Dan-- Re the reference to the bottom row containing the altimeter, the heading indicator, and the vertical speed indicator, are you perhaps mistaken? The arrangement appears to be--
Original RAF standard panel:
top row : airspeed indicator, attitude indicator, vertical speed indicator
bottom row: altimeter, heading indicator, turn and slip indicator
(As you noted this does appear to group the most important instruments together on the bottom row for easy use in case the AI tumbles )
Modern "T" panel:
top row: airspeed indicator, attitude indicator, altimeter
bottom row: turn coordinator or turn and slip indicator, heading indicator, vertical speed indicator
Image of modern "t" panel:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...nstruments.JPG
Images of the original "RAF standard panel":
WWII British Aircraft cockpits........
(note-- *source and cockpit photos taken from “Cockpit- an illustrated History of World War II aircraft interiors”." )
All except the Fairey Swordfish (second from top) show the "RAF standard panel"
The quote near the bottom of the post is interesting-- "All the instruments on the blind flying panel are vacuum powered from a vacuum pump fitted on one of the engines, making the instruments independent of the electrical supply"
The mounting of the compass of the Fairey Swordfish (second from top) at the top of the panel, to be read by a mirror, is interesting too.
Note that this type of compass which is read over-the-top, i.e. forward or nose-wise of the pivot, is more intuitive to use than a front-reading compass-- "W" lies to the right of "S" as it does in the real world, etc, and the heading numbers increase as you look clockwise or left-to-right around the dial, as they should.
A vertical-card DG or DI is more intuitive to read than the front-reading type, for the same reason. Likewise a vertical-card compass vs a more conventional compass.
To gain the same intuitive benefit for emergency cloud-flying in a plane with rather rudimentary instrumentation, another alternative to a vertical-card compass is an over-the-top-reading compass such as this one.
Ritchie XP-98W X-Port Tactician Surface Mount Compass
But, awkward to mount, needs to go on top of the panel, or if that's too high, maybe on a little shelf somewhere-- you probably don't want to be looking down at the floor in this type of situation...
Steve