1932 – First airline with airborne television
reception (a one-time event). The broadcast, from an experimental TV
station, features a then-unknown actress named Loretta Young
"Western Airlines was born out of the same
pioneering spirit that settled the American West."
Jerry Grinstein, Western (and future Delta) chairman and CEO, on
Western's 60th anniversary in 1986.
When it merged with Delta in 1987, Western was the oldest
continuously operating airline in the United States. Service
started April 17, 1926, when Western Air Express took off
carrying mail from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City.
Western quickly launched a long string of industry firsts.
Adversity and practical business needs spawned innovations in
radio communications, weather tracking, marketing and in-flight
services. Some are still in use today.
Highlights
1926 – Western flies its first mail on
April 17, and begins carrying passengers on May 23. The
company owns six open-cockpit Douglas M-2 planes, has 24
employees and operates out of an old hangar that had been a
former movie studio.
1926 – In June, Western carries the
first woman passenger in U.S. commercial airline history
(Maude Campbell).
1927 – First U.S. airline to pay a cash
dividend to stockholders.
1928 – First airline to fly a tri-motor
(3-engine) plane in the United States, the Fokker F-10.
1928 – Western begins developing the
basis for today's air-to-ground communications and weather
forecasting. Establishes 37 weather stations along its
"model" airway route (Los Angeles-San
Francisco)—achieving a 99% on-time performance. Uses the
first directional radio compass for air navigation in 1930,
and with the Boeing Aircraft Company, develops and uses the
first air-to-ground radio.
1930 – Western has the largest air
system in the world, covering 16,000 miles with 40 aircaft.
1930
– First airline to fly a 4-engine passenger plane in the
United States, the Fokker F-32. Western also offered the
first reclining seats for airline passengers in the F-32.
1932 – First airline with airborne
television reception (a one-time event). The broadcast, from
an experimental TV station, features a then-unknown actress
named Loretta Young.
1938 – First airline to place
typewriters onboard for passenger use.
1950 – First airline to use a conveyor
belt system for loading and unloading aircraft.
1954 – First airline with luxurious
"Champagne Flights," offering complimentary
champagne, steaks, corsages, perfume and cigars.
Mar
21, 1999 – He was the
on-board announcer for the first airborne
telecast, from a United Airlines plane flying low over New
York City on March 6, 1940, and...
books.google.com/books?id=ayAEAAAAMBAJ...136
pages - Magazine First airborne video show to be presented
over a commercial station was ... If this was Grauer's first
time it would be forgivable, but he's been on enough telecasts... More
book results »
books.google.com/books?isbn=1582296545...Carl
D. Windsor - 2006 - History - 384 pages ... in Paris 1932—First telecast
received in an airplane 1934—Oskaloosa, Iowa, ... citizens
1956—United States conducted first airborne
test of hydrogen bomb ...
Early Broadcast Equipment
World War Two Airborne TV Camera
As early as August 1936, Lt Cdr D.S. Fahrney of the
U.S. Navy suggested the development of unmanned remotely-controlled
aircraft for use in combat. A low-priority program to develop these
aircraft, called "assault drones" at that time, was begun, but
progress was slow because necessary technology was simply non-existing.
However, around 1940 two new key components were ready for testing, the
radar altimeter (to prevent the drone from flying into terrain) and
television (to make guidance from a stand-off distance possible).
At the beginning of World War Two, RCA focused its TV
engineering effort on developing military uses for television. A smaller
version of the Iconoscope, the 1846, was developed to be put in a
lightweight camera. In 1941, converted manned aircraft were flown under
remote control, where the operator in the control plane no longer needed
to keep visual contact with the drone but could instead watch a TV screen
with an image from a drone-mounted camera. In April 1942, a TV-controlled
drone was successfully guided into a target ship from a control aircraft
50 km (30 miles) away.
Navy LBE-1 "Glomb" television-equipped glider,
was towed by the pilor plane to within a short distance of the target,
then released.
RCA's first system, called the Block I, was first
orderd by the military in 1942. It consisted of the camera and
transmitter, which were located in a wooden glide bomber, which was
carried aloft under a B-17 bomber; and a receiver, which was located in
the B-17. For information on the various television systems developed by
RCA, see Maurice
Schechter's page. Many of these cameras were sold after the war as
military surplus and were used by radio
amateurs for television broadcasting. Here is an RCA document titled
"RCA's Contribution to the War Effort Through Television, 1937-1946
which describes the project in detail:
Must Fly TV: JetBlue Airways and DIRECTV AIRBORNE™ Give the
NBC Peacock Real Wings
Must Fly TV: JetBlue Airways and DIRECTV AIRBORNE™ Give the NBC
Peacock Real Wings
WNBC and Telemundo Make TV History As The
First Broadcast and Spanish-Language Networks Live Inflight
EL SEGUNDO, CA and NEW YORK, September 24, 2002 - JetBlue Airways (Nasdaq:
JBLU), NBC and DIRECTV Inc., announced today that WNBC and Telemundo are
the first broadcast and Spanish-language networks ever to
air live inflight on a commercial airline, via the DIRECTV AIRBORNE™
service aboard JetBlue.
WNBC, the New York City-based NBC owned and operated station, and
Telemundo, the second largest U.S. Spanish-language television network,
also owned by NBC, will join CNBC and MSNBC as part of the up to 24
channels of real-time programming available.
DIRECTV AIRBORNE is the DIRECTV programming service for commercial
airlines delivered through the LiveTV™ inflight entertainment system.
JetBlue is the only commercial airline in the world to offer the DIRECTV
AIRBORNE service free of charge at every seat.
"JetBlue customers don't have to set their VCRs when they travel
now to catch up with Katie and Matt, Joey and Rachel, and Jay and
Conan," said David Neeleman, CEO of JetBlue. "They'll watch
their shows live in comfy leather seats as they're en route to our 19
destinations. And New Yorkers will be able to catch up on local news
flying JetBlue, no matter where they are in the U.S."
"We couldn't be more pleased to add WNBC and Telemundo to the
channel offerings onboard JetBlue Airways via our partnership with
DIRECTV," said David Zaslav, President, NBC Cable. "In
addition to CNBC and MSNBC, passengers will now have access to NBC's
quality programming and all of their 'Must See TV' favorites as well as
the hit Spanish language shows on Telemundo."
"This is an exciting addition to the DIRECTV AIRBORNE programming
lineup," said Michael Thornton, senior vice president, Programming
Acquisitions, DIRECTV, Inc. "JetBlue's passengers will now be able
to watch the same top-rated NBC TV and Telemundo shows in the air that
they customarily watch at home, giving them the ultimate inflight
entertainment experience."
