Gauge identity?

[garyscott]

http://i895.photobucket.com/albums/ac156/garyscott_2009/oli_image.jpg


Hi guys,
Bit of a strange one for a first post i know, but i am hoping to help a friend. He is now the proud owner of the above gauge, unfortunately he hasnt the faintest as to what AC type it has hailed from?
Said gizmo was purchased for a fiver :ouch: at a stand at Bruntingthorpe, but the guy behind said stall didnt know its origin either! :O
Various ideas floating back and forth include:
Early ILS gauge (AC type unknown).
Trim ? gauge (AC still unknown).
Has anybody seen this one before? Your input greatly valued.

Gary

[Really annoyed]

Why do you have what appears to be a 7.62 round in the picture?

[Dengue_Dude]

I learned the MLS through training in 1973. This looks older.

Don't really recognise that, but it certainly looks like it's displaying beam guidance deviation.

Probably a form of zero reader.

[sycamore]

Somewhere on the gauge there will be a set of serial numbers embossed/scribed/painted.You could try the `Flypast` website``Historical` forum for instrument anoraks,if you don`t get any answers here,Are those two lights,or push-buttons as well ?

ed; the O and I could be lights for `outer` and `inner` markers..

[garyscott]

Thanks for the answers so far people, as for the 7.62 round, fear not matey...'tis a key-ring! :E

[dogle]

DD is on the money ....
SpitfireSpares.com - warbird Instruments (http://www.spitfirespares.com/SpitfireSpares.com/Pages/instruments9.html)

[garyscott]

Thanks very much to all, much appreciated fellas. :ok:

[GGR]

isnt that a magazine your key ring is sitting on?

[Halton Brat]

I was about to post that this item was clearly from my beloved Wiggins Aerodyne, but since this guy is clearly tooled up, I have decided to abstain :eek:

HB

[Arm out the window]

Magazine? Ha, no, that's his TV remote. As for the blood spatters on the wall...bad mosquito infestation!:)

[Rigga]

I am stunned by some of the comments/questions on this thread regarding the apparently casual appearance of "munitions" and associated tin boxes.

It is perfectly legal in UK to own empty tin boxes and key-ring fobs and many avid military enthusiasts buy them from Airshows and Jumble sales whenever they can. (I don't see the attraction myself) but I have a (Licenced) friend who owns less than a dozen working ww1 vintage rifles that he uses regulary, though not often.

[Tankertrashnav]

I was about to post that this item was clearly from my beloved Wiggins Aerodyne,


I thought that the only instrument on the Aerodyne was a crystal set which enabled the pilot to listen in to 2 LO as he map-read from A to B ;)

[500N]

"I am stunned by some of the comments/questions on this thread regarding the apparently casual appearance of "munitions" and associated tin boxes.

It is perfectly legal in UK to own empty tin boxes and key-ring fobs and many avid military enthusiasts buy them from Airshows and Jumble sales whenever they can. (I don't see the attraction myself) but I have a (Licenced) friend who owns less than a dozen working ww1 vintage rifles that he uses regulary, though not often."


That makes two of us. I thought Australia was bad and was a bit stunned myself by some of the comments by the PC Police.
.

[Dan Winterland]

Back to the topic, it's a BABS (Blind Approach Beam System) reader. It's a forerunner to ILS and it was developed from the German Lorenz system, The early gadets just used to give a tone in the headset, dots for fly left, dashes to fly right. This is a device which gives a graphic display of the information.

[Arm out the window]

a bit stunned myself by some of the comments by the PC Police

Not PC Police - mine was a joke, hence the smiley face ... lighten up, Francis!

[500N]

Arm out the window

I got your post, which I thought was quite well put and funny (having swatted a swarm of mosquitos with a shotgun).

I was referring to GGR and Really Annoyed's comments.

[Arm out the window]

Fair enough:ok:

[NutLoose]

but I have a (Licenced) friend who owns less than a dozen working ww1 vintage rifles that he uses regulary, though not often.

Used to be a bod on the squadron, an ex civi armourer... a proper one, many moons ago had a panzerschrek in the Armoury at a secret Hampshire heli base........ t'was on a shotgun licence! Plods at the time enquired make, which he provided, barrel length which was under 6 foot? and if it was smooth bored, which it was, so they issued a shotgun licence for it I believe...... He got it out one day so we could all see it.

In case you do not know what it looks like... didn't have any ammo though.

http://homepage.eircom.net/~nightingale/graphics/panzerschreck1.jpg

[Halton Brat]

Stand Easy chaps, my earlier post was meant to be a joke :rolleyes:

I don't have an issue with firearms, as long as they are not pointed in my direction. As a former member of several Station Shooting Teams & a competition shot/game shot, I have no issues with weaponry in private hands, when legally held.

