powerandpassionComrade Daniel
I understand from a recent discussion with the owner of a earthbound MIG that time expired components such as hydraulic hoses etc would need to be replaced in order for permission to fly to be granted. The cost of removing and replacing the time expired components is what keeps things on the ground. Having some connections to get parts out of former Warsaw Pact manufacturing nations would help. I understand many of the MIGS in Australia came from or via Poland with Polish Australians doing the legwork. I guess many people bought these a/c because they were tremendously exotic after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and a low cost way to hit seagulls at Mach speeds.
Once the initial thrill had subsided and the bills piled up, I guess there was not the emotional connection to carry through the necessary maintenance, because no one’s uncle or grandfather flew a MIG during the war. Like a pile of old George Michael records, they sit forlornly at the back of the cupboard.
The bloke with the MIG was still amazed after all these years at the lack of corrosion and quality of build. I think these things will last. I did once meet a technologist from the former Soviet Union’s space effort, who explained in detail the effort and quality that went into the Soviet aerospace effort in the 70’s, and I sense it is true. Comrades may have eaten cold, grey porridge, but they made good aircraft.
In 1990 I met a bloke who was trading MIG 29s to the subcontinent out of former Soviet airbases for things like bulk alcohol and gold. These were surreal times, and nobody in Australia in the 1980’s could have dreamed that MIGS would one day be here. I suspect the MIGS will have a resurgence with a new generation that does not know that 20 million people were starved in the Ukraine through the depravity of Stalin and just want a good motor. I must say seeing a MIG 21 fly over at full tilt makes me think about it.
powerandpassionAircraft clocks
Aircraft clocks, I am a beginner in all of this and you seem to know quite a few things. My kids look at my gauges and call them ‘clocks’ so you have captured the zeitgeist well !
What are the references, eg AV 572 you are referring to? I only have AP 1275 1937 to refer to and the odd cockpit photo. I wish there was something for the 1930’s like the 1946 RAAF schedule of aircraft instruments which can be got on ehooray
In David Luff’s ‘Bulldog’, pg 42, there is what looks like a 28,000 ft altimeter, 17,000 ft on outer ring, in the cockpit, a cousin of the altimeter in this thread. That cockpit layout is also what I am beginning to understand what most Brit cockpits looked like in the 1930’s, whoever designed it must of had a flagon of port or mistress on the table at the same time, a real mess of a layout. I have this instinct that gauge design followed fancy rather than any definate specification, but you could probably put me straight.
I have in my hot hands as I type a Smith & Sons 20,000 ft alt, 15,000 limit on outer ring, steel case, glass 2 7/8, with ‘windows’ on the outer circumference to light the face. Can you ID this ? As it is 41 degrees C outside I am in Australia, so I guess it must be something out of Wapiti, Bulldog, Seagull, Demon ?
I have also seen a Australian Demon cockpit photo with Negretti & Zambra oil temp/pressure gauges & turn & slip with RAAF overprinted on the gauge faces, which I guess is a marketing flourish from the folk that produced Afghan Hind gauges in Dari script. All this makes me think that gauge design was as free and easy as the hippie era, and there are no hard rules, unless you can set me straight.
My instinct is that gauges were put in with ‘what was available’ during a/c service life, with changing circumstances meaning there really isn’t any hard and fast rule about cockpits, within the context of equipment of the era.
powerandpassionBTH Magneto
Bob, you sure like to dig in the Jurassic…
This magneto has bits that look like BTH series A from late WW1, particularly the central casing and bakelite distributor cap. It has other bits that look like BTH SC series from the thirties, like contact breaker cap and nuts. A real BTH thing are the oilways above the spindle bearings. From my observation of BTH magnetos there was a lot of evolution happening all the time, like there were a lot of chaps drinking tea around a BTH table and making suggestions about improvements all the time. I am still waiting, with probably five other people on the planet, three probably dead, for the definative BTH magneto book…
My guess is very, very early Bristol Jupiter, or Cosmos Jupiter from the 1919 Schneider Trophy Sopwith racing seaplane. It has a tricked up look about it, like somebody took the guts of standard BTH A series magneto and hotted it up, with senior management turning a blind eye as long as the company name was not on it. It’s a nice piece, not from a tractor.
powerandpassionMark VB Altimeter
6A/1 Non Luminous Mark VB altimeter, 6A/9 Luminous.
Guessing it was fitted to 1930’s bomber or transport, something designed to go ‘above the weather’.
From what I have seen, Smith & Sons, Negretti & Zambra, Short & Mason all supplied instruments to military & civil in the 1930’s without AM markings until just before WW2. your bezel has been cut to fit against some other instrument, maybe a later install of a blind flying panel ?
