Any ideas what this is off chaps?

[Rocketeer]

It is American WW2....I thought off some turret or indeed a bomber pilot armoured glass....any help appreciated guys!

 

[ccheese]

It probably is a frame for armored glass, but it doesn't seem to be very big.
What ? Twelve inches wide by perhaps sixteen high ?? Are there any
markings at all on the frame ??

Charles

 

[MikeGazdik]

Oil cooler / radiator encasement?

 

[Colin1]

It probably is a frame for armored glass, but it doesn't seem to be very big. What ? Twelve inches wide by perhaps sixteen high ?? Are there any markings at all on the frame ??

I'd say almost certainly. 12 x 16" isn't that small when you're shoe-horning it into cramped turrets and would certainly cover an exposed face peering over the top of his guns at the target.
I think the glass in this B-24 turret bears that out, certainly not identical in shape but close enough

 

[Rocketeer]

Cheers chaps.....forgot I had already asked what this is off...the scale is 12 inches....the B26 had this sort of additional armour but not this shape....did the P47 have such a unit?

 

[Colin1]

...did the P47 have such a unit?

It did
but the earlier razorbacks all seemed to have a trapezoid-shaped fitting; there was no apex at the top of the frame like that one. The later bubbletops had integrated, hard, laminated glass which made it practically bullet-proof and it looked nothing like that.

 

[MikeGazdik]

Are you for certain it is an American piece?

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Any numbers or stamps on it?

 

[MikeGazdik]

Think I found it, right here in this forum from 2005. There are photos in post #52. P-39 Airacobra armored glass!8)
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/p-39-d-aircobra-vs-me-109-a-318-4.html

 

[FLYBOYJ]

I think you nailed it!

 

[Crunch]

Wow, mike, great find! Surely you must have known that was there.. You couldn't have found that cold searching!

 

[MikeGazdik]

I shall never reveal my secrets......nope, just luck. I was reading old posts on various topics. Just happened upon the photo. However, I had been looking through severl books / magazines of my own, I was looking at the cockpits of some of the planes with smallish windscreens. F4F, Spit, Airacobra, Mustang and a couple others but none of my stuff showed that picture.

 

[Rocketeer]

Mike you are an absolute star!! I pulled this item out of an old aircraft dump in Oxfordshire in the early to mid 80s (along with Whirlwind screens and others off Spitfires, Hurris B17s, Liberators etc...a veritable glass dump) but never identified this....I am delighted it is P39 (most prob a UK RAF example) and am tickled pink as it is a fav aircraft type of mine!!! Many many thanx old chap...I owe you a pint of Spitfire ale!!!

 

[MikeGazdik]

Someday I hope we meet and I will share one with you! And boy do I wish I had and old aircraft dump to rummage around! The P-39 is also one of my favorites. I really like all of the pre-war and early wartime aircraft.

 

[Rocketeer]

Someday I hope we meet and I will share one with you! And boy do I wish I had and old aircraft dump to rummage around! The P-39 is also one of my favorites. I really like all of the pre-war and early wartime aircraft.

that would be good old chap! If ever you, or any of our US aviation cousins comes over, let us know and we will show you some good museums and some good beer!

My website is default hopefully it will be updated with phots of the Mustang project etc soon...

 

[Soundbreaker Welch?]

Terrific find!

 

[MikeGazdik]

that would be good old chap! If ever you, or any of our US aviation cousins comes over, let us know and we will show you some good museums and some good beer!

My website is default hopefully it will be updated with phots of the Mustang project etc soon...

Deal! A friend of mine got to visit several years ago. I gave him a some money and asked that he get me something "Spitfire" . So now I have a nice tie tac of a Spitfire bought in London, it is the only tie tac I ever use! He bought it at a museum he had visited.