First Project: The AE-35 Unit! Advice appreciated

[joberg]

This one?

https://flic.kr/p/L2vG3A

Yes, it's at the back of the table

 

[macropod80]

For anyone interested; there's a pic on the 2001 archive's on Flickr (under Getty Images) that shows in the second pic, right hand side, Stanley looking at a mock-up of the Discovery antenna unit model and at the back of the table, there is the AE-35 unit without its top and markings

Well spotted! On my screen that's just a black smudge among black smudges, but saving the preview image from the Getty site and then opening that, it's clearly the 'raw' gyro unit fresh out of it's original casing. You can make out the green and blue of the collars that secure the two (different-sized) Plessey connectors on the rear end, and the exposed gizmos on top that have yet to be covered by the circuit diagram. And it looks like the prop casing lying on it's side just behind. Anyone got a few spare hundreds to buy the high-res version so we can try to read the gyro model on the ID plate?

 

[macropod80]

This one?

https://flic.kr/p/L2vG3A

And poking around on the Getty site I see there's a sharper version of this shot:
better for measuring lengths and heights and a little clearer for those funny little 'clips' on that rail along the bottom side. Still can't work out what they are though.

 

[joberg]

Yes, that Getty Image is quite interesting since it shows the process of choosing the different designs of the antenna and the modification Kubrick brought to Discovery: i.e. sans those long tubes/scaffoldings running the length of the vessel. And since the antenna was being examined, the story of the malfunction of the AE-35 unit and the presence of the main radar prop makes sense.