WNBC, which holds the first license for a commercial television station,
has an audience reach that includes parts of Connecticut, New Jersey,
New York and Pennsylvania. WNBC broadcasts NBC network programming and
locally produced news, sports, and public affairs programs.
Telemundo, a Spanish-language television network, is the essential
Latin-focused entertainment, news and sports source broadcasting unique
national and local programming for the fastest growing segment of the
U.S. population. With 11 owned and operated stations and more than 50
affiliates, Telemundo reaches 90 percent of U.S. Hispanic viewers.
Telemundo is a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of NBC, the nation's
leading broadcast network.
Launched in 2000, the LiveTV inflight entertainment system and DIRECTV
AIRBORNE programming service offer commercial airline passengers up to
24 channels of real-time DIRECTV® sports, news, children's and general
entertainment programming. JetBlue recently entered into an agreement to
acquire LiveTV, LLC.
WNBC is the first broadcast network to launch on DIRECTV AIRBORNE, which
features a wide array of programming, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNEWS,
ESPN Classic, The Golf Channel, CNBC, Bloomberg Television, CNN Headline
News, The Weather Channel, The Travel Channel, Home and Garden TV, The
Food Network, Game Show Network, A&E, The History Channel, Discovery
Channel, Discovery Kids Channel, The Learning Channel, Animal Planet,
CourtTV, Boomerang, which features classic cartoons from the Cartoon
Network, and DIRECTV's Freeview events, which include music concerts by
well known artists such as U2.
About JetBlue
JetBlue is a low-fare, low-cost passenger airline which provides
high-quality customer service. Since launching operations in February
2000, the airline has served more than eight million passengers. JetBlue
operates a fleet of 31 new Airbus A320 aircraft and is scheduled to
place into service another five new A320s by the end of 2002. All
JetBlue aircraft are outfitted with roomy all-leather seats each
equipped with free live satellite television, offering up to 24 channels
of DIRECTV® programming at every seat.* With JetBlue, all seats are
assigned, all travel is ticketless, all fares are one-way, and a
Saturday night stay is never required. For more information, schedules
and fares, please visit www.jetblue.com
or call JetBlue reservations at 1-800-JETBLUE (538-2583).
*DIRECTV® service is not available on flights between New York City and
San Juan, Puerto Rico.
About NBC
The nation's first broadcast network, NBC has evolved into a diverse,
international media company. In addition to the NBC Television Network
and 14 NBC television stations, the company owns CNBC, operates MSNBC in
partnership with Microsoft, and maintains interests in a number of
programming services, including the A&E Network, the History
Channel, ValueVision, Inc. (ShopNBC), Paxson Communications, and Rainbow
Media Holdings. In addition, NBC operates Telemundo, the nation's
second-largest Spanish-language media company. NBC also has equity
stakes in several new media companies. International holdings include
CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia Pacific, which are services of NBC and Dow
Jones, and an equity position in National Geographic Channels
International.
About DIRECTV
DIRECTV is the nation's leading digital satellite television service
provider with more than 10.7 million customers. DIRECTV, the Cyclone
Design logo and DIRECTV AIRBORNE are trademarks of DIRECTV, Inc., a unit
of Hughes Electronics Corporation. HUGHES is the world's leading
provider of digital television entertainment, broadband services,
satellite-based private business networks, and global video and data
broadcasting. The earnings of HUGHES, a unit of General Motors
Corporation, are used to calculate the earnings attributable to the
General Motors Class H common stock (NYSE: GMH). Visit DIRECTV on the
World Wide Web at DIRECTV.com.
Westinghouse and Glenn L. Martin employees pose with B-29
Superfortress used in Stratovision tests. In rear row from left
are Frank Gordon Mullins and C.E. Nobles, head of Stratovision for
Westinghouse.
Stratovision was an airborne television transmission relay
system from aircraft flying at high altitudes. In 1945 the Glenn L.
Martin Co. and Westinghouse
Electric Corporation advocated television coverage of small towns
and rural areas as well as the large metropolitan centers by fourteen
aircraft that would provide coverage for approximately 78% of the people
in the U.S.A.
This system has been used for domestic broadcasting in the U.S.A, used
by the U.S. military in Vietnam
and other countries, and unsuccessfully attempted by pirate
radio operators.
Because the broadcasting antenna for Stratovision is usually hung
beneath the aircraft in flight, it naturally has a great command of a line
of sight. Although transmission distances are dependent upon
atmospheric conditions, a transmitting antenna 30,000 feet (9 km)
above the Earth's surface has a line of sight distance of approximately
211 statute miles (340 km).
A Stratovision 25 kW transmitter operating from 30,000 feet (9 km)
at 600 megahertz will achieve a field
intensity of 2 millivolts per meter for a 30-foot (9 m) high
receiving antenna up to 238 miles (383 km) away from the aircraft.
The second phase of testing was undertaken by these companies using a
stripped-down B-29
Superfortress flying at 30,000 feet (9.1 km). The plane was
equipped to receive a relay transmission from WMAR-TV, the
Westinghouse television studios in Baltimore, which was then relayed
over a 5 kW video transmitter and a 1 kW audio transmitter for
reception on 82-88 MHz with a television set tuned to Channel 6.
The aircraft received its originating signals from circular dipoles
attached to a streamlined eight-foot (2.5 m) mast on top of the
aircraft's vertical tail fin. The retractable 28 feet (8.5 m) long
broadcasting antenna hung vertically beneath the aircraft. It was
composed of a two-element turnstile array for video and a single-element
circular dipole for sound transmissions.
The receivers, transmitters and necessary air-conditioning were all
powered by the plane's engines using three 15 kVA, 500 Hz
alternators. Without air conditioning the transmitters in the interior
of the aircraft would have generated a temperature of 134 degrees
Fahrenheit (57 degrees Celsius) with an outside air temperature of 25
degrees Fahrenheit (minus 4 degrees Celsius).
