I received the very sad news that Bob Archer has passed away this past weekend...I think we all owe him a "thanks" for what he contributed to Sport Aviation over the many decades.
Below is a short biography that I understand Bob wrote when he was felling better. It's in 2 posts due to length. My condolences to the family, it's been a pleasure dealing with Bob over the decades. He was quite a character and a veritable wealth of knowledge.
Best Regards,
Stein
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob has been a member of EAA Chapter 96 since 1990 and an EAA member since 1968. In that time he has served on the chapter?s BOD and has been a resource to anyone looking for information regarding aircraft antennas.
But let?s get back to a start point. Born in Milwaukee in 1931, Bob lived there until, at the age of 13, his parents moved to California. He graduated from Redondo Beach Union High school in 1949. The ?Draft? was a pretty sure thing back then, so these were rough times for young guys. The Korean War started in 1950 and Bob tried to join the Air Force. But the Air Force had quotas at the time so he had to wait. In the mean time he got drafted, took the physical and was told to wait. The rule was that after a 90-day period if he was not called he could do as he pleased or wait to be recalled. He was not called in the 90-day period after the physical and then immediately enlisted in the Air Force.
In the Air Force, Bob was sent to technician school where he studied ground-based search radars; then was trained on new type radar and sent immediately to Korea. Bob got there, but the radar systems did not. Instead, he was assigned to an auto-tracking ground based radar north of the 38th parallel. Here he tracked our inbound bombers and, on dark nights and in bad weather, vectored them to their targets and told them when to drop their bombs. Reassigned to the U.S. (in the winter of 54-55), he was sent to Nevada where, with the auto-tracking radar, they tracked incoming fighter-bombers that were practicing toss bombing [?loft? bombing] on the live A-bomb tests. He witnessed about a dozen tests.
Leaving the service and getting back to the civilian world, Bob started with the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1955. He began doing radar check outs on the A3Ds, but they over-staffed and he was laid off after only three months. At that point, Bob joined a company that made radomes for most of the other aerospace companies. This is where he really started into antenna technology. In 1958, he joined a company that was to become TRW Space and Defense in Redondo Beach. He was with them for 35 years (retiring in 1993).
During his TRW career, Bob?s work included being sent to England ? there to install a feed for the Jodrell Bank radio telescope. The telescope was meant to track * what became a deep space probe after the window for the proposed Venus probe closed. * (The probe was tracked to 96 million miles on 5 watts of power after the high power transmitter failed.) Bob was also sent back to Nevada for later A bomb tests, his job there being to investigate the power and effects of a ?real world? A-bomb elecro-magnetic pulse. Among his assignments at TRW were also two periods of banishment to Montana. The first was to do electronic noise and soil conductivity measurements prior to the installation of Minuteman missiles, and the second was to do noise measurements and site surveys prior to the implementation of the *Looking Glass * program. (? Looking Glass? was to be the airborne launch control centers for the ?Minute Man? missiles that were to be used if the ground control centers were bombed out). There was a two-month trip to Cape Canaveral in late 1960 to do an antenna study for what was called the Advanced Space Guidance System. There were a lot of missile launches during that period. Bob also received a patent for the company for a *dish feed antenna* that is probably the most efficient dish feed ever conceived. It is circularly polarized and is called a ?Backfire Bifilar Helix Antenna?. Subsequently, it was used on the Fleet-Sat-Com series of military communications satellites. The last 12 years of Bob?s employment at TRW was spent, as the manager of what was then the world?s largest anechoic RF testing chamber working on many classified projects. The Air Force and Boeing have since built larger test chambers.
