RAF inspection lamp

This is a standard WW2 British Military Vehicle Inspection Lamp carried in all military vehicles.
The two pin plugs into the dash board.

Regards

Jules

Not sure if these are any help, in Flixton museum, could not get a good pic due to them being up so high and light reflection from Florescent tube.

The plug looks like the normal round pin type which looks remarkably similar to the round pin 2A mains plugs in common use in the UK before 1948.

I have an Astrograph power lead which has a different American plug with curved blade contacts which I assume was used in some American aircraft.

I have a similar lamp to Radar Archive. The cage at the top is the same but the main body differs.

It is marked up as follows: –

Lamp Inspection Mk II
Commercial Pattern
Ref no 5C/369
AM

The plug is similar too but has Ref No 5C/969 stamped in between the pins.

I always imagined they were used during servicing and by the Flight Engineer to conduct any in-flight repairs. I have no evidence for these suppositions.

Cheers

Michael

I have one with same markings. It is an RAF inspection light that plugs straight into the aircraft.

This type of lamp continued into post war use. My Canberra cockpit has the socket for them on the side of the ‘dome’ lights at the Navs position, people have posted photos of them on the Canberra forum as well.

Cheers Paul

I have a similar lamp to Radar Archive. The cage at the top is the same but the main body differs.

It is marked up as follows: –

Lamp Inspection Mk II
Commercial Pattern
Ref no 5C/369
AM

The plug is similar too but has Ref No 5C/969 stamped in between the pins.

I always imagined they were used during servicing and by the Flight Engineer to conduct any in-flight repairs. I have no evidence for these suppositions.

Cheers

Michael

To deepen this query, the flight engineer panels/bomb aimer panels usually had sockets
You could plug it into.
Cees

Thanks for the pictures.. the mystery deepens..

Attached is a photo of the bottom of the lamp, just in case it is indicative of something. I’ve also included a photo of the plug and its markings. The name Britmac suggests it’s not American to me, but I don’t know if anything more can be deduced. Any ideas?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]219046[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]219047[/ATTACH]

The one in my picture, the hook/ handle is on the bottom

Peter,

There is a suspension hook on he bottom, as there is on the top. It’s interesting to note that the one shown in your image doesn’t have any hooks at all.

OK I Was wondering if it was the same as the one I posted on the bottom.. don’t worry about it then..

I can do, Peter, but it won’t be until next week. To be honest, there’s nothing to see. It’s pretty much just a flat surface.

Any chance you could post pics of the bottom of it?

Slipstream,

Thanks for that. Does it seem likely that this is USAAF or USAF? Does anyone recognise this as a bit of US kit? Could it perhaps be Canadian? I don’t know if Canada also uses two-pin sockets, but perhaps its a possibility?

Does the plug offer any clues ?

It looks like a US mains plug with flat pins

Cees,

I thought this was a ground engineer’s inspection lamp which would therefore have been used on just about any type of aircraft. Do you know what this was used for on multi-engine aircraft and do you have any images of one of these in use?

I believe these were used in multi-engined RAF aircraft.
Cees

Peter,

Thanks for that. I managed to find some images of the type shown in your photo using good old Google, but can’t find anything the same as the one I have. Sadly, I can see no numbers or markings on the base or anywhere else on it, which is most frustrating! It may be it’s not RAF at all, but it would be nice to know exactly what it is one way or the other.

Interesting lamp you have there. Is there no numbers or anything on the base? It doesn’t look anything like the normal one’s I have seen (see attached)