Hi guys, I was at an airshow a couple of years ago and watched a Hawker Hurricane land. The pilot got out and unscrewed a panel on the wing, roughly where I guess they would have accessed the gun battery on a real combat hurricane. He pulled out a small bag then screwed the panel back on, so I guess he was using it as a storage compartment as of course there is no armament on modern ww2 aircraft that are still flying.
It got me thinking, does anybody know if ww2 era fighters ever had a small storage compartment for a pilot to put a bag in? For example, when moving from being based at one airfield to another, could a pilot take any personal possessions with him or did all possessions have to be brought separately? I know there could be many issues, for example weight distribution. But I know from cutaways of aircraft that the fuselage behind the pilot was often fairly hollow (thinking especially of hurricane).
I've had a google but can't seem to find any answers. My gut feeling is that this was not provided on any fighter, they were built entirely for one purpose, not for comfort. I'm sure I read somewhere that a german pilot would take his dog with him in the cockpit of his 109 when on non-combat flights. Perhaps pilots put a small bag on their lap or at their feet but then from a safety point of view this seems like a bad idea!
Any thoughts would be interesting? Cheers.