On June 23, 1948 the system's airborne transmitter rebroadcast the Republican
National Convention, being held in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, to the surrounding nine-state area during the 9 to 10
pm EDT
time period. As part of the activity, a receiver was set up in a hall in
Zanesville,
Ohio, a small city on the outskirts of the broadcast area (to
demonstrate to the invited newspaper reporters that the system was
capable of reaching "small town and farm homes").[1]
The tests were watched by many television viewers who sent in
reception reports. From these reports it was calculated that
Stratovision would require only eight relay planes to provide a
transcontinental network and six additional planes to provide coverage
to 78 percent of the United States. Mr. C.E. Nobles who was the head of
Stratovision for Westinghouse said in his report:
"The major technical problems of the system have been
solved, and the commercial development awaits only the
crystallization of public demand for the expanded services offered
by airborne broadcasting, application of the system by the radio
industry to meet this demand, and the clarification of channel
facilities available to make possible this application."
In 1961 a nonprofit organization, Midwest
Program on Airborne Television Instruction, commenced a Stratovision
service from the airfield of Purdue University. The effort began as a
three-year experiment funded by the Ford
Foundation. The program organized, produced and transmitted
educational television programs four days a week from a DC-6AB aircraft
flying at 23,000 feet (7,010 m) over the community of Montpelier in
north central Indiana.
MPATI delivered its programs to television channels 72 (call sign
KS2XGA) and 76 (KS2XGD) in the UHF band, by transmitting videotaped
lectures from the aircraft to an estimated potential 5,000,000 students
in 13,000 schools and colleges. The aircraft were equipped with two
2-inch (51 mm) videotape machines and two UHF transmitters.
When MPATI signed on it used an "Indian
head" test pattern card which was shown for five minutes before
and between programs. The service ended in 1968 when it became embroiled
in legal action over their application of Stratovision in a controversy
with the Westinghouse company.
During the war in Vietnam, the United
States Navy also used Stratovision television technology when it
flew Operation Blue Eagle from 1966 to 1972 over the Saigon
area of South
Vietnam. The television programs were aimed at two audiences on two
channels. One was aimed at the general public and the other was intended
for the information and entertainment of US troops who were stationed in
South Vietnam.
Vietnam to get airborne TV Two-channel service - one for Vietnamese, other for U.S. servicemen
- starts this month
Television broadcasting in South
Vietnam ... begins January 21 and it's going to be done from the air.
Two airplanes, circling 10,000 to 20,000 feet [3 to 6 km] above
the ground, will broadcast on two TV channels—one transmitting
Saigon government programs; the other U.S. programs. The project is
being handled by the U.S.
Navy. Also involved are the U.S.
Information Agency and the Agency
for International Development. Work on modifying two LockheedSuper
Constellations has been underway by Navy electronics experts at Andrews
Air Force Base ... The project is an outgrowth of a broadcasting
plane used by the Navy during the Cuban
and Dominican
Republic crises when both radio and television were beamed to home
in those countries.
The same article went on to report that during the Baseball World
Series of October 1965 Stratovision had also been used to bring the
games to the troops. The aircraft had picked up Voice
of America radio broadcasts from California
and relayed the signal to a ground broadcasting station. The Agency for
International Development (AID) had purchased through the military Post
Exchange Service, 1,000 monochrome, 23-inch television sets modified
to operate on a variety of domestic power sources, and which had been
airlifted to South Vietnam on December 28, 1965. They were to be put
into community facilities around Saigon. AID was also spending $2.4
million to supply a total of 2,500 TV sets to South Vietnam.
The entire project was under the control of Captain George C. Dixon,
USN. He claimed to be installing AM, FM, shortwave and TV transmitters
on the aircraft which would get their power from an onboard 100 kW
diesel-fueled generator. The planes would not only relay programs from
film chain kinescopes and video recorders, but they would also have live
cameras to create their own live programs.
Ground transmissions would be received from the aircraft on TV sets
tuned to channel 11 for Armed Forces Television, and channel 9 for
programs in Vietnamese. On radio the broadcasts would be tuned to 1000 kHz
for AM and 99.9 MHz for FM.
On February 7, 1966, Broadcasting magazine reported that after
working out a number of technical problems that the first show on
channel 9 would begin at 7:30 p.m. and feature South Vietnamese
Prime Minister Nguyen
Cao Ky and U.S. Ambassador Cabot
Lodge in a videotaped production, followed by channel 11 at 8 p.m.
with General
Westmoreland introducing a two-hour program which incorporated one
hour of the Grand
Ole Opry filmed in Nashville,
Tennessee.
After that the Vietnamese channel would be seen for one and half hours a
day and the American channel for three hours daily.
The story reported that the Vietnamese had to strain their ears
because the speakers on the TV sets would need to be amplified if they
were going to be heard by a room full of people watching THVN-TV
channel 9. The American programming on NWB-TV channel 11 featured
a line-up of future shows to include Bonanza;
Perry
Mason; The
Ed Sullivan Show and The
Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. The main feature was Bob
Hope in a two-hour special called Hollywood Salute to Vietnam,
followed by half-an-hour of the Grand Ole Opry and another
half-hour of the quiz show I've
Got a Secret.
[edit]1999
NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
More recently, the EC-130
Commando Solo has been used to broadcast information and propaganda
for the United States over a variety of television and radio
frequencies. It has been used in several areas of operation, including Bosnia
and Iraq.
In 1969 news stories began to appear in the United
Kingdom that Ronan
O'Rahilly, the founder of the pirate
radio ship based service called Radio
Caroline, which at that time was not on the air, was about to launch
Caroline
Television instead. His plans called for two aircraft, one in
service and one as a relief, which would transmit commercial television
programs to Britain
by Stratovision. Although these stories continued for some time nothing
became of the project. To date no pirate radio or television service has
ever operated by means of Stratovision.
Today the Stratovision concept is used as a stop-gap measure where
land based transmitters are not possible and where large areas of
territory need to be served with a television program. Due to the advent
of fibre
opticcable
television systems and direct
broadcast satellite services, Stratovision has become unnecessary as
a permanent means of television delivery.
The 1987 film Riders
of the Storm (also known as "The American Way") used a
similar concept, with a group of Vietnam Veterans running a pirate TV
station (S&M TV) from a B-29 that was constantly in flight.
Warning: The information
on this website comes from a time when safety concerns were minimal or did
not exist. Vacuum tube electronics use high voltages and currents
that are dangerous, even potentially deadly. The documents here are
offered for historical or reference purposes. If you choose to use
this information to work on actual circuits you do so at your own risk.
Contact: VacuumTubeEra@inbox.com
Web Site Modified on: 26 July 2010
March 21. Airborne television demonstrated at Anacostia Naval
Air Base, Washington. Method had been developed by RCA in cooperation with
Armed Forces during the war. Brig. Gen. David Sarnoff called system
"monumental progress in widening television's scope of service."
