Latest Photos & Some Thoughts Regarding Auctions

Hi there! Today I am back with some new photos and also some thoughts about posting auction links. Some collectors are against publishing photos and links to eBay auctions in this blog and forums. As I have mentioned in one of my first post, there is a voting poll on the right hand side of this blog with which you can express your opinion. Please make use of it, so that I can adjust the blog to your needs. Personally, I do not think that posting links & photo previews will significantly increase prices because:

1) I am not publishing secret data, it is just a summary of - in my opinion - interesting auctions which you can also easily find yourself using search terms like "Luftwaffe", "German aircraft", etc. So, everybody can find these photos. The ones that are extremely difficult to find (e.g. because seller offer them in a wrong category or use wrong descriptions) will most likely elude also my search.

2) Although many people are usually interested in one photo, only the highest bidder will get it. And I think, if the highest bidder is so keen on spending a high amount of money, he must be even more keen on finding these photos himself. He will find them also without my or anybody else's help and would outbid bidders that are willing to pay less anyway.

3) Not all of the people who buy photos will keep them for themselves. I think the majority is using these photos for a personal book project or will share/trade sooner or later with other historians in order to get photos for their personal project. I think not many people spend hundreds of €/$ just to keep all these photos for themselves. But of course, I can't support this statement with statistical numbers as they don't exist. It is just my opinion having contact to many people who buy such photos and knowing myself how it difficult it is to find photos for my own book.

4) Many historians don't necessarily want to own the original but they are much more interested in the information that a photo contains. So, often an average scan from ebay is all they need. They don't want to bid at all and perhaps just ask the seller for a better scan after they explained the reasons to the seller. These people don't increase prices at all.

I know there are many different opinions and probably there is too little "evidence" to tell that this or that is 100% correct. If you don't agree with my opinion please use the voting poll on the right. I don't want to upset the majority of you. That is not and never was the target of this blog! Your LW Collector.

PHOTO ALBUMS & GROUPS

Luftwaffe pilot training photo album 250171030944


Group of 20 Luftwaffe and other photos (One Fw 190) 180164728117


Very nice grouping of Me 323 Photos (17 in total) 280158124319


FIGHTER AIRCRAFT

Very sharp Me 109 Photo withWerknummer and victory bar(?) 230176692919


Two Me 109 (winter camouflage) & Fi 156 Photos 250170945511


Fw 190 Photo 280158122806


BOMBER AIRCRAFT

Do 17 Photo 160163343388


Do 17 Photo 190157893548


Damaged Ju 88 Photo 280157962519


Ju 88 Photo 110175562223


He 111 with unit insignia Photo 320164191023


He 111 Photo 110175559553


DESTROYERS

Crash-landed Me 110 Photo 180164995963


Flying Boats & Marine

Blohm & Voss BV 222 Photo 150166791139


BV 138 in-flight Photo 110175564994


GLIDERS

DFS 230 in-flight Photo 180164996907


Go 242 glider Photo 110175561121


LIGHT AIRCRAFT

Fi 156 with running engine Photo 280158378092


DOCUMENTS

Letter from 10./JG51 160163337855

Latest Auctions 29 Sep 07 & Brainteaser

Hi there! Today I am back with some new photos. Enjoy! I decided to move flight instrument & aircraft part related topics to a separate blog: http://lwaircraftparts.blogspot.com/. You can easily navigate from one to another blog using the links at the top right part of the blog. Also, today I have a small brainteaser for you as I want this blog to become a bit more interactive: I have posted a mistery photo of a unidentified aircraft. You answer using the voting poll I have added for this (lasts 3 days). Your LW Collector.


Brainteaser: What type of aircraft is this? Please vote using the voting poll on the right.


Arado Ar 96 320163925425


Heinkel He 111 130158084562


Messerschmitt Me 108 130158084283


Junkers Ju 88 with bombs on truck 130158083899


Henschel Hs 123 - crash landed 130158150111


Training airplane with unit insignia 160162755179


Force landed Me 109 Legion Condor (seller has several Legion Condor photos) 280157933238


Messerschmitt Me 110 with flame dampers and tail band 250170310559


Heinkel He 51 with fuel tank 160161979493


Early Messerschmitt Me 110 220151087874


Snow covered Junkers Ju 88 220151088357

Messerschmitt Bf 109 K-4 Instrument Panel

Hi there! Today, I post my first Luftwaffe instrument related post: the instrument panel of the Bf 109 K-4 (Bf was used instead of Me in the original K-4 manual, therefore I use Bf). The information is from an old website of mine, but perhaps most of you have not seen it before. The topic is somewhat different from the photo postings and I am not sure if I should open a separate blog for instruments and aircraft parts related topics. I added a voting poll so that you can decide what you prefer in the future. Enjoy! Your LW collector.

The following Part-One describes navigation and engine control instruments and equipment of the Bf 109 K-4 main instrument panel. Part-Two deals with the round counter box and armament equipment on the upper instrument panel.

GENERAL: The instrument panel of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 K-4 consists out of the Main Instrument Panel (made out of plywood with a thickness of 15 mm, roughly 1 mm per layer), the Blind Flying Panel (made out of plywood with a thickness of 8 mm, 7 layers), the so-called Geraetebretttraeger (mounting bracket for main panel), and (if the Retrofit R1 was used) the auxiliary panel for the ZSK244 bomb switch box which was attached to the lower center of the main panel.

