This one is driving me a little bit nuts, and I'm hoping someone can look at this collage of XP-67 detail photos and tell me just what the cylindrical thing is that lies just behind the upper instrument cluster and runs forward almost all the way to the windscreen. It seems to be wrapped at its midpoint in a substantial metal collar of some kind. It appeared on the aircraft partway through its life; it definitely wasn't there when it was first built. Whatever it is, it must be pretty important, because one of the critical flight instruments had to be cut out of that upper panel and remounted on top of the instrument next to it. I thought it might be a gun camera but there's absolutely no opening in the front end in any of the photos that show it. It was put in at about the same time that a gunsight was supposed to have been fitted, and you can sort of glimpse what might be a reticle behind and above it in some photos, although that's not the right shape for any gunsight I ever heard of either. I've looked through thousands of images of other aircraft without finding anything like the cylinder (or gunsight for that matter) and so I'm throwing this out there, to see if people with vastly more knowledge of WW2 aircraft components than I have can shed any light at all. Wild speculations, even - everything's welcome at the moment!
XP-67 "mystery cylinder"
- Thread starter OldGeezer
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- Thread starter
- #3
Thank you, I couldn't find that photo when I looked for it to make the collage. I have so many folders and subfolders and PowerPoint files of things now that it takes forever to locate anything. Appreciate the help!
Kind of looks like a CO2/nitrogen bottle, perhaps used during testing along with the additional upper row of TEST instruments. Not seen in every photo.
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Boeing Images - McDonnell XP-67 and Chief Test Pilot Ed Elliot
Welcome to The Boeing Company's official source for licensed aerospace photography, illustrations and videos.
Boeing Images - McDonnell XP-67 and Chief Test Pilot Ed Elliot
Welcome to The Boeing Company's official source for licensed aerospace photography, illustrations and videos.
Boeing Images - McDonnell XP-67 and Chief Test Pilot Ed Elliot
Welcome to The Boeing Company's official source for licensed aerospace photography, illustrations and videos.
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- Thread starter
- #5
It does look like a bottle of some kind, but they're not usually held in place by such massive horse-collar looking frames as this one has. So far that's the best guess, though. Thanks!Kind of looks like a CO2/nitrogen bottle, perhaps used during testing along with the additional upper row of TEST instruments. Not seen in every photo.
Boeing Images - McDonnell XP-67 and Chief Test Pilot Ed Elliot
Welcome to The Boeing Company's official source for licensed aerospace photography, illustrations and videos.Boeing Images - McDonnell XP-67 and Chief Test Pilot Ed Elliot
Welcome to The Boeing Company's official source for licensed aerospace photography, illustrations and videos.Boeing Images - McDonnell XP-67 and Chief Test Pilot Ed Elliot
Welcome to The Boeing Company's official source for licensed aerospace photography, illustrations and videos.
MiTasol
1st Lieutenant
MAYBE an early form of G meter. It would need to have solid mounting because if the mounting flexed the reading would not be accurate.
- Thread starter
- #7
Interesting - there's an accelerometer in the instrument panel of course, but I have no idea what feeds it. Looks like I'll be taking another trip through old instrument manuals!
MiTasol
1st Lieutenant
This was the standard accelerometer of March 1944 and it is quite small and self contained. I have no idea what earlier ones looked like.
- Thread starter
- #9
As far as I can tell, they all were self-contained like this, with small internal weights suspended on frames that would react against spring forces to determine the accelerations and cause the needles to register accordingly. So I'll have to think of something else to explain the "mystery cylinder."
