What is this? (Luftwaffe im Focus 31)

[GrauGeist]

Yeah, look at the one photo showing the four zoomed in.
They have an annular opening up front with no discernable blockages.

That's why my first impression was to allow airflow.
I have seen photos of the cable bobbins on the fins of their missiles, and they look similar.

 

[vikingBerserker]

Rocket powered flare launchers that launched them ahead of the aircraft before the cameras started taking pictures?

 

[Snautzer01]

That would not explain the shaping nor layout. One large weight would do just as well and would be simpler and have less drag. And we still have those openings on the front to explain.

perhaps but this is the luftwaffe. Have you have experience with project luftwaffe in detail? in genuine planes ? I have.

 

[OldGeezer]

JATO units? Not like the ones usually seen on Luftwaffe machines, obviously. But I can't help thinking of B-47s using many small units instead of a few large ones.

 

[SaparotRob]

Thanks for that post OldGeezer. I always wondered how that was set up.

 

[Maury Markowitz]

perhaps but this is the luftwaffe. Have you have experience with project luftwaffe in detail? in genuine planes ? I have.

So you have seen these precise devices being used as counterweights to a fuel tank in service?

 

[Snautzer01]

So you have seen these precise devices being used as counterweights to a fuel tank in service?

No otherwise i would have been posting them with a smug grin on my face. However the germans did stuff outside the book and as for now nobody knows a i try to be a bit creative as the reason for the thingamabob.

 

[ww2restorer]

Maybe they are landing lights? Towards the end of the war, Melita von Stauffenberg was doing experiments on landing lights. The post war shape of a bicycle headlight looks similar.

 

[MiTasol]

Landing lights were invented long before ww2 and in the USAAF many aircraft that were not suitable for night flight, like P-39 and P-40 were fitted with them "just in case". The Hawk 75 had retractable landing lights as an option
Civil aircraft with landing lights in the US go back at least to the 1933 Boeing 247 and DC-1 and both British and French aircraft had Landing lights around the same time.

Germany was not a backward country so I am sure that there was no shortage of German aircraft pre-ww2 that had landing lights and my less than perfect memory is the prewar Messerschmidt Taifun had one in a fairing under the left wing.

 

[GrauGeist]

The Bf110 had a landing light in the leading edge of the port wing, outboard of the engine nacelle.

These clusters of four objects (per wing) have a solid body ahead of the annular ring. They're not lights.

 

[J_P_C]

well, i think coukd be i know what is this (result of morning commuting in public transportation ) - it is air sampling device, i know that germans have tried to make some intelligence conclusions from measuring pollution over English cities - its explaining recce unit designation on the airplane and openings at the front of the device

 

[Capt. Vick]

I think the jury is still out on this one. Maybe in issue 32 they will have an answer.

 

[ww2restorer]

We know what landing lights are. In my statement I said MAYBE it is and experimental landing light setup and also that Stauffenberg was doing research on "low visibility" landing lights. Why low vis landing lights - because allied fighters would hang around air bases and as soon as and aircraft put on his lights for landing or taxi, the were i sitting target. We can see that the forward part appears solid, however the annular area behind is open, there could be a light. The German engineers were very intelligent.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I bet one of the fellows is saying to the other: "Hans, I bet I know how we can drive plane nerds nuts in 90 years. Hand me those toy ray guns."

 

[Airframes]

I'm wondering if these could possibly be para-illuminating flares ?
It's known that Luftwaffe aircraft sometimes dropped para-flares above a night bomber stream, to aid night-fighters, so maybe ??

 

[special ed]

I found my tinfoil hat. It has been revealed to me the use of the devices in question. After reading other posts from a certain poster with an unusually shaped head, I received from the UFOs orbiting our planet, the information. These are air sampling devices used by recon units to detect radiation after nuke detonations. This is the only aircraft to survive flying through the cloud. I shall now neatly fold my tinfoil hat until the UFOs have another message.

 

[Maury Markowitz]

We know what landing lights are. In my statement I said MAYBE it is and experimental landing light setup and also that Stauffenberg was doing research on "low visibility" landing lights. Why low vis landing lights - because allied fighters would hang around air bases and as soon as and aircraft put on his lights for landing or taxi, the were i sitting target. We can see that the forward part appears solid, however the annular area behind is open, there could be a light. The German engineers were very intelligent.

Actually, were they aware of corner reflectors by the end of the war? I guess they must have been because I recall they used them to produce radar reflectors to confuse the H2S images over Berlin...

In this case the lights could be intended for use with corner reflectors along the runways. The British used these to land agents in europe. They would drop the reflectors to resistance forces who would find a nice area somewhere and lay down a line of them. The pilot would then wear - I kid you not - a flashlight on their head. The reflectors bounced the light directly back to them. It was practically invisible to anyone on the ground, but easily visible to the pilot. No one could see it from another plane because the light was going directly to and from the cubes - only someone exactly on the line between them would see it.

If these are lamps, and they are low visibility tests, then it might be for something similar - I highly directional low power lamp.

But... that doesn't explain their being four of them, nor the shape, nor why they just wouldn't put one on the cockpit so it's more inline.