Bob was bitten by the aviation bug at a young age and it was reinforced when his mother bought him an airplane ride for his eighth birthday ? it was in a Stinson Reliant. Bob joined the Civil Air Patrol while in high school and received some stick time. In 1959 while at Jodrel Bank in England, he met a fellow worker that was a sailplane pilot and got turned on to sailplanes. Returning to the US, he joined the So Cal Soaring Assoc and learned to fly gliders. He got his power ticket at Compton in 1961? so he could fly out to the desert to fly sailplanes. He rented airplanes from the old Compton Flying Club. Wanting an airplane of his own he surveyed the field of used airplanes. After about two years he decided the best bang for the buck would be a Bellanca Cruiseair, It was a low wing 4-place tail dragging retractable which had good performance and was reported in all the literature to be a very fine handling airplane. In April of 1964 he bought a 1946 Bellanca. He got it right the first time and still has it after rebuilding it twice. In July of 1964 on the first long trip in the new to him airplane he had a takeoff accident at the old Hales Corners airport in, guess where, Hales Corners, Wisconsin- a suburb of Milwaukee. The reason being the Airomatic propeller that didn?t auto. The trip back to California with a damaged airplane on a former chicken coop trailer pulled by a gift 1955 rusted out Pontiac, from a brother in law, with two kids and a wife would be a story in itself. Maybe a book. The airplane was rebuilt including the installation of a Lycoming O-360 engine and propeller off the front of a Comanche 180 that a partner (Slim Kidwell) in the antenna business was replacing with a 250 Lycoming engine. The story of getting the engine and prop installation approved by FAA could be another whole book. In the early sixties Bob and a fellow worker at TRW started a small co. making internal zero drag aircraft antennas after they became aware of what they recognized as some really bad antennas and antenna installations. They came up with several antenna designs and decided that the Beechcraft Bonanzas were a prime target for some good antennas.
The main problem was that Bonanzas have metal wing tips and antennas must have fiberglass or at least non-conductive material to see through. So they copied the late model Bonanza wide wing tips in fiberglass and got them approved by FAA. Sounds easy saying it like that doesn?t it. While they sold a few, they were not well received because of a NIH (not invented here) syndrome at Beechcraft. They installed a set of antennas in a new Bonanza for Beechcraft and soon received a letter from them advising us that only large companies such as Beechcraft could do such hi-tech science as designing antennas for aircraft. Of course they didn?t know about the 96 million mile on 5 watts antennas they designed and built for spacecraft. After a few years his partner gave up and just let Bob have what was left of the business. He has sold a number of antennas over the years, mostly to T-18 builders. With the advent of all glass airplanes in the early 90?s, more airplane owners started looking at the drag penalty of antennas and the benefits of Bob?s internal antenna installations.
Below is a short biography that I understand Bob wrote when he was felling better. It's in 2 posts due to length. My condolences to the family, it's been a pleasure dealing with Bob over the decades. He was quite a character and a veritable wealth of knowledge.
Best Regards,
Stein
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob has been a member of EAA Chapter 96 since 1990 and an EAA member since 1968. In that time he has served on the chapter?s BOD and has been a resource to anyone looking for information regarding aircraft antennas.
But let?s get back to a start point. Born in Milwaukee in 1931, Bob lived there until, at the age of 13, his parents moved to California. He graduated from Redondo Beach Union High school in 1949. The ?Draft? was a pretty sure thing back then, so these were rough times for young guys. The Korean War started in 1950 and Bob tried to join the Air Force. But the Air Force had quotas at the time so he had to wait. In the mean time he got drafted, took the physical and was told to wait. The rule was that after a 90-day period if he was not called he could do as he pleased or wait to be recalled. He was not called in the 90-day period after the physical and then immediately enlisted in the Air Force.
In the Air Force, Bob was sent to technician school where he studied ground-based search radars; then was trained on new type radar and sent immediately to Korea. Bob got there, but the radar systems did not. Instead, he was assigned to an auto-tracking ground based radar north of the 38th parallel. Here he tracked our inbound bombers and, on dark nights and in bad weather, vectored them to their targets and told them when to drop their bombs. Reassigned to the U.S. (in the winter of 54-55), he was sent to Nevada where, with the auto-tracking radar, they tracked incoming fighter-bombers that were practicing toss bombing [?loft? bombing] on the live A-bomb tests. He witnessed about a dozen tests.
Leaving the service and getting back to the civilian world, Bob started with the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1955. He began doing radar check outs on the A3Ds, but they over-staffed and he was laid off after only three months. At that point, Bob joined a company that made radomes for most of the other aerospace companies. This is where he really started into antenna technology. In 1958, he joined a company that was to become TRW Space and Defense in Redondo Beach. He was with them for 35 years (retiring in 1993).