The Blind Flying Panel Fl 22000-1, which carried delicate instruments like the air speed indicator, altimeter, etc. was attached to the Main Panel with four rubber shock mounts. The Main Instrument Panel was attached with hexagonal screws (M6x58, LgN14180.1) to the Geraetebretttraeger which itself was fixed to the windshield assembly.

The Geraetebrett carried not only the main instrument panel but also control instruments for the armament, a pressure gauge for the MW50 equipment (or the clock, respectively), and the Revi 16B gunsight mounting. Critical values on instruments were distinguished with red markings applied directly onto the front glass of the instrument or by means of adjustable markers inside the instruments.

The following sections describe each instrument of the Me 109 K-4 instrument panel. The Anforderungszeichen Fl (instrument code for flight equipment) and the designations for the electrical system are highlighted.

(1) AIR SPEED INDICATOR Fl 22234: The air speed indicator (Fahrtmesser; 100 to 900 km/h) was mounted on the upper left side of the Blind Flying Panel. It was connected to the static as well as dynamic air pressure flexible tube (see figure below). The pitot tube was installed in the left wing tip (in flight direction). The indicated air speed usually did not exactly match the true air speed since the dynamic pressure was not only dependent on air speed but also on air density. The air speed indicator was designed for low altitudes. Hence the error increased with increasing altitude. Therefore the maximum allowed indicated air speed decreased with increasing altitude. The speed limits for different altitudes were indicated with red markings on the instrument front glass (at 400, 500, 600, 700 and 800 km/h for the maximum allowed air speed in 11, 9, 7, 5, and 3 kilometers altitude).

(3) RATE OF CLIMB INDICATOR 22386: The rate of climb indicator (Variometer) was mounted on the upper right side of the Blind Flying Panel. It had a measurement range of +/- 30 m/s and was connected to the static pressure flexible tube and to the compensation container (see figure below). There existed three major types of dials with a slightly different font type. Early ones had only 10-20-30 m/s on the dial compared to later ones with 5-10-20-30 m/s. Some of the indicators had a bulge on the lower side which usually was used for adjusting the pointer in e.g. altimeters. However, all of the rate of climb indicators with this bulge I have seen so far did not have the possibility for adjusting the pointer.

(2) COMBINED ARTIFICAL HORIZON / TURN & BANK INDICATOR Fl 22410, 22411, 22415: The combined artificial horizon and turn & band indicator (Wendehorizont) 1L104 was used for indicating the position of the aircraft with regard to the horizon. It was mounted in the top center of the Blind Flying Panel. The Wendehorizont was driven by a converter, which was attached to the left fuselage side behind the instrument panel. The original spare parts list mentions a Fl 22410. However, all of the three above mentioned types were used (late war fighters usually had a Fl 22411 or Fl 22415).

(4) ALTIMETER Fl 22322: The altimeter (Fein- und Grobhoehenmesser) was mounted on lower left side of the Blind Flying Panel below the air speed indicator. It was connected with the static pressure flexible tube (see figure above). In spite the fact that most late war fighters were equipped with the Fl 22322 (measurement range 13 km) and photos of an original panel show the Fl 22322, also the use of the Fl 22320 (measurement range 10 km) is documented in other fighters (Fw 190 D-9, Me 262).

(5) REMOTE INDICATING COMPASS Fl 23334: The remote indicating compass (Fuehrertochterkompass FT / f2; Geraete-Nr. 127-113 A-2) 1L101 was mounted on the lower center of the Blind Flying Panel. It received the input signals from the main compass (Mutterkompass) mounted in the rear fuselage. There existed different types of this compass. Some had a grey casing, some black. Early types had riveted data plates whereas later ones just had a white imprint. Some of the panels received the latest version of the compass (FT / f8; 127-659 A) with a much shorter casing made out of some kind of plastic. It had a rectangular front and the airplane symbol had just a white outline and was not filled white (some of the FT / f2 had this feature as well).

PART II will follow soon!

New Photos & Albums

Hi there! Today I am back with some new photos. Enjoy! I might add also other collectibles in the near future (such as aircraft intruments & parts), but am still not sure if I open a separate blog or if I should add it here. I might add another poll so that you can decide yourself. Your LW Collector.

PHOTO ALBUMS

Zerstoerergeschwader 26 Photo Album 180163154561
Contains 160 photos. Very nicely made album with drawings and maps.


Paratrooper Photo Album with Ju52 150164898580
Contains 79 photos and 5 death notices. Some in-flight photos of Ju52.


FW 190

Fw 190 at Koethen 190156614358


Fw 190 in French Markings 110174306424


ME 109

Me 109 May 1945 in Bavaria 190156613071


Me 109 White 8 with RVB(?) 190156611853


Me 109 with black (?) camoflage and RVB(?) 190156608821


Belly landed Me 109 Black 3 with unit insignia 130157223006


Me 109 Emil JG54 250169253734


ME 110

Me 110 with running engines 140162082150


Me 110 with shark mouth 140161883005


OTHERS

Bv 141 Rare! 180163396597


Ar 196 on ship 120165740539


Hs 123 320162546873


Ju 88 with black camoflage 140162081112


Ju 87 with anti tank canons 190156609967