The 3rd
Psychological Operations Battalion (Airborne) is responsible for all
radio, television and print assets for developing psychological operations
products, such as leaflets, posters, handbills, newspapers, radio and
television broadcasts. The 3rd Psychological Operations Battalion is a
subordinate unit of the 4th Psychological Operations Group.
The 3rd Psychological Operations Battalion serves as the Psychological
Operations Dissemination Battalion (PDB) for the 4th Psychological
Operations Group (Airborne), providing, while deployed, media expertise.
It is a functionally-oriented dissemination battalion whose 3 major
companies possess the 4th Psychological Operations Group's organic print,
radio and television broadcast, and audio-visual production and
communication capabilities.
The 3rd Psychological Operations Battalion is capable of deploying
these capabilities or they can be produced by the Battalion at Fort Bragg,
North Carolina and shipped to the forward deployed psychological
operations detachment in theater. If local host nation support agreements
are in place, psychological operations personnel can print on foreign
presses and broadcast from existing stations in theater. The Battalion was
made up of a Headquarters and Headquarters Company, a Print Company, a
Broadcast Company, and a Distribution Company.
The 3rd
Psychological Operations Battalion (Airborne) (Dissemination) was first
constituted on 20 April 1995 in the Regular Army as the 3d Psychological
Operations Battalion. It was activated on 16 November 1995 at Fort Bragg,
North Carolina, with personnel from the Psychological Operations
Dissemination Battalion (Provisional), which was first organized on 11
July 1990 at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. That unit had participated in
Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. As a result, the 3rd
Psychological Operations Battalion (Airborne) (Dissemination) was
authorized campaign streamers for the Defense of Saudi Arabia and
Liberation and Defense of Kuwait.
John Silva never looked down. Fifteen hundred
feet in the air, he decided he needed to exit the
cockpit of a Bell 47. As the pilot held the
helicopter in a tight hover above the Hollywood
Hills, Silva stared straight ahead, gripped the
frame of the cockpit, stepped onto the skid, and
edged back toward a long aluminum box. "I was
dedicated in my heart to making this work,"
he says, explaining his vertigo-defying act 50
years later. "And my calculations told me it
would."
Only it wouldn't, yet.
Tracing innovation back to its origin can be
tricky; a single concept is often rooted in more
than one source. But in 1957, John Silva, alone,
got it. Earlier, as chief engineer at Paramount
Pictures' KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles, he'd
designed television camera trucks to broadcast
from the scene of breaking news. Groundbreaking
stuff in the early 1950s. But Silva, a former Navy
radar officer, was not satisfied.
He began thinking about ways to stay ahead of
his rivals. "I was on the Hollywood Freeway
one morning and it hit me," he says. The next
advance for the video age: an airborne remote.
Silva wasn't thinking of a camera carried by a
fixed-wing vehicle. He needed something that could
hover. "The logical next step had to be a
helicopter," he says.
Wary of competitors, he confided in no one. On
topographic maps Silva plotted signal propagation
from hundreds of points around Los Angeles County
to a receiving dish atop Mount Wilson, 25 miles to
the north. The connected dots proved that with a
2-watt, 2-gigahertz microwave signal, coverage was
possible.
The bad news: Technical difficulties. No
existing TV transmitting antenna would fit on a
helicopter. And the standard remote camera
configuration would result in a payload weighing
one ton. Getting up close from altitude would
require a 100-mm lens, and zoomed shots demanded
near-Gibraltar stability. So did the fragile
vacuum tubes in the pre-transistor broadcast
equipment. A heavy-lifting eggbeater, rattling
windows and blowing shingles off roofs, would be
banished from city limits by the Civil Aeronautics
Administration. But a lighter, politer
alternative, like the Bell 47, could lift only 368
pounds. And shook like a Magic Fingers motel bed.
Still, Silva presented a proposal to station
manager Lew Arnold. Arnold feared a high-profile
failure, and the resulting fallout from station
owner Paramount. Silva recalls the manager's
advice: "Go back to what you're supposed to
be doing and forget this thing."
John Silva never looked down. Fifteen hundred
feet in the air, he decided he needed to exit
the cockpit of a Bell 47. As the pilot held the
helicopter in a tight hover above the Hollywood
Hills, Silva stared straight ahead, gripped the
frame of the cockpit, stepped onto the skid, and
edged back toward a long aluminum box. "I
was dedicated in my heart to making this
work," he says, explaining his
vertigo-defying act 50 years later. "And my
calculations told me it would."
Only it wouldn't, yet.
Tracing innovation back to its origin can be
tricky; a single concept is often rooted in more
than one source. But in 1957, John Silva, alone,
got it. Earlier, as chief engineer at Paramount
Pictures' KTLA Channel 5 in Los Angeles, he'd
designed television camera trucks to broadcast
from the scene of breaking news. Groundbreaking
stuff in the early 1950s. But Silva, a former
Navy radar officer, was not satisfied.
He began thinking about ways to stay ahead of
his rivals. "I was on the Hollywood Freeway
one morning and it hit me," he says. The
next advance for the video age: an airborne
remote.
Silva wasn't thinking of a camera carried by
a fixed-wing vehicle. He needed something that
could hover. "The logical next step had to
be a helicopter," he says.
Wary of competitors, he confided in no one.
On topographic maps Silva plotted signal
propagation from hundreds of points around Los
Angeles County to a receiving dish atop Mount
Wilson, 25 miles to the north. The connected
dots proved that with a 2-watt, 2-gigahertz
microwave signal, coverage was possible.
The bad news: Technical difficulties. No
existing TV transmitting antenna would fit on a
helicopter. And the standard remote camera
configuration would result in a payload weighing
one ton. Getting up close from altitude would
require a 100-mm lens, and zoomed shots demanded
near-Gibraltar stability. So did the fragile
vacuum tubes in the pre-transistor broadcast
equipment. A heavy-lifting eggbeater, rattling
windows and blowing shingles off roofs, would be
banished from city limits by the Civil
Aeronautics Administration. But a lighter,
politer alternative, like the Bell 47, could
lift only 368 pounds. And shook like a Magic
Fingers motel bed.
Still, Silva presented a proposal to station
manager Lew Arnold. Arnold feared a high-profile
failure, and the resulting fallout from station
owner Paramount. Silva recalls the manager's
advice: "Go back to what you're supposed to
be doing and forget this thing."
But some months later, Arnold was replaced by
Jim Schulke, from Paramount headquarters. Silva
delivered virtually the same pitch to the new
boss. This time, he got a different reaction.
