Mystery German seat

Very conservative estimate if its beaten this forum it must be priceless 😀

well if it was found in an Irish barn put it on e-bay must be worth £30,000 at least

I am also a bit puzzled as to how it fixes into the aircraft. Where are the mounting points? All we seem to have are some self-levelling ‘feet’ with no trace of any anchor point(s) that I can see.

Blimey, Nick….the things that you find hanging in Lancashire trees! 😀

PS – think I owe you an e-mail

Think we can rule out DFS230?

[ATTACH]203108[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]203109[/ATTACH]

Flugzeugführerschule B was around post-war too, in the 1950s, training pilots. I just can’t seem to find an aircraft that fits the bill on this one.

There’s always the possibility that this is not cockpitseat, but something else. Navigator/radio operator seat? I seem to recall something similar in an Fw58?

Certainly not from a prewar sailplane/glider (all made of wood with much simpler seating arrangements), and postwar unlikely as gliding was banned until circa 1952 and then picked up only with the gliders as we know them now -> wooden/plastic seats all without frame.

The plate looks British but the pads are definately original German, and have been nicely translated above, although the finish does not seem right for a Wartime German aircraft I dont have any issues with its construction.
I have seen wartime seats with similar construction and its super light, post war seats do not seem to take so much care in keeping the weight down. Of coarse if its glider which I think it probably is weight would be an issue, I have not heard of a glider as a training school (see translation above) aircraft except by the pre war Luftwaffe but thats just me probably wrong in that assumption. I suppose if it was pre war that could explain how a British seat made its way into a German aircraft. Not sure how many gliders Germany has post war I would guess not many, and certainly not in use for training . Finding it hard to find pictures which show the seat design of wartime gliders. I would not expect this to be from a single seat or lightweight glider as in most cases their seats dont appear to have a frame at all. the plot thickens

Two slightly better pictures if the bottom of the feet not sure what the yellow mark is?

I don’t know anything about German seats other than if they’re 109 related but just going off the dataplate to my eyes it has a very un-WWII period look about it.
The tag is not like any period german tag i’ve seen before (round edges and pop rivets) the font is not of the usual type with the 4 being of a different style ( an open 4 is usually used). The numbers don’t conform to a usual format either, usually you’d expect to see a Sach-Nr (part number) or Gerät nmr., Werk nmr. and Hersteller but this doesn’t conform to that.
If I saw it in a shop and just going off the data plate I would say non WWII vintage

Matt

Ah….

Now it makes sense.

I see what you mean, now. Thanks!

Maybe I’m just being dense.

Not at all, not at all. The link in post #12, about 3/4 of the way down the page shows the seat with a description that says it was re-upholstered. Could have been repainted at the time too?

I missed the bit about it being upholstered post-war, I think?

Where do we know that from?? Maybe I’m just being dense.

It looks “wrong” for a period German aircraft seat, which I’d also expect, surely, to be in RLM grey?

It did say the seat was re-upholstered post-war. May be repainted too?

Here is one I prepared earlier – a hatch catch from a Ju88

not in RLM but looks anodised….

It looks “wrong” for a period German aircraft seat, which I’d also expect, surely, to be in RLM grey?

The numbering system is all wrong…there ought to be R8 there somewhere.

However, that number 145……

Gotha 145?

Just a thought.

1970 might be a bit of a worry, though!!!!

There are a list of aircraft used at training schools in these links:

http://www.ww2.dk/air/schule/ffsa.html

Shouldn’t take more than a day or two to work through them….

Don’t rule out the larger and rougher Luftwaffe types either: Go244 and the like.

The link here has some DFS 230 glider pics, and it looks wrong for one of them. Also found a photo of the ‘passenger’ seating. You wouldn’t.
http://www.preservedaxisaircraft.com/Luftwaffe/dfs/dfs.htm

Due to how short it is, its seating position and the new translation about training I would also suspect a glider, I think the padded feet also surport this, will search out some wartime German gliders. Thanks for all the info so far.

Graham – the writing is probably flugzeugfuhrers….
flugzeuggruppe…..

a literal translation is

Pilots seat. Aircraft group…..

or more correctly aircraft leader – likely captain/pilot..

I make out:

‘Flugzeugführerschule B’ (which is Pilot School B)
‘Flugzeuggruppe (illegible number)’ (which is Aircraft Group number so-and-so)

And this is where you got it from I presume? http://www.oldnautibits.com/stock_php/aviation_instruments.php

If it was German…..a gut feeling would be Glider.

The story is it came out of Lubeck as a souvenir from the War and it does have pads with German writing saying Pilots seat seems very slopped back for a navigator as they need to sit upright. Does anyone one know who RGS is?