Don’t forget to renew your membership in the Museum Club. October starts the new fiscal year, so down-load a registration form and fill it in. Send it with your membership fee to Dick Siefers.
We have begun an effort to capture all of those interesting company-related stories that you’ve been telling each other - but haven’t written down yet.
Terry Lamb has stepped up and entered the first one. Thanks Terry!
Click the link at the bottom of this story to find the stories page. If you wish, you can get started on your story by selecting "0n-line" or "Down-load a Form".
If you choose on-line, you will be able to review and re-edit your input.
Remember, your story will be reviewed by our editor before it will appear in the collection. Read Stories
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Send mail-in contributions to:
Cheryl Tillman
Rockwell Collins, Inc.
MS 131-100
400 Collins Road NE
Cedar Rapids, IA 52498
Museum Open to Public
by: Lawrence Robinson
posted: March 12, 2012
In an experiment, the company is opening the museum to limited public tours.
The tours will be offered from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesdays, and will leave promptly from the south entrance of building 120. Arrangements can be made by calling Lawrence Robinson at 295-1698.
Because of security requirements a passport or driver?s license is needed to provide identification.
Public Inquiry
by: Larry Tjaden
posted: January 28, 2012
The Rockwell Collins Museum is always looking for interesting artifacts to add to its collection.
Is your basement presently harboring a mysterious piece of electronics, perhaps an engineering model of an early product? Did a family member ask you to store a black box saying, "Keep this - someday it may be of interest to a Museum?" If so, contact our Museum Curator, Lawrence Robinson with a description of your treasure. Send an email here.
Collins Radio Company Records
by: Ghis Devlaminck
posted: November 10, 2011
Many of the early Collins Radio Company records are stored at the University of Iowa Special Collections & University Archives.
June 8th, 1944 Collins Employee, Lt. Melvin Forey, was Killed In Action.
June 14th, 1944 Collins Employee, Cpl. Leonard Modraccek, was Killed In Action.
History CoP Presentation for September
Collins’ Role in Space Communications
by: Larry Tjaden
posted: September 10, 2012
Presented by Jim Shanklin - who was there to witness the day-to-day management of this huge Collins Radio Co. project.
Jim’s presentation is loaded with detail about almost every box, test rack, and antenna we produced for the programs. Even today, we are proud to say, "Every voice from space was transmitted through a Collins Radio."
The last flying Boeing B-29 WWII bomber was welcomed back to Cedar Rapids for several days in July. Many tours were flown over the city - much to the enjoyment to those who heard and spotted this magnificent aircraft overhead.
This historic flight was in unison with the restoration of the entire operational ART-13 Collins vintage radio suite provided by Rockwell Collins Amateur Radio Clubs and other volunteers.
Many thanks to the Commemorative Air Force for bringing "FIFI" to Cedar Rapids.
The First Ten Years
A YouTube Video by: Gary Halverson
by: Larry Tjaden
posted: July 10, 2012
A 22-minute overview of the first ten years of Collins Radio. Introduces Art Collins, the radio landscape of the late 1920’s and early 1930?’s, then overviews 5 pre-war Collins transmitters.
Produced by WA9MZU (now K6GLH) in 1998 for the Collins Collectors Association Convention in Dallas as part of J.B. Jenkins’, W5EU, presentation on the early history of Collins Radio.
Rockwell Collins Museum Curator, Lawrence Robinson presented part one of his slide show on the "Fabulous Fifties". In this installment, he introduced to the CoP’s 135+ attendees, a dozen or so of the company’s most innovative employees and several of their ground-breaking creations. He brought with him a number of artifacts from the Museum.
Retired employee, James Shanklin, made an excellent presentation on his father’s carrier here at Rockwell Collins as the Lead Antenna Engineer. John Pack Shanklin joined the Collins Radio Co. in 1947 and worked here until his untimely death in 1956.
Follow our BLOG as we transcend from: ’Unit-Received’ to ’Torn-Into-A-Million-Pieces’ to ’Put-All-Back-Together-Again’.
read the blog
VOLUNTEER PROJECT
Friends of the Beechcraft StarShip
by: Larry Tjaden
posted: October 27, 2012
One of our Museum Club’s artifact restoration projects is the Beechcraft StarShip Avionics Hot Mock-up.
We have recovered, and have in our back room, the original StarShip Avionics - Laboratory Hot Mock-up.
Anyone interested in helping get this worthy project rolling, please contact our Museum Curator, Lawrence Robinson.
Contact him by email.
ART-13 Autototune® Demo
by: Larry Tjaden
posted: July 1, 2012
Rockwell Collins Museum Club member, Julius Yoder, has recently donated an ART-13 Autotune® demonstration unit to the Museum. This unit is a fully operational lower section of the famous ART-13 transmitter. The WWII-era product, built by the Collins Radio Co., featured a state-of-the-art (at the time) 10-channel five-station automatic re-tuning system.
This wonderful addition to the Museum will make it very easy for us Tour Guides to describe the operation of the ART-13. Thanks Julius!
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While serving in the Air Force, Julius performed maintenance on the ART-13, including the mechanisms in the demonstration unit. As an Amateur Radio Operator, he has been collecting ART-13 spare parts and notes that, "Someday he wishes to put one of these little babes back on the air."
Julius was also responsible for rebuilding, among other components, the fully functional radio operator?s station for "FIFI" - the last flying B-29 bomber.
VOLUNTEER PROJECT
Indexing Collins Column Magazines
by: Larry Tjaden
posted: January 27, 2012
Museum Club member, Rod Blocksome is spearheading a project to catalog all of the the people’s names mentioned in every one of the first 45 issues of Collins Column. The task at hand is to transcribe every name and page number from an assigned issue into an Excel Spreadsheet that he has prepared. When completed, a viewer will be able to search for any person’s name mentioned in the collection. If you are interested in joining Rod with this project, send him an email. We could use your help - there are still lots of issues left...