"Jim told me, 'This is fantastic! What are
we waiting for?' "
Schulke shared Silva's fear of being beaten
by competitors. "Pick no more than two or
three people you can trust," he advised.
Engineers Harold Morby and Roy White were taken
into confidence. The team was assigned secure
workspace at Paramount's KTLA lot on Sunset
Boulevard. Under deep cover, the Telecopter, as
it was now called, was born.
Silva flew to New York to conspire with
General Electric engineers. Intrigued by his
unorthodox application, GE's Syracuse lab
designed a microwave antenna that was just three
feet long. It required only a straight shot to
Mount Wilson and a level flight attitude. Back
in Hollywood, Paramount's special effects shop
used GE's blueprints to fabricate the antenna.
The platform chosen was the iconic Bell 47.
An urban-friendly flyabout, "it was the
only viable choice at the time," says Dick
Hart Jr., president of National Helicopter
Service in Van Nuys, which leased the helo to
the station. "The next thing up would have
been something much larger, less reliable, and
hugely more expensive."
So 2,000 pounds of broadcast equipment had to
be sweated down to 368. Any metal that could be
replaced by aluminum, was. To eliminate heavy,
redundant power supplies, all electricity was
produced by the helicopter's generator.
Recent advances in technology also worked in
the team's favor. Instead of the standard
tripod-mounted field camera—the size of a
steamer trunk—Silva acquired a new hand-held
GE vidicon, saving several hundred pounds.
In cloak-and-dagger mode, a Bell 47G2 was
spirited to an "undercover" location:
Dick Hart Sr.'s Studio City back yard. "Dad
had a six-acre lot where we could hide the
copter and nobody could get near," Hart Jr.
says. As Hart Sr. and John Silva supervised,
National Helicopter mechanics and Paramount
engineers hacked, cut, and fit.
Maxing out the payload imposed "all
sorts of issues" on the small helicopter,
Hart Sr. says, "particularly center of
gravity." But the mods proceeded without
the degree of rigor required now. "It was a
more innocent time," he says. "We
could self-approve alterations and installations
using standard [government] data without having
to meet all the engineering and flight test
requirements we'd have to meet today."
Ten days later, the Bell was trucked back to
Van Nuys. Though saddled with nearly every ounce
of the allowed 368 pounds, it aced the CAA's
weight and balance test. On July 3, 1958,
pilot/announcer Larry Scheer took the stick and
John Silva occupied the cameraman/engineer
position. The Telecopter lifted off and flew
southeast over Hollywood, climbing into a line
of sight with Mount Wilson. Silva deployed the
antenna and began transmitting, and Scheer
established two-way radio contact with
technicians at the dish.
From the mountain came the word. But no
picture.
"We were getting terrible vibration from
the helicopter," Silva explains, "and
the heat was horrendous." Knowing that an
inflight failure would be hard to replicate on
the ground for analysis, he made a snap
decision. "I said, 'Larry, I've got to go
out there.' "
Scheer brought the cyclic to neutral and
suspended the -47 above the palms and pastel
stucco. "I told myself, I am not going to
look down," Silva recalls, "and backed
out the door." Hunched on the right skid
with no safety belt, he unlatched the cabinet
containing the TV equipment, checking each
component until he reached the microwave primary
tube. It was dark. Bad vibrations.
Silva inched back into the cockpit and Scheer
swung the helicopter toward Van Nuys. With Morby,
White, and a Paramount machinist, they worked
into the night further insulating equipment from
the shake and bake. Next day, take two. At 12:48
p.m., with the roofs of Hollywood bungalows
framed in the viewfinder, the two-way suddenly
squawked: "We've got you!"
For the next three weeks, the team kept it
all a secret.
On July 24, the station held a closed-circuit
private preview at the Los Angeles Police
Academy in Elysian Park, at which journalists,
police, and fire officials watched, astounded,
as two 27-inch monitors showed a live aerial
shot of the interchange between the Hollywood
and Harbor freeways. Four days later, at 6:30
p.m., KTLA preempted regular programming. In
living rooms from the desert to the beach, the
City of Angels from a thousand feet above—the
gray-scale, low-rise L.A. of old
"Dragnet" episodes—scrolled across
television screens.
Regular broadcasts began on September 15,
1958, with Scheer piloting and Harold Morby as
cameraman/engineer. "We had to fake it at
first," Morby says today, "until we
learned enough about it to work together as
pilot and cameraman. I discovered pretty quick
that I couldn't make fast pans and zooms when we
were in motion."
On the Telecopter's undercarriage,
technicians attached a flashing red "On The
Air" beacon, visible for 30 miles. The whop
of a helicopter and the dazzling light brought
Angelenos bolting outdoors to wave; then they
dashed inside to watch.
Up in the goldfish-bowl cockpit with no
doors, it was "very noisy, very hot,"
Morby says. Preflight sometimes included packing
temperature-sensitive TV equipment with dry ice.
And that "hand-held" camera required
shoulders and back too. "It actually
weighed about 25 pounds," Morby says,
"which got heavy after a few hours."
If the rotor's wood blades absorbed enough
moisture, the rotor would become unbalanced,
transmitting a bossa nova beat through the drive
train and into Morby's live shots. To steady
him, a camera seat was fabricated from
bedsprings.
One problem the team avoided: boredom.
"Sixteen years, 13 emergency
landings," Morby says. Nothing they
couldn't walk away from, though one close call
could have dropped them in the Pacific.
Once a revenue flatliner, local news became a
cash cow. During the Telecopter's first four
months, KTLA sold a record $500,000 of
advertising. Procter & Gamble spent another
$250,000 specifically to sponsor Telecopter
coverage.
In 1959, the project's success earned an
upgrade. Telecopter number 2, a Bell 47J2,
offered greater interior space, as well as
increases in lift and range. All equipment was
interior-mounted, obviating extravehicular
troubleshooting.
Other channels began conceding KTLA's
advantage. Minutes after an Orange County train
wreck, Scheer and Morby were above the action.
Three live airborne newscasts were already
wrapped before a Channel 11 truck rumbled up. As
the Telecopter circled above, "the crew got
out and just stood there, looking up at
us," Harold Morby says.
At some historic moments, the Telecopter was
the only vantage point that was available.
