Hi there,
Signed up to the forum 8+ years ago, first post. Thank you.
I have this lovely spade grip for a MK1 Harvard, bought originally from Ian Wilson at “bomphoons” in 2014.
It has a “Patent Dunlop applied for” marking along with various stampings including AH 2242 and 317/38 on the base of the spade. Other stampings as pictured.
Is there any way of tracking the original aircraft this came from? Any other information is also welcome.
Cheers
Jeff
(P.S. having trouble with posting replies – here is an imperial war museum pic of Harvard cockpit clearly showing Spade Grip with firing button.)
(In answer to Cabbage and Dhfan‘s post) > Harvard’s were purposely built for the UK’s RAF to train Pilots. Interiors were built to resemble British aircraft cockpits in order to train RAF pilots to fight in RAF fighter aircraft or were used to convert RAF pilots to American aircraft. Also, it is very reasonable to have firing triggers on training aircraft to teach students how to fire at aerial towed or ground targets)
By: TEXANTOMCAT2 - 11th September 2023 at 12:51
Easy questions to answer. Some Harvards/T-6 series were armed with either a cowl gun or wing gun – IIRC the Commonwealth ones were mainly a single wing mounted Browning for gunnery training. That explains the firing button. Secondly, the Canadian built machines or rather the majority destined for Commonwealth service were specified with a spade grip – a la the fighters on which the pilots would progress. The ‘normal’ T-6 series had a B-5 pistol type grip from the US factorys/for US service. So put simply the spade grips were sourced in for Commonwealth spec, and made by Dunlop who made the majority of spade grips.
Sadly, unless there is a serial number of an airframe marked on it- you wont be able to trace the machine it was fitted to.
TT
By: dhfan - 11th September 2023 at 08:51
Spam alert
By: theodoreevans - 11th September 2023 at 04:07
Nice article that taught me something. This post is the best one on this important subject fnaf
By: dhfan - 11th September 2023 at 02:16
An excellent point. Also, why would an American aircraft have a British spade grip anyway?
By: cabbage - 10th September 2023 at 18:21
I would love to be proved wrong, but surely the mounting of a “firing button” on your grip would suggest a gun armed aircraft (no names suggested), rather than an advanced trainer, ie. harvard.
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September 9, 2023 at 12:16 pm