Leuchtpistolenöffnung

[343KKT_Kintaro]

Apparently there was a screw cap closing the flare pistol port inside the cockpit of P-51s :

 

 

 

But not for the German pilots (was the opening fullfilled with some other part or device?):

 

 

 

 

 

And alslo... apparently, Leuchtpistolenöffnung was the term in German for that opening through the cockpit:

 

Sources in German I found... it's over there:

 

https://books.google.fr/books?id=ri87kYQ6fqQC&pg=PA99&lpg=PA99&dq="Leuchtpistolenöffnung"&source=bl&ots=u-CVhrA5Xs&sig=ACfU3U3Di5uBph2Hth4kJri06QVdnItDPw&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjCsciIucvsAhUl4YUKHUrICL0Q6AEwAHoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q="Leuchtpistolenöffnung"&f=false

 

http://www.ipmsdeutschland.de/FirstLook/Eduard/Kits/Bf109_Mersu_LE_48/Edu_Mersu_Bf109_DualCombo.html

 

If some German-speaking forum comrade had something to say, Id'be delighted to read his response.

 

 

[Noisemaker]

I speak German!  The second link doesn't provide any useful info.

 

The first however suggests that the Leuchtpistolenöffnung was filled, at least temporarily, with small packages containing bubble gum and chocolate, each of which with a tiny parachute made of tissue attached to it in order to slow their descent, and to give the children below a chance to catch them without the packages landing on their heads at 185km/hr.

Edited October 25, 2020 by Noisemaker
I said second, a second time.

[vonGraf]

I've read about this 'parachuting' of sweets during the airlift to Berlin after the war done by the allied pilots in C-54 transporters. 'Candy bombers'

But I've asked me the same question too, the opening in the 109 for the flare pistol must been a noisy thing during flight. Maybe they stuffed some cloths inside or the mechanics built a cover.

Or the pistol had to stay attached.

 

Edited October 24, 2020 by vonGraf

[343KKT_Kintaro]

1 hour ago, raaaid said:

if a windy hole is such a trouble i wonder how they managed in open cockpits

 

 

The design and purpose of an enclosed cockpit consists in avoiding  permament contact with the surrounding flow of air. If you add a forward-facing hole, the pilot may actually receive a specificlly concentrated flow in the supposedly quiet atmosphere of the enclosed cockpit. Boring holes though the side panels of enclosed cockpits would cause obvious trouble.

[343KKT_Kintaro]

7 hours ago, raaaid said:

it would make for an interesting sound effect that i wonder if its modelled

 

 

Maybe a waste of time. Please see the following DCS video (Bf 109 K-4). As you see, Great Battles modelers chose to model an empty tube, DCS modelers chose to model the cockpit with the pistol fitted, thus fulfilling the tube:

 

 

 

[J2_Oelmann]

https://images.app.goo.gl/4VJsedLiekoupfCt9

 

There is some sort of a spring or other mechanism at the bottom of the tube.

[343KKT_Kintaro]

3 hours ago, J2_Oelmann said:

https://images.app.goo.gl/4VJsedLiekoupfCt9

 

There is some sort of a spring or other mechanism at the bottom of the tube.

 

 

Yep, I noticed that... but nothing obscures the tube, not on online photos (like the one you are showing above), nor in the simulator. I may be wrong, but IMHO that was only a mechanism intended to fix the pistol.

[J2_Oelmann]

 

There is a clamp on the pipe here. Maybe you are right.

Edited October 28, 2020 by J2_Oelmann

[343KKT_Kintaro]

One comment only: the man on the above photograph is not equiped with a flight suit, thus this doesn't seem to be a photograph taken while flying. Most likely a stationary aircraft.

[JG1_Vonrd]

I believe that the flare pistol was clamped into the tube throughout flight (also prevents accidental discharge in the cockpit... bad day that). The pistol breaks open to load a new shell.