On December 14, 1963, high above the Los
Angeles suburb of Baldwin Hills, a hilltop
reservoir dam developed a crack. KTLA
interrupted its sedate Sunday morning
programming with Telecopter pilot Don Sides'
terse narration (see
video of the event here). Viewers
looked down on the collapse of the dam in
horrifying real time, watching as 300 million
gallons of water rampaged through the
neighborhood below, killing five people and
destroying 277 homes. The Telecopter coverage is
credited as the first live aerial broadcast of a
disaster.
Two years later, a drunk driving arrest on an
August night in Watts escalated into a
50-square-mile riot. As mobs stoned camera
trucks, the Telecopter remained in the air and
broadcasting. Leaning out the cockpit, Harold
Morby captured exclusives for KTLA and also fed
national networks. Even the LAPD and National
Guard requested live views for tactical
purposes. Morby recalls dodging behind plumes of
arson smoke to evade bullets from a Cadillac
stalking them below. The landmark coverage
earned the first Peabody Award for an airborne
newscast.
By the late 1960s, John Silva was restless
with monochrome and the limitations of piston
power.
Paramount had sold KTLA to Gene Autry's
Golden West Broadcasters, and the small screen
was blooming with living color. Silva was
fascinated by a shot in the film Funny Girl, a
long, rock-solid zoom from a helicopter. He
learned that a gyro-stabilized platform had been
developed for 35-mm movie cameras, and traced
the inventor to a small Canadian company. The
two collaborated on a version compatible with
television cameras.
Silva sat down with Autry and laid out a
big-ticket proposal: acquire a Bell Jet Ranger
and create the world's first color Telecopter.
Autry, once the Singing Cowboy, was also a World
War II C-47 pilot and lifelong aviation
enthusiast. Silva remembers Autry's response:
"Spend whatever it takes, John. Just do it
right."
Telecopter number 3 debuted with
turbine-powered, gyro-stabilized, color coverage
of the 1969 Rose Bowl parade. With that advance,
Silva established the prototype of the
newsgathering helicopter that prevails today.
Since then, a specialized breed of aviator
has evolved, one adapted to the medium of live
television. "We don't fly like normal
pilots," says Desiree Horton, a contract
news pilot for several Los Angeles channels.
Today, at the stick of a jet Eurocopter on her
way to breaking news, she explains how the job
is distinctive. The shortest path to
time-critical events is a straight line through
busy, controlled airspace. After takeoff, Horton
must secure first-come, first-serve clearance
across the city ASAP, or risk being diverted by
a controller swamped with requests from
competitors.
Once on site, a skill set specific to live TV
kicks in. Sharp movements can "tumble"
even cameras that have been gyro-stabilized, so
flight technique is constrained. When
"getting vertical"—shooting straight
down—gyro-stability is weakest. Avoiding
vertical while covering a high-speed, zigzagging
police pursuit requires concentration and
dexterity.
On morning and afternoon flights, Horton's
flying has to avoid angles at which the
California sun can zap the lens. Bright white
buildings and rooftops play havoc with color
balance, so she maneuvers those out of the shot
too. Through it all, the helicopter must be
oriented so the belly-mounted microwave beam
clears the skids and camera pod.
Another necessary skill: "parked"
hovering, high above a protracted incident (like
an all-day hostage drama). Long-duration
hovering can be draining. "It's really an
odd sensation to hover out of ground effect at
high altitude for so long," says Horton.
"Sometimes we'll hang there for two or
three hours on a story, then go refuel, and come
back and hover some more. And though you're only
hovering, you're still flying that aircraft
every second. But it's really more mentally
tiring than physically."
With every major L.A. television station
having a news helicopter (there are eight
total), the pilots are rivals, but they're
amiable too. Horton maintains air-to-air chatter
with the competition. "When you're flying
news in L.A.," she explains, "you've
got eight other helicopters racing you to get to
the scene first. We're talking all the
way." Pilots know their stations are
monitoring live images from other channels'
helicopters. "Basically we're expected to
get that same shot, or something better,"
Horton says.
In John Silva's Los Angeles home, an Emmy
award for inventing the Telecopter stands next
to a model of little Telecopter 1. Only days
from the golden anniversary of that first
airborne broadcast, 88-year-old Silva is not
looking back—or down. I wonder how he feels
watching high-def coverage beamed 24/7 from news
choppers like Desiree Horton's today, and
knowing every one is a direct descendant of his
1957 brainstorm.
"I never thought about being a
pioneer," he laughs. "All I ever
wanted to do was get us there and get the
picture—before the competition got it."
Contributor Stephen Joiner writes about
aviation from Southern California.
If anyone is interested in reading
about the Telecopter by the gentleman
who invented it, John Silva, I direct
your attention to an article by him in
Tech-Notes #137 published on March 5,
2007. The link is: http://www.tech-notes.tv/Archive/tech_notes_137.pdf.
The story begins on page 3 but the
detailed part about the Telecopter
begins on page 5.
Larry Bloomfield, KA6UTC
1980 25th St.
Florence, OR 97439
(541) 902-2424 (everything number)
www.Tech-Notes.TV
See you on the Taste of NAB Road Show
Posted by
Larry Bloomfield on March 31,2009 |
05:05 AM
Fascinating article, thanks.
Posted by
The Sanity Inspector on June 5,2009 |
11:44 AM
My Uncle "Mo" is a hero in
our family!!! I am so proud to be part
of a family that was such an important
part of history!
Posted by
Susie Morby Shoemaker on August 30,2009
| 08:20 PM
Nice to remember all this. Growing up
I'd always be at the hangar in burbank,
helping my dad. He was the chief
mechanic there: Edward Ochwatt. He's
passed now, but never forgotten in my
heart.
Bobby.
Posted by
ROBERT OCHWATT on November 16,2009 |
02:34 PM
What ever happened to KTLA's
telecopter pilot Larry Scheer, who did
the reports from the air in the 1970s?
Posted by
elliott alper on December 14,2009 |
04:51 PM
I have great memories of watching the
Channel 5 News Telecopter Reports, on
the Channel 5 News. Living in Burbank,
California as a young boy I really
enjoyed watching these newscasts.
Posted by
Carl Swirkal on December 24,2009 | 05:07
PM
I worked at KTLA from the mid 60's to
the early 80's and remember the
development of the "World's only
Color Jet Telecopter." In one
instance, they landed the Jet Ranger on
a mountain top. Pilot/Reporter Larry
Scheer got out with a cabled microphone
and did an interview. That was unusual.
Much excitement was generated in the
news room when the word went out:
"Chopper's up." Something now
heard at many stations around the
country.
