AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 2008 - (Page 113) AOPAPILOT 50 years The 36-pound radio Lightweight avionics are here BY IAN J. TWOMBLY nswer: Despite navigation and communication radios becoming lighter and more reliable, and autopilots gaining traction among small aircraft operators, some pilots refused to come into the times and give up the plotter and flight computer. Question: What is 1958? Oh, I’m sorry, we were looking for 2008. It may be surprising, but the truth remains. Radios and autopilots dominated the pages of The AOPA Pilot’s first A issue in March 1958, much as they do today. Niche companies offering things such as plotters and E-6B wind-triangle (flight) computers filled the ranks of the advertisers. Funny how every pilot who learns to fly today is still taught how to use a plotter and flight computer, eh? Of all the advertisements in the magazine’s first issue that dealt with gear This beautifully restored Lear directional gyro (front) is part of one of the most popular autopilots of the late 1950s. Tactair’s T-3 was cheaper, albeit slightly less functional. (loosely defined as avionics and pilot supplies), roughly two-thirds were from radio and autopilot manufacturers, many of which are still in business today. Pilots with a little more life experience will recognize names such as Tactair, Globe, Sun Air, Nova-Tech, and of course Lear. Narco (National Aeronautical Corp.), and Mitchell (better known as Century) were on the pages and still proliferate in today’s airplanes. A sampling of other advertisers includes Safe Flight, which still produces scores of products for business and commercial aviation, float-maker Edo, Puritan Compressed PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FIZER AOPA PILOT • 113 • MARCH 2008
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