Cleveland and Raymond intersections.
Business Aspects by Shoquist
I had mentioned that the Coupler was one of the primary production programs that ERA/RRU had during the 1950's and was very profitable. Over 12,000 couplers were manufactured during the 1953 to 1970 period when the program was transferred and continued at Sperry Marine in Charlottesville, Va. Fiscal year 1957 (April 1, 56 - March 31, 1957) was one of its most profitable years, and I can recall Art E. Johnson from the controllers department calling the Coupler Engineering managers together to review the results. He distributed the following financial data which I have kept all these years. He opened his remarks saying that the St. Paul Division had total sales of about $ 40M that year with the Coupler contribution as follows:
1. Coupler Sales as percentage of total sales 38 %
2. Couple Profit as percentage of total profit 88 %
3. Coupler Return on Sales 40 %
4. Division Return on total Sales 3.5%
5. Coupler Return on Investment 163%
6. Division Return on Investment 13%
7. Coupler Return per Professional Employee $ 162,000
This was the year that the new plant was opened on West 7th Street, and Norris would say it wouldn't have been built but for the coupler profits. Only the western quarter of the plant was air conditioned for the two stories. It is no wonder that the Coupler Engineering staff occupied the south/west quarter of the air conditioned section on the first floor. The number of people in this section was over 70, including assigned draftsmen. At that time we were developing the 2nd generation couplers, which were all solid state and were for the Boeing 707 jet aircraft and its military derivative, the KC-135 cargo and tanker aircraft. We had also just won the coupler development from Hughes Aircraft for the new 1 KW HF Communications System for the GD B-58 Bomber (Hustler). I can remember over 70 people attending the annual Coupler Christmas party that year (1956). Somewhere I have the attendance list.
A Production summary is shown in this table.
Series | Time Frame | Customer | Aircraft | Quantity |
3000 | 1953 -1959 | Boeing and General Dynamics | Bombers & VC-137 President's aircraft | 7000 |
3250 | 1958 -1970 | Boeing | 707/KC-135 | 3500* |
3300 | 1958 - 1962 | General Dynamics | B-58 Hustler** | 180 |
1809 | 1968 -1984 | Lockheed | P3-C | several 100*** |
4000 | 1963 -? | Air Force | Minuteman mobile installation | ?
|
*Additional 3250 series units built at Sperry Marine after 1970.
**Nose probe antenna.
***Mostly at Sperry Marine after 1970
3. Crosley based Ground Support EquipmentShown at the right is a Crosley based fueling vehicle which was sold for use at small airports in the late 40's. This was part of the work that Parker brought to the plant because of his previous affiliation with Northwest Airlines. [lab]
I may still have a picture of the ERA Honey Wagon. It was based on a Crosley automobile "strip down": chassis, engine, transmission, running gear, etc., reference http://www.ggw.org. When I first came to Remington Rand Univac in 1956 there were still Crosley parts tucked into corners around the old plant. [Harry Wise]
As for other RRU airborne products, an advertisement in a military publication associated with
the annual Aeronautical Electronics Conference in Dayton, Ohio, featured the
following products:
1. Magnetic Storage Drums
2. Automatic Antenna Couplers
3. Analog-to-Digital Converter
4. Magnetic Core Storage Matrix
5. Miniature Pulse Transformer
I presented one of the 122 papers at this conference, which was featured in the same publication. [Marc Shoquist]
This UNIVAC advertisement scanned from the 1956 Military Electronics magazine shows Magnetic Storage Drums, Automatic Antenna Coupler, Analog to Digital Converter, Magnetic Core Storage (core plane shown), and Miniature Pulse Transformers. [lab]
VIP Page 41 updated 20 January, 2010