Call me stupid, but it very much looks like the control panel of a 1950’s – ’60’s Atlas Copco Air Start Unit (ASU) we used untill well into the ’80s. It has been a few years since I saw one, so I can be wrong…

The big cutout contained a large pressure meter for the air compressor, the smaller cutout a RPM-dial for the engine. The two levers: the left one is the throttle for the enormous V8 petrol engine, the other one the speed governor for the engine-driven air compressor which delivered air to the aircraft. The temparature meter indicated the temperature of the air delivered to the aircraft.

These jet-starters were mounted on a variety of light trucks like Mercedes, Commer, Volvo etc. Early jets, like the DC-8 and 707, and turbo-props like the Electra, had no Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) and therefore had no means of starting their engines from their own power. While on the ground and to start up their engines they needed help from an external Ground Power Unit (GPU) to provide electrical power and an Air Start Unit (or jet-starter). An ASU consists of a powerful petrol (later diesel) engine which drives a big air-compressor that feeds air under high pressure (40-60 psi if I remember correctly) into the engines. The airflow turns the fanblades and the turbine up to a certain RPM. Then the ignition is switched on, fuel feed switched on and if everything is OK the engine will start turning on its own.

Every time I had to use one of these machines to start up an aircraft was a bit of a challenge.
Those big V8’s were very temperamental and drinked vast amounts of petrol. They needed a long time to warm up to working temperature, and when they were delevering air to the A/C at the max powersetting the big, drum-like exhaust pods were glowing darkish red and the compressor screamed like a siren. When the start-up procedure was completed you had to nudge the throttle back to idle very slowly; cutting the power at once could cause a dangerous backfire and both exhaust pods could explode. And that’s something we don’t want to happen at an airport, don’t we?

As I said, maybe I’m wrong, but it just adds all up: the shape of the panel, the location and size of the cutouts, the two levers, the oil and temparature dials…. Coincidence?

I borrowed a picture from http://www.atlascopco.com/ showing an Atlas Copco ASU mounted on a Volvo truck, air hose connected to SAS DC-8 LN-MOA.

Tillerman.