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Coffman starter cartridge

C

corblimy

Well-Known Member
Could someone please post an image showing one of these ? Cannot find anything decent via Google, preferably the WWII era ones as used for starting the Napier Sabre engined Hawker Typhoon.
I may well have found a couple of empty ones, and I would like to compare them. Were they made like a shotgun cartridge, brass with paper/cardboard body or were they solid like an oversized ammunition round?
Thanks in anticipation:tinysmile_hmm_t:
 
As I recall from dealing with these starters on the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight many years ago, they were a paper case 10 guage shotgun cart.
I never kept any of the cases (unlike the Avon ones) as after use they ended up pretty much shredded!!
Other aircraft engines used cartidge start - particularly large rotary ones (yes they did get it right - sort of - in the original Flight of the Phoenix).
I have seen 1" flare case sizes used for this but cannot recall the make of starter or engine.
 
Hmmm, then what I have found is not a Coffman starter cartridge!
In which case it must be the base of a 2'' signal flare case?

Cartridge.jpg
 
Hi corblimey
If you found it at or near an old airbase then it maybe from the control tower for warning incoming aircraft of gear up etc - although they usually used 1" flare pistols I think?
Any more pics/dims?
 
Typical of our colonial cousins - bigger & better (maybe?)!!! ;-)
Would still like more pics & dims corblimey
 
hicky1300 said:
Hi corblimey
If you found it at or near an old airbase then it maybe from the control tower for warning incoming aircraft of gear up etc - although they usually used 1" flare pistols I think?
Any more pics/dims?
Click to expand...

British bombers carried 1.5" flares for signaling purposes and as far as I know so did watch towers and control towers. 1" very pistols were used by British soldiers for signaling, they were also included in the survival kit in the the larger dinghys carried on bombers.
The primer in the base you show in your picture appears to have blown out, which may have happened if it was carried on a bomber that crashed.

Cheers
Hangarman
 
Hi Corblimey,While in the RAF in Aden in the early 60s,I used to go out with the fire truck at an up country airstrip,to signal to incoming aircraft (we had no radio contact)we used to fire off a,please forgive the pun,very large flare,(very pistol,)I am sure it was about 2",the barrel of the pistol had lugs machined into the breech end,during ww2 these pistols were pushed through a hole in the side of the aircraft then rotated to engage the lugs and then fired,I am pretty sure the base you have is from a 2"very signal cartridge,as I remember the pistol had about a 3" barrel,I think a coffman cartridge is about 1"diameter,both types look like very large shotgun cartridges,hope this helps,
Regards,Don,
 
seem to recal a thread on starter cartridges some while ago, could try the search facillity.
 
beihan62 said:
Hi Corblimey,While in the RAF in Aden in the early 60s,I used to go out with the fire truck at an up country airstrip,to signal to incoming aircraft (we had no radio contact)we used to fire off a,please forgive the pun,very large flare,(very pistol,)I am sure it was about 2",the barrel of the pistol had lugs machined into the breech end,during ww2 these pistols were pushed through a hole in the side of the aircraft then rotated to engage the lugs and then fired,I am pretty sure the base you have is from a 2"very signal cartridge,as I remember the pistol had about a 3" barrel,I think a coffman cartridge is about 1"diameter,both types look like very large shotgun cartridges,hope this helps,
Regards,Don,
Click to expand...
Here are a couple of pictures of "Very pistols" including the type used to signal from fast moving aircraft !
http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/threads/75393-The-Berkshire-Museum-of-Aviation.
 
Hi Hangarman,I could be wrong in my post about the Very flare pistol,it was a long time ago,1963,as I remembered it was big bore,well over an inch,at the time I did not take particular note of the bore only that it was big,and it had lugs for aircraft use,interestingly though the last one I saw was about 25 years ago,I was working at a scrapyard where they scrapped military vehicles and planes after ww2,I dragged it out of the ground with a magnet,it had been deactivated just after the war by the simple method of driving a steam roller over them,this squashed the barrel and bent the frame,it went in with the rest of the scrap and probably ended up as part of a Ford Fiesta,
Regards,Don,
 
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