From 1961-68, hundreds of Ohio school classrooms received the broadcasts from a DC-6 aircraft, now fondly remembered as the "Satellite of the Sixties."
Two DC-6 planes were identically equipped to
run the broadcast programs for MPATI while flying in lazy eights
about 4 miles above the 
town of Montpelier,
Indiana. One would fly while the other was on the ground at the
Purdue University Airport as a standby in case of mechanical or
weather problems.
These flying classrooms were "elongated" television stations, filled with six and a half tons of TV and related transmitting equipment. Signals were transmitted simultaneously to two ultra-high frequency channels, 72 and 76, allowing for two separate programs to be transmitted at the same time. These signals were broadcast by means of a 24-foot-long retractable sending antenna that extended from the underside of the airplane. Each four-engine DC-6 carried a crew of six men -- three flight crew members and three television technicians.
 |
 |