RAF Old Sarum, Wiltshire

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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Camera Obscura bombing training aid.

Hawker Audax.

Hawker Hind.

Hawker Hector.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura
Plan A.M. 603/32

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95 - Camera Obscura
The plan of RAF Old Sarum in 1932 showing a lot of its First World war hangars and buildings before the expansion scheme had started after 1932.

Belfast Truss hangar.

Belfast Truss hangar inside.

Principal of a Belfast Truss design.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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Looking down the row of hangars with the ARS Aircraft Repair Shed on the left and the later fuel instillation where tankers could park and off load their cargo of petrol.

Hangar under construction.

Three double hangars and one single ARS Aircraft Repair Shed. Yellow square is the camera Obscura.

An early type of fuel bowser to re fuel aircraft around the airfield.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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The Camera Obscura hut behind I think the oil instillation (WW2 or later).

 

 

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura
95 Camera Obscura 527/31

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Camera Obscura hut entrance and one shuttered window. The Camera Obscura was a teaching aid to bomber pilots to hone their skills on before they go to drop on the ranges and then to war. A simple method of just skillful flying over the target airfield, then pin pointing the target building (the Obscura) and flashing a very bright light. The flash would be seen on the table and the accuracy checked and related to the pilot.
Later on the Air Ministry used an Air Ministry Laboratory to do the same job. Inside a specially made building.

AML bombing teacher.

Plan.

AML bombing teacher.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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The hole in the roof..

How it worked.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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Closer image of the hole..

How it worked.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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Camera Obscura looking inside and you can see the opening in the roof where the lens would have sat. A table would have taken up most of the floor space and around would have been Officers tabulating the bomb run and accuracy of the hits.

How it worked.

Hawker Audax.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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Shuttered window to keep out the light when being used.

 

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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The Camera Obscura in the roof. A square lid on the roof would slide back allowing light through the lens onto the table.

The Sqn score board in a bombing competition at practice camp.

Army Liaison officer checking the scores.

1930's air photo of RAF Old Sarum showing the camera Obscura.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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Drawing Number AP1243S.
This is a drawing of an AP1243A Camera Obscura showing the layout of the building. The same apparatus, i.e. the frame and lens, can be used in a tent.
Plan AM 3391/35 depicts a rectangular building 20ft x 10ft with two shuttered windows, one on each end wall. Part way down one wall is a 'Cat Ladder'. A sliding wooden cover 4ft 6inch square is mounted on rails on the roof next to the aperture.

Originated from AIX

 

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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Here there is a steel ladder on the outside and three windows.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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The following is gleaned from “I Saw Two England´s” by HV Morton, published in 1943 by Methuen & Co. Ltd., London, and Reginald Saunders, Toronto.
Morton toured England in early and late 1939. On his second tour, shortly after the beginning of the war he gave an account of a visit to the Royal Air Force Flying Training School. The following is an account of a method of training bomb-aimers:

“Another ingenious invention is the camera Obscura hut, which tells the instructor whether a man in a bomber several thousand feet above him, has, in theory, bombed the hut. The place is dark save for a circle of light reflected (projected) upon a table through a lens in the roof. A spot in the centre on the table represents the hut" . “When an aeroplane is flying overhead you can watch its shadow (image) slowly cross the table, as it is reflected (projected) by the lens. As it nears the centre a tiny white flash is seen, which is really the firing of a magnesium bulb in the aeroplane. This represents the bomb, or rather the exact moment at which the bomber pressed the bomb-release". “The instant the flash is seen, it is plotted on the table. It is a simple matter to allow for the time taken for the bomb to drop according to the height of the plane, the angle at which it falls, according to the speed and wind, and this shows you how near, or how far, the bomber was from his target”.

(words in brackets are mine – SW)
This article was originally distributes as HVM Society Snippets – No.165; 29 March 2014.

Henry Vollam Canova Morton.

Lysander Army Co-operation..

AW Atlas of 16Sqn RAF.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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Hawker Audax biplane light bomber Army Co-operation.

Hawker Audax biplane.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Armourer loads light bombs.

RAF Officers and men outside a hangar at RAF Old Sarum.

RAF Old Sarum, Camera Obscura

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RAF Old Sarum

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RAF Old Sarum MENU

© 2013 Richard Drew