Hi,
My late Granmother worked in a Sperry factory during the war, in Stonehouse, Stroud.
I remember her telling me she made Spitfire artificial horizon instruments, I am looking to buy such a item, Is there anyway of telling which factory one was made in, Ive seen one with tags marked Brentford , London, Would the Stonehouse made instruments still have Brentford tags ? , I understand the factory moved from Brentford to Stonehouse to avoid being bombed.. Any info would be grateful .
Regards
Ben

Ben, welcome to the forum!

Just looked a a couple dated 44 and 47 and they do not have any make at all on them. The only clue is a paint inspection stamp which is the same in both cases (a vertical oval frame with an S overprinted with a small picture of a gyro and a number beneath)

In another case, the Henry Hughes navigation instrument factory in London was bombed and production switched to the Venner timeswitch factory in (? Harpenden?) and these instruments were marked with a (V) after the serial number.

Any markings would be cryptic to avoid alerting the enemy to the location of the shadow factory

Well, the magnetos and distributors are separate units driven from the reduction gear which is 2.69:1. This number is close to 8/3 so I wonder if it should read 2.67.

The magnetos need to give 12 sparks per rev of the crank so they need to rotate a crank speed x 12 / number of cam lobes. What about 4 or 8 x the speed of the airscrew?
C /2.67 x 8 = 3C so x8 would give 12 sparks per rev with a 4 lobe cam with an 8:1 drive (or an 8 lobe cam with a 4:1 drive)

The 24 point distributors need to rotate at half crank speed so need to be speeded up by 2.67/2:1 = 1.33:1

When do I get the cake?

3. AS Serval 10 cylinder radial
a) Crankshaft Revolutions : 2
b) Magneto drive gear ratio 1.25 (2.5 revn per full cycle)
c) Sparks generated from a four lobe breaker cam : 10
d) Distributor rotor revolutions with a 1:2.5 drive arrangement, being 60 teeth on a rotor cog and 24 teeth on spindle cog :

There are a couple of errors in the question!: 74 teeth should read 72 (3×24), 100 teeth should read 99 (2.25×44)

Hmm, this is perhaps the pertinent bit under ‘scope’:

So you can keep your deacts but they become worthless and an issue when you want to sell them on…

I have to be careful what I say here for fear of being mogged again.:rolleyes:

Yes this is a typical ploy to avoid paying compensation. Placing on the market is an expression that has been argued in every directive and its meaning is inconsistent.

The lack of differentiation between an AK47 and a Vickers or a Browning (SMGs ,LMGs and HMGs) is a big issue since it is quite over the top to weld the latter two solid destroying all technical interest when there is no evidence whatsoever of their criminal reactivation.

This is only the technical bit – and that is bad enough but I suspect that there will be further announcements to follow to bring it up to speed with the hype in the initial Press release (my emphasis).

“Further restrictions to the use and circulation of deactivated firearms. National registries should keep records of deactivated firearms and their owners. Under no circumstances will civilians be authorised to own any of the most dangerous firearms falling under Category A (e.g. a Kalashnikov), which is currently possible if they have been deactivated. The enforcement of the ban is a national responsibility, and Member States have all necessary tools at their disposal including the destruction of illegally held deactivated arms;

I have just checked my facts with the Daily Telegraph article quoted above and found the following
“UPDATE: Since this article was first published, the European Commission has contacted us to make clear that the proposed changes to EU gun laws set out in this article do not affect museums administered by public authorities. We are happy to set the record straight. “

Clearly the commission spin machine is fully engaged, although this will be little comfort to private collectors.

The commission is clearly on the run, make the effort to write your letters! – do not just wait to see what happens

I have an interesting array of replies from many MEPs. Most have concentrated on firearm owners and not deact owners. The poorest response was from Nigel Farages representative which the gist was….we will complain and lobby against it but it will likely get thru anyway! No bulldog spirit there. None said I could not publish the responses, so will post if interest.
My conservative MP Kit Malthouse was disappointing with wishwashy stuff, so disappointed. Best response was from Julie Girling MEP which grasped the issues and was practical.

Rocket, you have propelled me into action and I have just sent out letters. There is also a facility to send comments to the European Commission (I know), you can find the link on http://www.nra.org.uk (not nra.org that is quite a different thing!).

It is worth remembering that it was presumably the weight of public objections that induced the Blair government to retreat from similar nonsense in 2005.

Brigand RH831 crash on 8th March 1956. As a navigator at RAF Colerne on the day of the crash, I am looking into events leading up to Sergeant Hanson wrongly switching off his engine fuel supplies instead of returning his supercharger controls to normal after exercising same, as was usual on joining the circuit to land.
Has anyone drawings, pictures or specifications of the cockpit control levers for the Superchargers and Fuel Isolation Cocks on both Brigand T5 and Buckmaster T1(?) dual control training aircraft please? Alternatively, suggestions for possible sources of these would be welcomed.
Don Busby

This from the provisional pilots notes for the Brigand B1 (not trainer).[ATTACH=CONFIG]242660[/ATTACH]

Looks like an easy mistake to make on some Brigands although the fuel cutoff levers are said to be retined by spring catches.

I see that on the later Brigand B1 pilots notes and on the Buckmaster(not trainer) the levers are in two distinct groups and the supercharger lever ends are square instead of round. Also the cutoff levers on the Buckmaster are said to be interlocked and can only be moved when the throttles are fully closed.

Whirlwind bare shell
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/151910895788

novelty cake stand?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/351601078635