“…at the end of the war the Allies handed control of Poland to the Communists…”

Not sure the Allies ‘handed’ anything to the Communists! :rolleyes: In warfare possession is ten tenths of the law!

I am! 😮 Thank goodness for ‘Channel 4+1’! 🙂

Hi Kiwinz, sorry it wasn’t good news about your control column but welcome to the forum anyway.

I know absolutely nothing about control columns but something that you said about the provenance of yours has got me thinking:

…passed on a Sotheby’s purchase record of it to the US militaria dealer dating back to the 1950’s. Did people start doing what has been alleged here way back then?

Do you have the Sotheby’s purchase record? Because what got me thinking was that the purchase record probably referred to a control column (which could well have been from Hurricane P3115) but apparently now your control column isn’t from Hurricane P3115. What would prevent somebody making a switch, post-Sotheby’s, because being a mass-produced item there were hundreds of identical control columns so how was this one actually identified on the purchase record?

This also raises another issue with provenance; how do Sotheby’s know the control column was from Hurricane P3115, or are they just repeating what the vendor told them?

Until I acquired it, the grip has been on the original stand for at least half a century.

But not with the ‘original’ brass plaque? It looks to me as if it has been made by a modern cutter, I would have thought that in 1960 the text would have been punched (but I could be wrong)…..of course a replacement plaque could (quite innocently) have been fitted.

Lastly, I hope you have some success with the Militaria Dealer’s money back guarantee.

I reckon the double engine pod is ex-VC10…

That was my other thought too but I had a look at the Bruntingthorpe VC10 scrapping thread and couldn’t see any obvious similarity.

I quite like the look of the Jaguar…..but I’m surprised the fin didn’t come off (or is it suspended).

The Harrier would have looked better as a shark…..always thought Harriers looked like sharks!

Great display hall…

…how about getting the RAFM Stuka in there next? :diablo:

But surely the gunner would switch the ‘pilot-off-gunner’ selector switch well before looking down and to the right, away from his gunsight, would have been an issue.

Also aren’t these stills from an instructional film? There would have to be concessions for positioning the camera (and fuses could have been pulled to prevent the cameraman falling off the turret if the gunner moved his joystick) so these actions probably don’t reflect exact operational use.

Where can I see these films?

…is it that impossible for Sgt Loftig to have rested his arms up on the cockpit sills???

I’ll concede that it looks possible…

…but as I said earlier I simply don’t have the knowledge to argue about the position of the pilot’s arms or whether it would be possible for the pilot to inadvertently press his firing button. So for the sake of my argument I’ve assumed that both those are possible, difficult, but not impossible.

Those issues aside I’m still far from convinced that this anecdote is anything other than a ‘line-shoot’. 🙂

…the Operating manual for the Defiant MkI specifically says the condensers were to stop arcing acros the switch contacts…

Fair enough, I’d expect there to be condensers (capacitors) on the power circuit; especially to protect the wireless from interference caused by the electric motor that drives the hydraulic pump. However we should be clear what the condensers fitted to the ‘main switch’ (and other switches) are actually for.

As far as I know (and with the usual disclaimer regarding my electrical knowledge) the condenser fitted across a switch is designed to prevent (or reduce) ‘arcing’ during the opening and closing of that switch but the switch will be fundamentally designed to avoid any possibility of arcing in its open position.

A switch works by opening two contacts so that the voltage difference between them is unable to arc across the gap, because the air between acts as an insulator, but at some point during opening the contacts are close enough, without touching, for the electricity to jump the gap; to arc. This arcing generated extreme heat which damages the contacts and leaves an oxide layer which degrades current flow. To prevent this arcing, a condenser is fitted between the contacts, this provides an alternative path for a limited current to flow while the contacts are critically close and so prevents arcing.

Condensers are not designed to prevent spontaneous arcing that would allow an open switch to become a closed switch.

Do you have a similar passage for the firing circuit?