Just to follow this up since you’ve all been great in contributing to the hunt.. The DH-106 would definitely be a strong possibility, the history of the unit is that it’s one of my late grandfather’s keepsakes along the years and there are some pieces we never had a chance to talk on! He did work on the DH-106 but I can’t recall or find any history or intersections of work where a VC-10 would have been in frame but it’s still very possible he was hands on with one at some point.. The Vickers Vanguard VC-9 is possible but I notice that’s reportedly half the fuel load of these gauges and unsure on number of tanks?
As Oracal says it’s possible it’s not a VC-10 and that Smiths just used similar design language and/or parts for these refuelling panels, not unlikely given that something like this must have been some of the first of their kind to be produced and it wasn’t yet any kind of a mass or mature type of a unit?
I will reach out to some DeHavilland experts in the meantime and see if maybe it can be confirmed!
That VC-10 unit certainly does look like something extremely similar or of a later/earlier family iteration of what I have. The mechanism on the lockout bar in particular looks almost identical to the configuration shown too. Unfortunately mine has suffered a couple of breakages at some point!
Thank you for the extra information! I haven’t had a chance to start running down the possibilities yet but something in the BOAC / BEA fleet would definitely check out as a valid possibility with the history of how I got the piece. Thanks again, I will try and see if I can get any concrete clarification on that usage.
Ah ok, thank you for the extra information! It will probably be hard to track down exactly which hardware configuration it was used on then but I might be able to hone in a little closer on things with some possibilities on the fuel tanks! Thank you
Wow! Spicy! Thanks for the identification. I believe it must be taken from a DC-7 in that case. Thanks so much for the ID.
Thanks for the reply, it certainly hasn’t been easy to track down. It has two valves but just out of sight!
I have reason to believe there might be a B-17 connection but it’s obviously not a wright cyclone head nor pratt & whitney 1690. The only thing that has confused me there is I did find this old listing selling a pair of two heads that have two different port layouts but claiming to be from a pratt and whitney B-17 engine. But I can’t possibly think of what engine they could be referring to which was ever on a B-17? So maybe they themselves haven’t ID’ed them correctly but it does look like a professional outlet.
But if you look at the 5th picture on this listing it’s a clear match to the head that I have.
https://www.ima-usa.com/products/original-u-s-wwii-boeing-b-17-flying-f…