Luftwaffe equipment smell

Does a Spitfire cockpit smell like fish and chips mixed with Whisky? :rolleyes: I don´t think so. Have a nice day Powerandpassion.

When we rescued Jet Provost XS186 10 years ago the cockpit and pretty much all of the airframe was gutted, with nothing like a vintage aeroplane smell at all. Nature had almost purged it.

Now, almost every newly fitted part has been stripped and refurbished, including painting etc.

If you sit in the cockpit now, it’s a vintage aircraft smell enthusiasts dream come true.

Regular fondling of most of the bits with grease, OM15, Jet A1, blood, sweat and yes, tears covered hands all build and add to the unique aroma.

If a vintage artefact has a certain smell, it seems to me that it’s a bit like the wrinkles on a well travelled face……. the stories old aeroplanes and their constituent parts could tell……

I fear someone is going to appear and tell us that inhaling our favourite (well, second fave, actually) aroma as it is bad for us and we shouldn’t be doing it, i.e. open affected area and ventilate before entering, etc, etc.

They will cite Volatile Organic Compounds (a favourite techno-term these days), Radon gas and urea-based/cured products which have been flagged up as harmful for years as reasons to “take care when entering an enclosed space of an old flying machine” – yet another thing to worry about.

I doubt we’ll take much notice. After all, nothing’s happened up to now (twitches uncontrollably and starts frothing at the mouth – again!:eek:)

Anon.

A smell blokes (as a rule) love and their female better halves hate (as a rule).

I usually get it in the neck when my study door has been shut for a while … and it smells just like my Hunter cockpit. Now the Mrs can quite easily avoid going anywhere near the Hunter (and she does) but needs to go into the study to pick up stuff off the printer or get a file … and I get “… the study smells like the inside of an aircraft again … can’t you do something about it?” – so I go and sit in there for half an hour :eagerness: It’s surprising just how pervasive the smell is, and nothing seems able to cover it up for long. When I repainted the floor of my Hunter cockpit, it smelled of paint for only a very short time, quickly taken over by that 1950’s jet smell again.

Plasticizers

The question is what caused it?

I often think old aeroplane smell should be made into an underarm deodourant : a combination of dust, plasticizers, radon gas called “Ace”.

Like ‘new car’ smell a lot of it is caused by plasticizers, volatile compounds that make plastic flexible, released into the air. US EPA studies identified a locked car in the sunlight generating a more toxic micro environment in respect of plasticizers than general smog. Current concerns about the plasticizer BPA leaching out of the soft plastics used in food jar lid seals and baby feed bottles is another thing to add to your list of things to worry about.

The sense of smell has an amazing connection to emotional brain centres, triggering memory recall.

From ‘Plastics Explained’ 1946, Henry Taylor, Lewes Press :

Thermo setting – Phenol Formaldehyde (bakelite), Urea Formaldehyde, Melamine Formaldehyde.
Both phenol -carbolic acid (disinfectant) and formaldehyde (preservative) have distinctive odours that are part of the 1930- 50’s industrial smell-scape

Thermo plastic – Cellulose Acetate, Polystyrene ( not necessarily the white expanded polystyrene- EPS – we are more familiar with, but a sheet like yoghurt container material, high impact polystyrene- HIPS), Methyl Methacrylate, Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC – think of the smell of new shower curtains or above ground pool liner or transparent strip curtains in a food shop, Polythene (plastic bread bags or stretchy -not crinkly- shopping bags), Cellulose Acetate Butyrate, Ethyl Cellulose

Cast Phenolic plastics – bakelite, typically old radio cases

Cellulose Nitrate – old film

Casein plastics – made out of milk

Shellac plastic – made out of an insect

A lot of these plastics were wood based (cellulose) which were replaced by oil based plastics in the 60’s. The key ingredient formaldehyde could be distilled from wood or coal, and no doubt different processes for making raw ingredients created different distinctive odours. A surprising amount of information can be gleaned from US strategic bombing surveys compiled immediately after the war. These involved interviewing captured German military folk, scientists and industrialists to determine how effective the US daylight bombing campaign was in respect of disrupting German industrial production. Key resources, industries and the context of material use and application to the Nazi war effort are examined. This can shed some light on the key industrial plastics, paints etc used in the Nazi war effort, which might provide a basis for determining the components of the ‘smell’. A key differentiator was the significant use of magnesium in German aircraft, perhaps part of it might be magnesium oxide. Identify the plasticizers – compounds which make plastic flexible- used in German plastic materials, toss in some saurkraut, beer and sausage and you will probably have most of your answer.

I have been told before that the smell comes from the man made rubber products used by the Germans during the war when natural rubber was unavailable to them. having a slightly tangy smell and leaving a nasty aftertaste on the palate!!

Fouga has it too. It’s the resin from the seat.

An ex rigger climbed into my canberra cockpit after not being in one since the 60’s and the first thing he said was ‘it smells exactly the same as I remember’

Distinctive odours are not all that uncommon. I collect antique firearms and when I first started 50 or so years ago there were still what we call sleepers (that is antiques that had remained in the possession of their original owners’ families) which still bore traces of the old fish based oils that were used prior to the 19th century transition to mineral based products. I found that a gentle sniff often told me that an item was still pretty much in untouched condition. You very rarely strike that now.

Yes, I too have a nice pair of U-Boat captains binocs and they have an odd smell to them, not a pleasant smell I have to say. How odd, I thought it was the rubber ?

Jules

Yes, as Mike says, I think it is the phenolic resin used in the electrical equipment.

However, there were all sorts of things used in Luftwaffe cockpits – such as cushions filled with Human hair. That was a bit eerie when we found that I can tell you….

British cockpits had it too from WW2 right up until the seventies, though it was probably a different kind of smell from the Jerry one due, I am led to believe, to the early plastics/phenolic resins, sealants and wiring insulation prevalent in these machines.

It’s remarkably persistent and is as strong as ever when a cockpit is opened up. A friend once remarked that he would be able to make a fortune if he were able to bottle it as it has a real nostalgic air (pardon the pun) to it.

Anon.

Might be the odour of wartime German fear !