The Plot Thickens.
Chugalug,
No, my questions were purely rhetorical (the beauty of this Thread is that there's always the chance of finding someone who really knows the answer). I agree that this looks like some home cameraman's (illicit) wartime record, in the form of a montage of his training days, for private viewing. I never saw an official RAF film camera crew all the time I was out there. Post-war, it probably first passed to Bharat Rakshak and has now surfaced 70+ years after the event. I never thought that any cine film like this even existed (until I found it here).
Now we can lay EZ999 down to rest, for the story is becoming clearer by the day. As I see it, this A-31 (I'm going to use US terms from now on - as we get tangled up in all our Marks) was probably given to the Technical College intact. Specifically, it would have had an A-31 cockpit and panel, and a twin-Browning in the rear. Then the wreckers (sorry, Tech students) got at it - and really went to town !
Away went the guns (where ?), someone fancied the A-31 pilot's panel and had that away, too. In return they put in all sorts of wonderful things (do you remember those coloured signal lights ** under a wing ? - which never flew again anyway - and an optical gunsight ##). Now they (or Harold Thomas when he found it) needed a replacement panel. They couldn't find an A-31 panel, but managed to get hold of an A-35 one (I can't be sure even about that, it might be a complete bodge-up from Lord knows where, bearing no relation to an A-35 or anything else).
Notes:
** mmitch link in 132/2638
## What on earth for ? As I've said, the idea of air combat in a VV would make a cat laugh: you could strafe with them, I suppose, but that task was better left to the more agile aircraft specialised in the job (in our case, the Hurricane IIC and Beaufighter). But the designer of the VV "animation" (the "6.31" thumbnail on the side of the YouTube under discussion) has bought into the idea all right !
Likewise, it needed rear gun(s) to go on display. They can't find any twin 0.300/.303s, but here's an old single 0.50 - stick that in, it'll do (who'll know the difference ?). So the matter rested, and everybody was happy - until some pesky folk on PPRuNE come along and say "Hey-oop something's not right here !"
Then were we all "up the creek without a paddle", for the plain fact seems to be that there are no genuine photographs of the pilot's panel in an A-31 or an A-35 anywhere. Anyone who wants one has to fall back on the "iffy" thing at Narellan. Peter C. Smith uses a photograph of it on Page 3, and a carefully detailed drawing of the same thing appears as the Appendix 5 to his "Vengeance!" - and he would certainly have put other photographs in if he could have found any.
Somewhere on this Thread (around page 131) there is a Post that shows (from a Link ?) an illustration (from a sketchy Pilot's Notes - pukka, has an A.P. number) of the front cockpit of an A-35 (maybe intended for the TT conversions in the UK ?). I know it's in here somewhere, for I've seen it . Can I find it now ? I can not.
Whatever, they have a photograph. Guess what ? (our old pal, again, of course). They have carefully overlaid it (as they do with all PNs) with traces back to identify each item. At least one defeated them: two levers in a quadrant on the right side, roughly opposite to the u/c and flap on the left.
They don't know what these are, I suppose - and I have no idea what they might be. There are other items that have foxed them, but I can't remember now. The trouble is: I can't recall exactly what the A-31 panels looked like (it's been a long time !) but they were sensibly laid out, with the flight instruments laid in the middle in strict RAF "Sperry Panel" order, all the engine clocks on the right and the others on the left, odds like the ammeter and fuel and hydraulic power along the bottom. The switch gear was below.
I've never set eyes on an A-35, so I don't know what it ought to look like, but I bet it was nothing like what's in EZ999 now !
Hipper 129/2579 (May, 2012) may be of interest - but I'm not buying any CDs !
Danny.
Last edited by Danny42C; 17th Aug 2015 at 06:55.
Reason: Awkward wording.