Stirling Skylight?

[jamesinnewcastle]

Hi All

It looks as if the MKI Stirlings had a 'skylight', I think I have enough evidence for this but I'm no aircraft expert and if there is an obvious 'alternative' then please let me know.

Attached is a clip from a film of the 'first' Stirlings, it shows a dark circle on the top of the fuselage just over the centre of the wing spar, this I imagine is to let in some light to this physically crowded/dark section of the aircraft. Also shown is a clip from the drawing of the MKI again showing this circular feature. The circle is not on later drawings of the Stirling.

I have a pic at home (which I will add later) showing light coming into the aircraft from what looks like this window but as many of the internal pics around are of aircraft on the production line you can't tell if they simply haven't finished building it!

I'm reasonably certain that it is a window but there is no curtain that I can see and so you would imagine that black out would be harder at night, equally why bother with such a window on a night bomber? Possibly it's to help out maintainers? Also it looks like it would fill with water very quickly.

Also, why paint the surround of this item black? Or is that just some mechanical aspect of its construction, on the drawing the surround seems to be segmented. Is the black outline just a 'do not step on the glass' warning for maintainers wandering on the aircrafts back?

Shout if you think it could be something else other than a skylight please!

Cheers
James

[jamesinnewcastle]

Certainly looks like a skylight - I wonder if any other aircraft had such a thing?

Hmm just seen the same 'hole' on a picture of a MKIII production line.


James

[spark plug]

Never noticed that one. Wonder if John has.

[Stirling Project]

You've got me thinking there James. I've looked at a few pictures of aircraft in flight and I tend to agree with you that there was a 'skylight' between the main spars. I've looked at some pictures of aircraft in flight and I've seen certainly seen it on Mk Is, I'll dig through my photos and have a look at Mk IIIs etc to see if it's still present

John L

[jamesinnewcastle]

Hi John

I've seen the hole on some MKIIIs in production photos but they may well have been left over from the MKIs and simply plated over as 'not required' but we couldn't be bothered to change the drawings. I've never seen a similar (obvious) hole on any MKIIIs in service/flying.

I did wonder if the hole was there to make production easier, i.e crane lifting or passing oxygen bottles in, etc, but no real evidence for that.

It will be interesting to see what you can find.

James