But some months later, Arnold was
replaced by Jim Schulke, from Paramount
headquarters. Silva delivered virtually
the same pitch to the new boss. This time,
he got a different reaction. "Jim
told me, 'This is fantastic! What are we
waiting for?' "
Schulke shared Silva's fear of being
beaten by competitors. "Pick no more
than two or three people you can
trust," he advised. Engineers Harold
Morby and Roy White were taken into
confidence. The team was assigned secure
workspace at Paramount's KTLA lot on
Sunset Boulevard. Under deep cover, the
Telecopter, as it was now called, was
born.
Silva flew to New York to conspire with
General Electric engineers. Intrigued by
his unorthodox application, GE's Syracuse
lab designed a microwave antenna that was
just three feet long. It required only a
straight shot to Mount Wilson and a level
flight attitude. Back in Hollywood,
Paramount's special effects shop used GE's
blueprints to fabricate the antenna.
The platform chosen was the iconic Bell
47. An urban-friendly flyabout, "it
was the only viable choice at the
time," says Dick Hart Jr., president
of National Helicopter Service in Van
Nuys, which leased the helo to the
station. "The next thing up would
have been something much larger, less
reliable, and hugely more expensive."
So 2,000 pounds of broadcast equipment
had to be sweated down to 368. Any metal
that could be replaced by aluminum, was.
To eliminate heavy, redundant power
supplies, all electricity was produced by
the helicopter's generator.
Recent advances in technology also
worked in the team's favor. Instead of the
standard tripod-mounted field camera—the
size of a steamer trunk—Silva acquired a
new hand-held GE vidicon, saving several
hundred pounds.
In cloak-and-dagger mode, a Bell 47G2
was spirited to an "undercover"
location: Dick Hart Sr.'s Studio City back
yard. "Dad had a six-acre lot where
we could hide the copter and nobody could
get near," Hart Jr. says. As Hart Sr.
and John Silva supervised, National
Helicopter mechanics and Paramount
engineers hacked, cut, and fit.
Maxing out the payload imposed
"all sorts of issues" on the
small helicopter, Hart Sr. says,
"particularly center of
gravity." But the mods proceeded
without the degree of rigor required now.
"It was a more innocent time,"
he says. "We could self-approve
alterations and installations using
standard [government] data without having
to meet all the engineering and flight
test requirements we'd have to meet
today."
(Page 3 of 6)
Ten days later, the Bell was trucked back to Van Nuys.
Though saddled with nearly every ounce of the allowed 368
pounds, it aced the CAA's weight and balance test. On July
3, 1958, pilot/announcer Larry Scheer took the stick and
John Silva occupied the cameraman/engineer position. The
Telecopter lifted off and flew southeast over Hollywood,
climbing into a line of sight with Mount Wilson. Silva
deployed the antenna and began transmitting, and Scheer
established two-way radio contact with technicians at the
dish.
From the mountain came the word. But no picture.
"We were getting terrible vibration from the
helicopter," Silva explains, "and the heat was
horrendous." Knowing that an inflight failure would
be hard to replicate on the ground for analysis, he made a
snap decision. "I said, 'Larry, I've got to go out
there.' "
Scheer brought the cyclic to neutral and suspended the
-47 above the palms and pastel stucco. "I told
myself, I am not going to look down," Silva recalls,
"and backed out the door." Hunched on the right
skid with no safety belt, he unlatched the cabinet
containing the TV equipment, checking each component until
he reached the microwave primary tube. It was dark. Bad
vibrations.
Silva inched back into the cockpit and Scheer swung the
helicopter toward Van Nuys. With Morby, White, and a
Paramount machinist, they worked into the night further
insulating equipment from the shake and bake. Next day,
take two. At 12:48 p.m., with the roofs of Hollywood
bungalows framed in the viewfinder, the two-way suddenly
squawked: "We've got you!"
For the next three weeks, the team kept it all a
secret.
On July 24, the station held a closed-circuit private
preview at the Los Angeles Police Academy in Elysian Park,
at which journalists, police, and fire officials watched,
astounded, as two 27-inch monitors showed a live aerial
shot of the interchange between the Hollywood and Harbor
freeways. Four days later, at 6:30 p.m., KTLA preempted
regular programming. In living rooms from the desert to
the beach, the City of Angels from a thousand feet
above—the gray-scale, low-rise L.A. of old
"Dragnet" episodes—scrolled across television
screens.
Regular broadcasts began on September 15, 1958, with
Scheer piloting and Harold Morby as cameraman/engineer.
"We had to fake it at first," Morby says today,
"until we learned enough about it to work together as
pilot and cameraman. I discovered pretty quick that I
couldn't make fast pans and zooms when we were in
motion."
(Page 4 of 6)
On the Telecopter's undercarriage, technicians attached
a flashing red "On The Air" beacon, visible for
30 miles. The whop of a helicopter and the dazzling light
brought Angelenos bolting outdoors to wave; then they
dashed inside to watch.
Up in the goldfish-bowl cockpit with no doors, it was
"very noisy, very hot," Morby says. Preflight
sometimes included packing temperature-sensitive TV
equipment with dry ice. And that "hand-held"
camera required shoulders and back too. "It actually
weighed about 25 pounds," Morby says, "which got
heavy after a few hours."
If the rotor's wood blades absorbed enough moisture,
the rotor would become unbalanced, transmitting a bossa
nova beat through the drive train and into Morby's live
shots. To steady him, a camera seat was fabricated from
bedsprings.
One problem the team avoided: boredom. "Sixteen
years, 13 emergency landings," Morby says. Nothing
they couldn't walk away from, though one close call could
have dropped them in the Pacific.
Once a revenue flatliner, local news became a cash cow.
During the Telecopter's first four months, KTLA sold a
record $500,000 of advertising. Procter & Gamble spent
another $250,000 specifically to sponsor Telecopter
coverage.
In 1959, the project's success earned an upgrade.
Telecopter number 2, a Bell 47J2, offered greater interior
space, as well as increases in lift and range. All
equipment was interior-mounted, obviating extravehicular
troubleshooting.
Other channels began conceding KTLA's advantage.
Minutes after an Orange County train wreck, Scheer and
Morby were above the action. Three live airborne newscasts
were already wrapped before a Channel 11 truck rumbled up.
As the Telecopter circled above, "the crew got out
and just stood there, looking up at us," Harold Morby
says.
At some historic moments, the Telecopter was the only
vantage point that was available.
