Official Channel of the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre at East Kirkby, home of Avro Lancaster NX611 'Just Jane'.
Here you can learn about the displays and exhibits at the Centre, keep up to date with the restoration of the Lancaster and see some of the experiences we off such as the Lancaster taxy ride.
Those arc lamps have a very broad spectrum of light. They produce very intense ultraviolet light in addition to the visible spectrum. The doping of the salts in the rods alters the light spectra as well. About thirty years ago a US version of a shipborne carbon arc searchlight came in to my possession. We wired it up to a 240 volt electrical outlet (way too high of voltage but it worked) and turned it on at night. It looked like a martian heat ray from "War of the Worlds". Finally I had to shut it down within two minutes because of the smell of burning plastic. The 10 AWG power cord had melted all of the insulation off of the wires and the glowing hot copper wires were writhing around on the floor like red hot snakes. Its not spoken of much but an arc lamp of that vintage makes a terrible buzzing noise because there is a coil mechanism that keeps the rods moving around to sustain the arc. It sounded like being next to a welding machine. I had picked it up because I thought that I could salvage out the big parabolic mirror to make a telescope. Once I extracted the mirror I realized that it was definitely not optics grade glass. It had bubbles and all sorts of defects in the glass so that ended that project.
If you need any engine spares for the generator engine I have a large stock of 320/326 parts , I have a few military engine parts as well. I also rebuild pre-war BMW engines .
It’s interesting that it has a petrol driven generator. I wonder where they got their petrol from in 1945 as supplies were running low and how many search lights were unable to operate due to fuel shortages?
You remember the Abba song called "Supertrooper"? it was about a powerful spotlight used in concerts which was essentially a scaled down version of this type of spotlight. Can't use SuperTroopers any more as they emit harmful fumes when running, not good when you have thousands of people in an arena or theater. But for their day they were an awesome piece of equipment.
In some war games, they're one of the first things I will destroy when flying. They must have been prime targets, who was responsible for destroying them and how?
He was wrong about the morsecode communication between the crew!!! At 1:03 there is everthing translated to german and I will translate it for you to english. Three dots mean "electrical power on", engine is already running and they should just turn the current for the light on. Brighter, more voltage, translates to two dashes. Dimmer, less voltage, to one dot and two dashes. Turn the engine on = . _ Turn the light on = ... More Voltage = _ _ Less Voltage = . _ _ Turn the light off = . Turn the engine off = . _ . _ .
That is in amazing shape after 70 years! That must have been a horrible feeling to be in a Lancaster and that light found you while on a raid over Germany.
Awesome that you show the whole system including the demonstration. If you need help with the German just answer this comment and I can translate the words.
Probably the simplest arc light ever produced was the Yablochkov candle which was invented in France by a Russian immigrant in the mid-late 19th century. It used a pair of carbon rods separated by a plaster insulator and it burned from the top to the bottom. The originals could only be lit once using a fuse wire across the top but later versions had powdered metal in the plaster mix which acted as an arc bridge for starting. The originals were DC but later transformer powered AC versions were much more successful, being the first time transformers were used in any large scale application. They were widely used for street lighting in Europe up until the end of the 19th century.
Could you imagine crews of those search lights looking up at 100's of Lancaster bombers streaming overhead at night hoping they don't get hit by 2000 pound bombs.
I recently visited East Kirkby and saw you chaps at work ,I would have liked to have chatted but saw the warning signs! Seriously though,it is amazing what you have all achieved and continue to do! As a retired aero modeller/flyer and more recently vintage car restorer,you amaze me each time I watch your videos.Your dedication and work is much admired and appreciated and hopefully will be for many years to come. Your efforts are fitting testament to the crews that flew/maintained these aircraft ,I thank you !
