Compass Systems Question

Ewan….I think I have seen one of these on a RAAF C47 …

Regards Mike

Was thinking exactly the same thing last night – didn’t get a hit with Lincoln, but I’m getting that ‘early Canberra’ feeling, and did find the instrument in a rear-cabin shot of a Shakleton MR3, which also contained some pretty big gauges like the other Hughes one too. Have a look on flickr – search ‘mr3 interior view’
John

*sigh* yes I thought that would be the case, though I will look thru the lists on the ADF serials website and see what I can narrow down to aircraft used in common between Australia and the UK – the one on the left I have another of, and both have the Australian RAAF Stores Ref number with AM crown. The one on the right has the crows feet logo so that is certainly later.

At a guess I am going to start with maybe the Lincoln and work my way thru from there 🙂 Thanks again !

Ooooh! Good shot by me then, that’s the fellow in the 1948 Flight Archive advert for sure.

Now all we have to do is gaze at hundreds of late 40s or early 50s rear cabin / Nav station shots until we get one.

John

Picture !

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That’s a great help 🙂 I had not seen them before but they came in the lot that I picked up. The size was what threw me, nothing like the normal panel gauges, these are at least three times the size of those.

John, in relation to your query, yes they have an “AP” button/dial but its off to the side. I will try and sort some pics out in a moment

My copy of AP1086 Sect 6B dated 10th October 1960 has the following listed under Compasses, gyro magnetic, Mark 4B:

Indicator, master Type A Sec/Ref 6B/1996

No aircraft type listed for the indicator.

Hope that helps

Regards

Dave

Hi again Ewan

Dug around a bit further. The Flightglobal archive is a wonderful place – I’ve not learned how to insert hyperlinks yet sorry, but if you pop over there and do a search for gyrosyn, with date limits between 1946 and 1948 you should find what I did –

The first was 1948 pictorial advert which made me ask about the automatic pilot. The second was part of an article from 1946 prior to the autopilot integration option, decribing the whole system.

None of this IDs the aircraft that may have been fitted with them it but I hope it’s of some help. Certainly the Sperry Type B Master Indicator has the variation scale at 9-o’clock on the face, so maybe the general visual key to a Type A is the 12-o’clock position.

Kind Regards
John

Hi Ewan

The 6B/199x – very close to the stores reference number for the G4B Type A Detector Unit – 6B/1993, so it looks like a first-generation G4B Sperry Gyrosyn component c1948. How many knobs at the bottom of the Master Indicator? As well as the variation setting knob, a central one marked ‘auto pilot’ per chance?

John

I think that these my be ‘bog standard’ equipment that could be installed in any number of aircraft with applicable system(s) installed.