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Can Anyone Identify These Two Vintage Aircraft Lights?


AirMechanic
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Can anyone identify which aircraft these two vintage lights may have belonged to? I am not sure if they are military or civilian, as they do not really have any markings or data plates to identify them. I believe that the first light is a cockpit map light, as it has a rotating knob with bright, dim, and off functions. I suspect that this light may have had a sticker type data plate with a part number on it at one point. I believe the second light is some kind of interior ceiling light. The light has separate red and white glass lenses, a black crackle finish, and a three position switch. Any ideas?

post-7244-0-72419100-1510706121_thumb.jpg

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The first one with what appears to be a black lens is an ultraviolet light, widely used during WWII. The instruments had dials painted with pigment that was excited by ultraviolet light so that they all lit up although you couldn't see the beam of UV light.

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I agree it is a cockpit light but would guess it to be well post-WWII. Many civilian aircraft like old Pipers and Cessna have those thrown in. I think I kept two out of my TriPacer - need to go look at them. IIRC they had nomenclature on them - maybe even a data plate. Strange yours has nothing.

Dave

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I just found two crinkle black painted C4As - I had run those on 12V - have GE1816 13V bulbs. Another I have is unmarked except for a white stamp - black crinkle paint and is marked 26V. They aren't high tech so maybe that is just a bulb rating. They all work pretty much the same - dimmer and switching red/white lenses. My unmarked one has a flood setting too. Yours could be from an airliner based on the smooth paint and lack of data tag(those aren't that easy to remove and you'd likely see where it was).

I am not a collector of instruments/lighting - just get them out of civi planes when they are unneeded, in the way, or not original. Such lights are laying all over around here and not really of any rarity IMO.

JMO,

Dave

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