Topic: Apollo ARIA instrumentation aircraft patches
J. Priest Member
Posts: 29 From: GA Registered: Feb 2001
posted 02-27-2002 08:04 PM
Can anyone provide information about a blue Apollo Aria patch? Is it rare?
Jacques van Oene Member
Posts: 861 From: Houten, The Netherlands Registered: Oct 2001
posted 02-28-2002 07:40 AM
As far as I know its very rare, the grey version of the patch is also very rare.
spaced out Member
Posts: 3110 From: Paris, France Registered: Aug 2003
posted 09-23-2013 12:37 PM
I'm resurrecting this old thread because I've just added the Apollo ARIA patches to my CrewPatches site.
This was triggered by seeing a pair of grey and blue Apollo ARIA patches sold recently on eBay.
After doing some research I managed to talk to Capt David J. Dunn who had the original patches produced back in 1970 and who kindly provided some scans and photos of some of those vintage patches.
One surprising conclusion of this research is that no blue versions were produced at the time of the Apollo project, and the grey versions sold alongside them in several auctions are not a match for the vintage original grey versions either. I now suspect that the blue and grey patches were produced together as replicas in the 1990s or early 2000s, with Randy Hunt being an obvious candidate as the maker.
The only apparently genuine vintage example I've found an image of so far on the net - one that matches the originals owned by Capt. Dunn - is that posted by Jacques on his old site in the link above.
If anyone has one of the presumed reproductions I'd love to have front and back scans for the site.
hoorenz Member
Posts: 1031 From: The Netherlands Registered: Jan 2003
posted 09-23-2013 02:55 PM
I am old enough by now to know that the mind can play funny tricks when it comes to remembering the exact sequence of things, but I am almost convinced that I have seen the blue ARIA patch long before Randy Hunt entered the online scene in 1997/1998...
spaced out Member
Posts: 3110 From: Paris, France Registered: Aug 2003
posted 09-23-2013 03:25 PM
You could be right. He's my usual suspect for mystery bare back patches but there could be more to the story.
spaced out Member
Posts: 3110 From: Paris, France Registered: Aug 2003
posted 10-11-2013 01:22 PM
Having got my hands on one of the blue patches I now believe that it's likely vintage. Clearly this and the matching grey patch are not a match for the 1970 original but they do seem to date to the 1970s.
My theory is that maybe these patches were produced by someone on the ARIA project after Capt. Dunn left it (in 1972) i.e. during the Skylab or ASTP years (1973-1975). This would explain why he never saw them during his time on the project.
I still have my doubts about the two patches sold at Aurora in 2006 (and the possibility that replicas were made) but the images from the auction are not clear enough to be conclusive.
If anyone has examples of any of these patches it would be interesting to see front and back scans.