During his TRW career, Bob?s work included being sent to England ? there to install a feed for the Jodrell Bank radio telescope. The telescope was meant to track * what became a deep space probe after the window for the proposed Venus probe closed. * (The probe was tracked to 96 million miles on 5 watts of power after the high power transmitter failed.) Bob was also sent back to Nevada for later A bomb tests, his job there being to investigate the power and effects of a ?real world? A-bomb elecro-magnetic pulse. Among his assignments at TRW were also two periods of banishment to Montana. The first was to do electronic noise and soil conductivity measurements prior to the installation of Minuteman missiles, and the second was to do noise measurements and site surveys prior to the implementation of the *Looking Glass * program. (? Looking Glass? was to be the airborne launch control centers for the ?Minute Man? missiles that were to be used if the ground control centers were bombed out). There was a two-month trip to Cape Canaveral in late 1960 to do an antenna study for what was called the Advanced Space Guidance System. There were a lot of missile launches during that period. Bob also received a patent for the company for a *dish feed antenna* that is probably the most efficient dish feed ever conceived. It is circularly polarized and is called a ?Backfire Bifilar Helix Antenna?. Subsequently, it was used on the Fleet-Sat-Com series of military communications satellites. The last 12 years of Bob?s employment at TRW was spent, as the manager of what was then the world?s largest anechoic RF testing chamber working on many classified projects. The Air Force and Boeing have since built larger test chambers.
Bob was bitten by the aviation bug at a young age and it was reinforced when his mother bought him an airplane ride for his eighth birthday ? it was in a Stinson Reliant. Bob joined the Civil Air Patrol while in high school and received some stick time. In 1959 while at Jodrel Bank in England, he met a fellow worker that was a sailplane pilot and got turned on to sailplanes. Returning to the US, he joined the So Cal Soaring Assoc and learned to fly gliders. He got his power ticket at Compton in 1961? so he could fly out to the desert to fly sailplanes. He rented airplanes from the old Compton Flying Club. Wanting an airplane of his own he surveyed the field of used airplanes. After about two years he decided the best bang for the buck would be a Bellanca Cruiseair, It was a low wing 4-place tail dragging retractable which had good performance and was reported in all the literature to be a very fine handling airplane. In April of 1964 he bought a 1946 Bellanca. He got it right the first time and still has it after rebuilding it twice. In July of 1964 on the first long trip in the new to him airplane he had a takeoff accident at the old Hales Corners airport in, guess where, Hales Corners, Wisconsin- a suburb of Milwaukee. The reason being the Airomatic propeller that didn?t auto. The trip back to California with a damaged airplane on a former chicken coop trailer pulled by a gift 1955 rusted out Pontiac, from a brother in law, with two kids and a wife would be a story in itself. Maybe a book. The airplane was rebuilt including the installation of a Lycoming O-360 engine and propeller off the front of a Comanche 180 that a partner (Slim Kidwell) in the antenna business was replacing with a 250 Lycoming engine. The story of getting the engine and prop installation approved by FAA could be another whole book. In the early sixties Bob and a fellow worker at TRW started a small co. making internal zero drag aircraft antennas after they became aware of what they recognized as some really bad antennas and antenna installations. They came up with several antenna designs and decided that the Beechcraft Bonanzas were a prime target for some good antennas.
The main problem was that Bonanzas have metal wing tips and antennas must have fiberglass or at least non-conductive material to see through. So they copied the late model Bonanza wide wing tips in fiberglass and got them approved by FAA. Sounds easy saying it like that doesn?t it. While they sold a few, they were not well received because of a NIH (not invented here) syndrome at Beechcraft. They installed a set of antennas in a new Bonanza for Beechcraft and soon received a letter from them advising us that only large companies such as Beechcraft could do such hi-tech science as designing antennas for aircraft. Of course they didn?t know about the 96 million mile on 5 watts antennas they designed and built for spacecraft. After a few years his partner gave up and just let Bob have what was left of the business. He has sold a number of antennas over the years, mostly to T-18 builders. With the advent of all glass airplanes in the early 90?s, more airplane owners started looking at the drag penalty of antennas and the benefits of Bob?s internal antenna installations.
