February 18, 2010 at 10:16 pm
A query seen over on Hyperscale. 6H/1030 servomotor Mk.1V. What is it and what is it fitted to?
Cheers John
By: John Aeroclub - 31st March 2025 at 10:59
Thank you chaps. It aparently is from a Polish, B.17 crash site. Doe’s this make sense?
Cheers
John
By: Arabella-Cox - 31st March 2025 at 10:59
It was part of the Mk VII autopilot (i.e. wartime) and I suspect it would have been part of the earlier Mk. IV installation, too, as many components seem to have been similar in both versions.
By: Slipstream - 31st March 2025 at 10:59
Could be from a simulator or automatic pilot.
From AP1086 index
6H – Aircraft automatic pilot, Mks 4 and 8, major components, servicing spares and tools
By: Arabella-Cox - 31st March 2025 at 10:58
Doe’s this make sense?
It doesn’t make much immediate sense to me. Without going into hours of research, I would have expected a B17, whether flown by USAAF or RAF, to have had a U.S. built Sperry Autopilot, i.e. not requiring a Servomotor of the type previously mentioned.
I suppose possible scenarios might be:-
– A RAF Fortress equipped for some reason with a Mk IV or MK VII autopilot, rather than a Sperry. Perhaps a B17 specialist could confirm that they were modified in this way?
– The servomotor may have been adapted for use in some other piece of equipment, not connected with an autopilot system.
– The aeroplane at the crash site being investigated has been wrongly identified?
Could you provide a link to the original thread; perhaps there are more clues that might help build a jigsaw?
By: austernj673 - 31st March 2025 at 10:56
Do you know which type of aircraft employed the Mk IV auto pilot? Lancaster??
By: John Aeroclub - 31st March 2025 at 10:56
http://www.clubhyper.com/forums/forum.htm Title, Help needed-WW2 on page 3 and 6
dated 18th Feb and 17th Feb.
John