Hawker Typhoon 1B Emergency Bomb Release Lever Assy.

Here are the scans of the pages relating to label fonts from the Hawker draughtsman’s book.

Hope they are of some help.

Bob T.

Spartan typeface is Mergenthaler Linotype’s unlicensed knock-off version of Futura, copied weight by weight from Bauer.
It was produced in 1939 when their Metro typeface failed to gain a significant share of the market, and was later adopted by the American Type Founders Company.
The main difference is the letter “M”… (see below)…which has angled legs.
I’ve never seen on this type of “M” on any Hawker Ident plates.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]246250[/ATTACH]

Hi Windhover

According to a copy of the Hawker drawing office manual, label lettering is to be Spartan font, apparently there were 2 variants of the Spartan font. I’ll try to scan the page in the next couple of days.

Bob T.

Looks more like the standard Pantograph “font” to me. Same letters as the one Paul and I rescued 🙂

Spartan typeface is Mergenthaler Linotype’s unlicensed knock-off version of Futura, copied weight by weight from Bauer.
It was produced in 1939 when their Metro typeface failed to gain a significant share of the market, and was later adopted by the American Type Founders Company.
The main difference is the letter “M”… (see below)…which has angled legs.
I’ve never seen on this type of “M” on any Hawker Ident plates.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]246250[/ATTACH]

Hawker’s used Spartan fonts on their labels.

Bob T.

Thanks, Ian… we got there in the end!

Windhover,

My mistake, that was Tempest. Typhoon below.

“Stowed, release and locked” to be Hawker No 6 1/8″ high (red lettering). Background of plate to be white. “Emergency Release” red lettering Hawker No 5, 5/32″ high. Part number (A131279) marked on the black line to the right of the word “Bombs”.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]246240[/ATTACH]

The word “RELEASE” is just about legible on our plate; and is logical; being immediately above the detent.
“STOWED” is a possibility, being located aft behind the internal detent spring; but, we need to confirm the positional movement of the lever to be certain.

If the lever is fully aft; this suggests the emergency release system is not operational until the lever is moved forward through the detent to jettison the ordnance.
Unfortunately, all the photos of Hendon’s MN235… and various others around the web, where the panel is actually visible, show the lever fully forward; and the A.P. has no information on the operation.
(It’s probably in some amendment list somewhere!)

Thanks for the added information. It is appreciated.

The word under ‘BOMBS’ is ‘RELEASE’ but my best guess for the word at the left end is ‘STOWED’ which does not seem too likely. Any other guesses based on the attached photo? The lettering was in red.[ATTACH=CONFIG]246237[/ATTACH]

Thanks Ian;
The plate we have is different inasmuch as it has a curve at either end; and the lever slot continues beyond the detent.
It looks as though your drawing is for the later example used on Tempests.

Our plate has the engraving running laterally along the direction of the lever slot as shown below.
(At least; what’s left of the engraving; which we managed to begin to reveal by rubbing across it with lampblack pigment.)

We are now looking for the engravings in red. This might just read “CLEAR” but we’re not putting money on it!
[ATTACH=CONFIG]246231[/ATTACH]

Windhover,

I’ve got this, unfortunately no details on the font etc.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]246229[/ATTACH]

Nothing remains on ours as far as the plate is concerned, could only make out PN A134461. The label plate is PN F136492, a drawing I don’t have.