Quote:
Originally Posted by Aerodyne
It was at that time a quite beautiful looking receiver, very 'modern' with its incredibly high gloss woodgrain cabinet and uncluttered exterior surfaces - but I suspect the cabinet came first in the design procedure and appearance placed ahead of reliability of performance considerations when the chassis was produced to fit that cabinet.
Tony
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Hi Tony & Tony!
Many thanks for sharing your memories of these sets
I got the Pilot along with several other sets as a 'job lot' from a fellow forum member for not a lot of money.
I was so taken with the look of the Pilot and the incredibly small footprint it took up that despite it's dire condition I just had to give it a second chance
It really does deserve the 'Spacemaker' name!
The 1950's was still a time of great austerity and those Victorian morals were very much still to the fore. I think that was reflected in the TV designs of that period- functional but rather dull! Most Tv's tended to be a square box with two knobs on the front and a plate glass implosion screen.
Things changed radically in the '60's. It was all about fun, style, design and freedom: the older folk must have been terrified
Compared to the sets of 1958, the Pilot must have looked really radical and probably appealed to a younger generation of customers who were furnishing their homes in a new modern style, very different to the preceding decade.
I assume the chassis was designed for the slightly more conventional Ultra V17-70 set. There was probably more space inside the cabinet so maybe heat build up wasn't quite so bad.
It was then shoehorned into the Pilot with a 21" tube- the cabinet almost touches the chassis in places!
A portable using this chassis would be interesting to see- you probably needed a strong arm
Anyway, I am now in the process of cleaning up the crt and rubber surround before reuniting it with the chassis. This will make the chassis more rigid and allow the rest of the bits and wiring to be re- attached.
All the best
Nick