Identify this please?

[Mason]

Hi everyone, My grandad gave me this compass a few years ago and I was wandering if anyone here could tell me a bit more about it

He told me it was from a ww2 aircraft, spitfire he said but I havent seen a spitfire one un painted before.

My grandad used it on his old boats so the brass holder for it maybe retro fitted Im not sure as it doesnt fit in the box very well.
I can see that the box has a base inside it with a round shape with 3 legs cut into it, not like this compass has.

It has "TYPE P11" on the box and "TYPE P11 No 10103.D." on the black trim on the compass itself.

Any ideas then guys? Thanks for any help

[john landon1]

you have the inner part of an raf type p 11 compassthis is a later version of the p6 and p8the p tells that these are pilot type compases used for course setting and a stand by in aircraft fitted with distant reading compas systems
fitted in many wartime aircraft spitfire.hurricane typhoon anson etc etc
you are missing the pressed metal outer casing which was used to mount the unit to the aircraft some one has made a gimbal mounting for your example

[SABURO]

I couldn't have explain better than John Landon, the gimbal mounting was certainly done to use it on boat, very common transformation that gave a second life to such instruments.
Cheers,

Olivier

[Mason]

Thanks guys, I dont suppose there is any kind of way of identifying exactly which type of aircraft used the P11 type or was it generally all types.

It would be nice to find the base of one so I can make it complete again.