Anyone knows what this is ?

Here is a scan from the book "Il-2 Type3 and Il-10 / Avia B33 In Detail" by Frantisek Koran & Michael Ovcacik, Wings and Wheels Publications No.2.
This is the gun camera fitted to an Il10. In your photos, that is the item held in hand (stencils in Czech).
http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/9233/il10jb1.jpg

This is a scan from the book "Focke Wulf Fw189" by Pavel Kucera, Denes Bernad, Stefan Androvic, MBI Publications, page 59. http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/1424/fw189us7.jpg
This points out the "frame sequence control" (indicated with #2 on the diagram) as fitted to a FW189, but was also fitted to other german photographic reconnaisance aircraft, such as the Ju88.
This is the item in the first photo (with german stencils).

HTH
Radu

This post has been edited by Radub on September 22, 2006 08:58 am

An aerial photo reconnaisance camera display in the MMN contains a Rb50/30 camera and the camera external motor (as seen to the left - above the camera in the middle image of the diagram attached to the previous post). http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/5904/immwa8.jpg (My own photo, taken about 8 years ago)

HTH
Radu

This post has been edited by Radub on September 22, 2006 09:00 am

Great info, thank you Radub ! Now I know what the 3rd piece was doing - it was the motor for the camera
Any other info regarding its use/history/anything related to these items (gun camera and recon camera) is most welcome !

Sorry for the delay, D13-th Mytzu! I forgot to check this thread...
Thanks Radub, for posting the scans from the book previously referred (my scan decided to go on strike...). According to Czech author Jan Krumbach, the Czechslovak air force used the S-13 gun camera as an additional fixture on their Avia B-33s, mostly as a training aid for the gunner. An identical apparatus (on the starboard wing) was a standard fixture on all Czech-built Il-10s. I read that the Romanian air force used some 30 Russian-made Il-10 while the rest, a number in excess of 100 aircraft (I am quoting from memory here), were of Czech origin.
The S-13 was the first Russian camera to be produced massively in the post-war period. It was first used on the Lavochkin La-11 fighter and it soldiered on well into the 70s (and possibly beyond in smaller airforces), when much more modern devices had became available. I suppose it must have been a robust, easy to maintain and reliable camera, otherwise it is difficult to explain such longevity. On the La-11, the camera could be fitted, rather unusually, inside an aerodynamic container attached to the canopy's windshield section (an identical solution was used on the Yak-17 jet fighter).
Besides from jet fighters such as the La-15, the MiG-15, MiG-17 (couldn't confirm whether it was used on the Yak-23), etc, the S-13 was also used on some bombers with fixed forward firing guns like the Il-28, the Tu-14 or the Tu-16.
Will dig more about the instalations.

Ruy

This post has been edited by Ruy Aballe on September 22, 2006 02:35 pm

Those words:
Zamračeno
Oblačno
Jasno
are on Croatian language.

Do they mean the same thing as in Czech?
Radu

Could be, but this is definitly croatian lagnuage on that machine

What do those words mean in Croatian?
Radu

Similary:

transcendentally,

cloudy,

clear

Thanks Modly.
Considering that the words have the same meaning in both Croat and Czech (which makes sense since both languages are related) I doubt that the gun camera in that photo is Croatian, but rather it is a Czech item.
It is very likely that the gun camera comes from a Czech-built Il10.
Radu

I check, and it is definitly not Czech language.

It is Croatian.
This shoud be from some kind of Yugoslavian machine.

This post has been edited by Modly on September 27, 2006 08:24 am

Funny you should say that...
My boss is Czech.
I just asked him and he confirmed that the words are Czech.
Radu

Also, you can get the translation for those words here:
http://www.slovnik.cz/
HTH
Radu

"Jasno" is on Croatian language. " Jasne" is on Czech language