(Page 5 of 6)
On December 14, 1963, high above the Los Angeles suburb
of Baldwin Hills, a hilltop reservoir dam developed a
crack. KTLA interrupted its sedate Sunday morning
programming with Telecopter pilot Don Sides' terse
narration (see
video of the event here). Viewers looked down on
the collapse of the dam in horrifying real time, watching
as 300 million gallons of water rampaged through the
neighborhood below, killing five people and destroying 277
homes. The Telecopter coverage is credited as the first
live aerial broadcast of a disaster.
Two years later, a drunk driving arrest on an August
night in Watts escalated into a 50-square-mile riot. As
mobs stoned camera trucks, the Telecopter remained in the
air and broadcasting. Leaning out the cockpit, Harold
Morby captured exclusives for KTLA and also fed national
networks. Even the LAPD and National Guard requested live
views for tactical purposes. Morby recalls dodging behind
plumes of arson smoke to evade bullets from a Cadillac
stalking them below. The landmark coverage earned the
first Peabody Award for an airborne newscast.
By the late 1960s, John Silva was restless with
monochrome and the limitations of piston power.
Paramount had sold KTLA to Gene Autry's Golden West
Broadcasters, and the small screen was blooming with
living color. Silva was fascinated by a shot in the film
Funny Girl, a long, rock-solid zoom from a helicopter. He
learned that a gyro-stabilized platform had been developed
for 35-mm movie cameras, and traced the inventor to a
small Canadian company. The two collaborated on a version
compatible with television cameras.
Silva sat down with Autry and laid out a big-ticket
proposal: acquire a Bell Jet Ranger and create the world's
first color Telecopter. Autry, once the Singing Cowboy,
was also a World War II C-47 pilot and lifelong aviation
enthusiast. Silva remembers Autry's response: "Spend
whatever it takes, John. Just do it right."
Telecopter number 3 debuted with turbine-powered,
gyro-stabilized, color coverage of the 1969 Rose Bowl
parade. With that advance, Silva established the prototype
of the newsgathering helicopter that prevails today.
Since then, a specialized breed of aviator has evolved,
one adapted to the medium of live television. "We
don't fly like normal pilots," says Desiree Horton, a
contract news pilot for several Los Angeles channels.
Today, at the stick of a jet Eurocopter on her way to
breaking news, she explains how the job is distinctive.
The shortest path to time-critical events is a straight
line through busy, controlled airspace. After takeoff,
Horton must secure first-come, first-serve clearance
across the city ASAP, or risk being diverted by a
controller swamped with requests from competitors.
Once on site, a skill set specific to live TV kicks in.
Sharp movements can "tumble" even cameras that
have been gyro-stabilized, so flight technique is
constrained. When "getting vertical"—shooting
straight down—gyro-stability is weakest. Avoiding
vertical while covering a high-speed, zigzagging police
pursuit requires concentration and dexterity.
(Page 6 of 6)
On morning and afternoon flights, Horton's flying has
to avoid angles at which the California sun can zap the
lens. Bright white buildings and rooftops play havoc with
color balance, so she maneuvers those out of the shot too.
Through it all, the helicopter must be oriented so the
belly-mounted microwave beam clears the skids and camera
pod.
Another necessary skill: "parked" hovering,
high above a protracted incident (like an all-day hostage
drama). Long-duration hovering can be draining. "It's
really an odd sensation to hover out of ground effect at
high altitude for so long," says Horton.
"Sometimes we'll hang there for two or three hours on
a story, then go refuel, and come back and hover some
more. And though you're only hovering, you're still flying
that aircraft every second. But it's really more mentally
tiring than physically."
With every major L.A. television station having a news
helicopter (there are eight total), the pilots are rivals,
but they're amiable too. Horton maintains air-to-air
chatter with the competition. "When you're flying
news in L.A.," she explains, "you've got eight
other helicopters racing you to get to the scene first.
We're talking all the way." Pilots know their
stations are monitoring live images from other channels'
helicopters. "Basically we're expected to get that
same shot, or something better," Horton says.
In John Silva's Los Angeles home, an Emmy award for
inventing the Telecopter stands next to a model of little
Telecopter 1. Only days from the golden anniversary of
that first airborne broadcast, 88-year-old Silva is not
looking back—or down. I wonder how he feels watching
high-def coverage beamed 24/7 from news choppers like
Desiree Horton's today, and knowing every one is a direct
descendant of his 1957 brainstorm.
"I never thought about being a pioneer," he
laughs. "All I ever wanted to do was get us there and
get the picture—before the competition got it."
Contributor Stephen Joiner writes about aviation from
Southern California.
Everyday we rescue items you
see on these pages!
What do you have hiding in a closet or garage?
What could you add to the museum displays or the library?
Comments (7)
If anyone is interested in reading about the Telecopter by the gentleman who invented it, John Silva, I direct your attention to an article by him in Tech-Notes #137 published on March 5, 2007. The link is: http://www.tech-notes.tv/Archive/tech_notes_137.pdf. The story begins on page 3 but the detailed part about the Telecopter begins on page 5.
Larry Bloomfield, KA6UTC
1980 25th St.
Florence, OR 97439
(541) 902-2424 (everything number)
www.Tech-Notes.TV
See you on the Taste of NAB Road Show
Posted by Larry Bloomfield on March 31,2009 | 05:05 AM
Fascinating article, thanks.
Posted by The Sanity Inspector on June 5,2009 | 11:44 AM
My Uncle "Mo" is a hero in our family!!! I am so proud to be part of a family that was such an important part of history!
Posted by Susie Morby Shoemaker on August 30,2009 | 08:20 PM
Nice to remember all this. Growing up I'd always be at the hangar in burbank, helping my dad. He was the chief mechanic there: Edward Ochwatt. He's passed now, but never forgotten in my heart.
Bobby.
Posted by ROBERT OCHWATT on November 16,2009 | 02:34 PM
What ever happened to KTLA's telecopter pilot Larry Scheer, who did the reports from the air in the 1970s?
Posted by elliott alper on December 14,2009 | 04:51 PM
I have great memories of watching the Channel 5 News Telecopter Reports, on the Channel 5 News. Living in Burbank, California as a young boy I really enjoyed watching these newscasts.
Posted by Carl Swirkal on December 24,2009 | 05:07 PM
I worked at KTLA from the mid 60's to the early 80's and remember the development of the "World's only Color Jet Telecopter." In one instance, they landed the Jet Ranger on a mountain top. Pilot/Reporter Larry Scheer got out with a cabled microphone and did an interview. That was unusual. Much excitement was generated in the news room when the word went out: "Chopper's up." Something now heard at many stations around the country.