The only folks that worry me are those with a morbid fascination with firearms, and they are out there (I'm not insinuating, at all, that our new PPrune friend is). Some years ago, I had a guy on my RAF servicing team who fitted this bill in a slightly scary way; he had a collection of firearms (legally held, pre-Dunblane) that the average infantry platoon would envy. It came to my attention that he was in the habit of going 'down town' wearing an empty shoulder holster; not illegal, but bizarre. He then claimed, in conversation with colleagues, that RAFP had authorised him to carry one of his own handguns whilst on Crowd Control duties at the forthcoming Open Day. This reached my ears, & I achieved a 50k' altitude faster than my friend Lightning Mate. There then followed a 'my office, your .44 Magnum' interview.

In the end, due to domestic problems that this guy was facing, I had to advise my youthful & cherubic Flt Cdr that unless he wished to wake up to a shocking headline in his Daily Sport, he must only allow these weapons to be drawn from the Stn Armoury (thankfully, their repository) on his express & individual authority.

I don't know what the hell this has to do with the Observation Basket Attitude Indicator from a Wiggins Aerodyne!

HB

[BEagle]

Back in the pre-stupidity days of the 1970s, one of the 4 who lived in the place we rented near Scampton had a legal licence to import and own one handgun at a time - he also had several target shooting rifles and used to make his own ammunition.

All entirely legal back then - and about the only thing he ever did diligently was to stick to the requirements of his gun licences. He kept a 6" barrel Colt .357 Python in the station armoury - I once had the opportunity to fire this enormous cannon on the station firing range and it was very impressive indeed. But how on earth anyone ever fires it double action....

"Why does he have that huge six-shooter?", asked the range supervisor. "Pest control", I replied, "You should see the size of the rats in our orchard!"...:\

Anyway, I'm intrigued to learn that's what a BABS indicator looked like - although the L / R indicator is a bit like the 'homing' indicator we had on the Jet Provost / Hunter Rebecca display.

[Fareastdriver]

The Beam Approach System could be a permanent or a tempory feature on the threshold of a runway. I can remember a 202 Sqn Halifax taking out the Babs Van when it undershot Aldergrove's runway. The Halifax was written off to so the score was a draw.
Later on was the TBA (tuneable beam approach) that a receiver with a coffee grinder handle that used the standard A - N beacons that festooned the UK. These beacons radiated four sectors of which the opposites transmitted either an 'A' or an 'N'. A narrow sector at the borders would combine the two signals into a continuous note. By placing the transmitter so that this sector aligned with a runway it could be used to guide an aircraft to that runway. This system was still in use in the Sixties, notably Tern Hill with it's Provost T1 trainers.

I am posting a link to a picure that CliffNemo posted.
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/329990-gaining-r-f-pilots-brevet-ww11-10.html

[Shack37]

Used to be a bod on the squadron, an ex civi armourer... a proper one


Wot, no incoming yet?:eek:

[Union Jack]

Cliff Nemo, and Regle of blessed memory, would have known the answer!

Well done DD.:ok:

Jack

[garyscott]

Okey-dokies......Firstly i would like to thank you all for helping to identify the gauge, i wouldnt have known where to start! :D
Secondly, i put my hands up, the key ring is mine!
As for what it was resting on, i cant remember, but it wasnt weapon related! The photo was taken at my mates home so as to post up on here for identification.
He is a bit handy at grafting things together, but the only things he would fire at anyone is bad language!:p

Thanks again guys.

(Is the shotgun effective with mozzies etc?? :eek: )

[A2QFI]

An old Pprune discussion here

http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/298633-coming-beam.html

[Dengue_Dude]

Well done DD.

Thank you, very gracious.

I have a sneaky feeling this was talked about at Topcliffe in 1973 - or something very like it.

God, I feel old . . . :8

[parabellum]

Interesting that your friend was able to buy it for a fiver and the one shown in the link is GBP55.00. Must be a bit of money in that sort of thing?

[Fareastdriver]

This is what it looks like mounted in a Halifax.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee224/fareastdriver/img003.jpg

I've added on the index for the benefit of HC.

http://i229.photobucket.com/albums/ee224/fareastdriver/img006.jpg

[henry crun]

Fareastdriver: If you have the list of the other instruments please tell me what 12 is, thanks.

[GGR]

That is an SLR magazine with a 7.62 round just an observation not a criticism