This could be the altimeter from the Wapiti that flew over Everest, or the Bombay that supplied gin to Raffles hotel in Singapore….
powerandpassionMike, if you have been staring at Demon panel pics for a long time have you figured where the hand starting magneto was situated ? I understand Oz Demons had BTH magnetos with a BTH AS 1 or AS 3 hand starting magneto. I have seen Bristol Bulldog cockpit pics with the handle of the starting magneto coming out amongst the gauges but never any Hind/Hart/Demon clue. I’m in Melbourne, happy to catch up to talk Demon. Ed
powerandpassionEd,
Do you have wings built for your bulldog ?
Ed, Melbourne, Australia
powerandpassionHi, suspect they might be Mosquito, with build date 42 onwards. Trying to contact Cohen by private message, I am in Melbourne.
powerandpassionAerodynamic washout
Not an expert but thought I’d guess a few things :
1) Single engine Mosquito landing was probably Geoffrey De Havilland demonstrating something serenely that finsished off a lot of other blokes.
2) Comet was designed and built in months, with some radical ideas given their head and boundaries pushed. The same tapering wing concept is in the contemporay DH Dragon Rapide (and later DH Albatross) without the stalling reputation, perhaps a total wing area issue. My (flimsy) understanding is that the tapering section (both in plan and end view) altered the aerofoil section across the wing creating aerodynamic washout. Different to a non tapering wing concept (DH Tiger Moth ?) that would require wing tip washout. Maybe the Comet wing just wasn’t big enough. Looking at the Mosquito doing a wing over always shows a big, generous, sexy, wing area.
3) I have never read anything about DH98 wingtip washout, all descriptions, plans and images show a consistent tapering section.
As an Australian I am fascinated about Mosquito manufacture in Australia. Most manufacturing information seems to come from Canada, it would be great to fill the gap with the Australian manufacturing story, particularly sub contractors making components:
Apart from General Motors Pagewood NSW making Mosquito wings and fuselages so far I have identified :
Armoured windshield glass – ACI Geelong plant, VIC
Metal pressings – Richardsons Industries, SA, later Chrysler Australia
Hydraulic Rams – James N Kirby Pty Ltd NSW
Undercarriage assemblies – A&P Engineering QLD (Alexander & Peter Usinski)
Bakelite plastic items – Commonwealth Moulding, Arncliffe, NSW
A lot of these places were just small workshops that might not have found it remarkable to be forming horseshoes at one end and aircraft parts at another.
powerandpassionHave sent PM
Jay,
I have sent a PM, interested in the rivets. I am learning how to swim in this forum so hope the thrashing and splashing gets me through.
powerandpassionNot Hawker Demon
Hi, first post, here goes, few punts :
1. Not Hawker Demon or Hart/Hind variant, as these are burned on the retinas from trawling through plans/NZ Hind pics/ UK Demon/Hind pics etc.
2. CV often used in WW1 German serials, eg Fokker C.IV, C.V. War booty or souvenir pried off the backside of Richthofen ? Quick test, are any of the dimensions metric ? Ferrous tube dia, seat dimensions, spacing of rivets, dia of cutouts ? Go to friendly scrappie with radiation tester to ID metallurgy – matches British DTD metallurgy ? Any bolts – test thread, metric or imperial ?
3. Looks massively over-engineered for a seat. All those rivets and pressings. Looks like something made to keep folk employed in a struggling aviation industry -late 20’s to mid 30’s ? Not made in wartime emergency. Dutch from NEI ? German from New Guinea ? 1934 MacRobertson 8th placegetter ? Smithy’s Lockheed ? RAAF amphibian ? Looks Big. Looks Yankee – Vought Kingfisher ?
powerandpassionNot Hawker Demon
Hi, first post, here goes, few punts :
1. Not Hawker Demon or Hart/Hind variant, as these are burned on the retinas from trawling through plans/NZ Hind pics/ UK Demon/Hind pics etc.
2. CV often used in WW1 German serials, eg Fokker C.IV, C.V. War booty or souvenir pried off the backside of Richthofen ? Quick test, are any of the dimensions metric ? Ferrous tube dia, seat dimensions, spacing of rivets, dia of cutouts ? Go to friendly scrappie with radiation tester to ID metallurgy – matches British DTD metallurgy ? Any bolts – test thread, metric or imperial ?
3. Looks massively over-engineered for a seat. All those rivets and pressings. Looks like something made to keep folk employed in a struggling aviation industry -late 20’s to mid 30’s ? Not made in wartime emergency. Dutch from NEI ? German from New Guinea ? 1934 MacRobertson 8th placegetter ? Smithy’s Lockheed ? RAAF amphibian ? Looks Big. Looks Yankee – Vought Kingfisher ?
http://forum.valka.cz/viewtopic.php/t/1179
Seat looks similar to pic in above link.
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