Jet panel?

[ClinA-78]

Gents,

Is someone able to ID this panel?
From a T-33?
Any guess is welcome.

Thanks for your attention.

ClinA-78

[Tony Kambic]

Sent this to a retired USAF driver who flew T-33 in later years, after 1970. He actually was the last to fly NASM Udvar-Hazy T-33 53-5226 on the day it was turned over to Smithsonian in 1987.

He says this panel was not in any of the T-33s he flew.

Tony

[RSwank]

ClinA-78,
What are the dimensions of the panel? Do we all think it shows the status of shut-off valves to various gas tanks during In Flight Refueling? The tank locations being in either wing or an onboard tank (the top row of lights) or exterior wing tip or pylon tanks on either wing (bottom row of lights).

[jschreiber]

Hello


My two pennies on the subject...



Looks like for a plane with wingtip tanks, pylon mounted external tanks, internal wing tanks, fuselage tank(s), inflight refuelable, and perhaps manufactured not too far away from New Jersey...
The panel itself has a 1950's look.

The most probable answer (and may be the only one) is the Republic F-84G.


So far, so good...


But I could not find the panel in the F-84G manual, dated 1952


So, the other possibilities are :
- an experimental and earlier F-84
- a later F-84
- a F-84 fuel circuit test panel


Personnaly, the last one would be my best guess, but I can be wrong all the line along...


Regards
Jean Schreiber

[RSwank]

Jean, I could not find it in the F-84G manual either. I like your idea of a test panel. The way the panel is laid out, it does not seem to be something that would actually be in the cockpit of a plane, where space is at a premium. The indicators seem too spread out with lots of "wasted" space.

[ClinA-78]

Gents,

Thank you for your clever guesses, much appreciated.
I will take the dimensions next week, panel is not mine.
So the F-84E might be a candidate as well.

Sorry any other info.

Have a great weekend.

ClinA-78

[Tony Kambic]

Would F-89 be a candidate?

[RSwank]

This is a link to 360 degree views of many cockpits and interiors. They allow you to sit in the pilot's seat and look around by dragging the cursor and zooming in and out with the mouse wheel. I went through several possibilities but the "more eyes" the better.

Fuel tank indicators often appear on the left hand side.

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Vi...ur/Cockpit360/

Here is the F-89J
http://www.nmusafvirtualtour.com/coc...our/CW-52.html

There are a series of Fuel switches and lights , labeled LH, RH, Tip, InBoard OutBoard, etc on the lower left side, but not the layout of our mystery panel. Also notice how close together they are.

Off-topic but interesting: start in the SPAD XIII, move on to the Boeing P-26A, then to the Supermarine Spitfire and on into the Northrup F-89 or North American F-100. Then to the Lockheed SR-71. You can end your trip in a Space Shuttle trainer.

[jschreiber]

Originally Posted by Tony Kambic

Would F-89 be a candidate?

Hello

The F-89 had 4 tanks on each side (wing tip, pylon, wing outboard, wing inboard), and, to my knowledge, could not be refueled inflight.

Other dismissed candidates were the RB-45 (no pylon tanks and very different inflight refueling panel), obviously the F-104 (wings too thin to hold any fuel), the late F-80s (no pylon tanks and IFR of the wingtip tanks only)

Regards

[ClinA-78]

I hope to gather further info's soon.
So it doesn't involve a Belgian Air Force aircraft.