Luftwaffe Instrument Panel ID

I’ve seen it before, it looks horten/gliderish!

Yes it does look gliderish,’sauerstoff ‘ is german for ‘oxygen’ so the bottom 2 instruments will be (R) – oxy pressure (contents) and (L) – probably a flow gauge (like a ‘dolls eye’ ) when you breath (demand) oxygen.

I thinks its some sort of dolls eye too. wächter means something like “guardian”, so its something that keeps an eye on oxygen – a flow indicator.

Would they need oxygen in their gliders?

The instruments are WWII era. Here seen in a Me163B

I’ve seen it before, it looks horten/gliderish!

Thats what I thought, have been trawling the net and it looks more gliderish, Im going to go bid on it i think, it looks intriguing!!! who knows it might be a ‘rare’ item, ive let too many things slip through my hands in the past and have a feeling that if i let this item ‘slip through my hands’ I will regret it!

The two dials are standard Luftwaffe oxygen equipment, 250 Kg cm2 systems were certainly fitted to late war Stukas and Ju188s at least. The big round thing at the back is the oxygen regulator. Would be stupid to leave it, always better to identify things you have in your hands! Now where were those Whirlwinds…

yes its the standard O2 setup (apart from the thing with medi written on it!) but interesting that the gauges mount from behind rather than from the front. You may have to spend quite alot to get it, 02 wachters go for around 100 Euro, sauerstoff pressure gauge another 100 Euros, the 02 Dusche go for around 200 euro so even without the panel price its not going to go for £20!

yes its the standard O2 setup but interesting that the gauges mount from behind rather than from the front..

That’s not necessarily original, as the instruments will slip in either way. Must admit, that it looks like they are installed as intended, as there probably would have been marks on the panel.

That’s not necessarily original, as the instruments will slip in either way. Must admit, that it looks like they are installed as intended, as there probably would have been marks on the panel.

True, But the pipes are bent so the gauges are fitted from behind and not the front if they had been fitted the other way round someone would have had to rebend the pipes a bit to refit them from behind. From what I know of german wooden panels the usual method of instrument attatchment is using wood screws with the instruments mounted form the front that just use the screws to hold them in, here it looks like nuts and bolts have been used and the instruments are mounted from the rear which is a bit different

Well now its been advertised to all and sundry on this forum it won’t be going cheap any more!

The americans have a similar gauge and its called a blinker, on the german wachter the luminous ‘arms’ swing in and out of view as the user breathes to show oxygen is flowing

I thinks its some sort of dolls eye too. wächter means something like “guardian”, so its something that keeps an eye on oxygen – a flow indicator.

Would they need oxygen in their gliders?

The instruments are WWII era. Here seen in a Me163B

Yes I was trying to find a good discriptive word for it…perhaps ‘Blinker’ ??
I assume it ‘blinks’ black/white as you breathe,like a dolls eye indicator.

I dont think it could be from a Horten,it looks to be designed for a single seat (or tandem 2 seater) glider/motor glider or perhaps lightweight jet with an upright seat for the pilot.
A Horten being prone position would not be tall and upright and would not have the leg ‘cut outs’ at the sides,it would be shallow and wider.

Of course I had forgotten that the powered horten a/c had upright seats,but still think the subject panel has a slightly more modern ‘feel’ to it!
Here is a link to ww2aircraft which has 2 pics of Horten inst panels ( shallower and squarer).

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aircraft-requests/horton-brothers-flying-wings-3618.html

rgds baz

Just to say that I have added a link and new text to my post #13 above ,I obviously clicked on ‘edit’ rather than ‘quote’ LOL

rgds baz

Definitely NOT Kranich, looking at factory drawings and pictures. The Kranich does not have the lower half of the panel illustrated as there is a fuselage member in the way. A friend who restores (pre)WW2 gliders thinks it might be from the then very advanced Rheinland glider. Which would explain the oxygen (for wave flying in the then Eastern part of the Reich, now southern Poland’s mountains, and for record-breaking cloud flying). Not certain though.

I don’t know anything about gliders, but I can find images 🙂

This image is from a production Rheinland glider.

More images here:

http://www.scalesoaring.co.uk/VINTAGE/Documentation/Rheinland/Rheinland_docs.html

Here is an instrument panel from a sailplane called “The WEIHE”. There are some similarities.

More on the WEIHE here:

http://www.scalesoaring.co.uk/VINTAGE/Documentation/Weihe/Weihe.html

Having seen a few glider instrument panels by now, I’m convinced that your panel is from a glider. There could not have been many gliders equipped with oxygen systems, so it must be from a fairly limited selection of gliders and a glider that is documented somewhere.

Next step should be to find the earliest production date for the “oxygen blinker”. Then we might be able to get a rough timeframe for the construction – at least it can’t be earlier.

Mid war instruments, not the last types and not the earliest. They have the simplified makers plates with Fertigungskennzeichen

Dont forget the Electric vario/speed director 😀
Also radio ! unlikely to be a TM6 – but some radios would fit straight in there !!

rgds baz

Could try and guess the instruments?
Top row

Vsi, Asi, wendezeiger, Altimeter

only problem is: German period altimeters have a subscale setting nob on the bottom, there has to be a cut out for this protrusion in the panel, none of the cutouts have this extra cut out part. For me this is a bit of a problem

Edit, just noticed it, because the instruments are rear mounted all there needs to be is a tiny extra hole for the subscale setting rod (as opposed to the usual large front mounted cut out) it can be seen on the top right hand hole!

Mid central hole:
Fk38 compass?

Two smaller holes, no idea!