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[icecore]

Hi everybody,
I am a conservator in the Science Museum of London and I am trying to identify an object which appears to be a wooden box (olive drab paint) that contains two filters (red and orange). There is a label "Filters for K-21 Camera) so you can say that my assumption is correct. However that box looks brand new, I mean that it doesn't have the usual WWII aging on it, so I wonder if anybody have seen anything like that before. I have uploaded a picture at

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1135/1257641915_1b6f7727f0_b.jpg

but I can upload more detailed photographs if required.
sincerely,
Stathis

[Les]

K-21 cameras seem to be a main stay of the B-17 among other planes. Considering the number of planes and the amount of spare parts that headed to Europe, it's not suprising that some unused spare parts were left behind. I can't be certain, but I would think this wood box fits inside the main case (crate) for a K-21 and would have been protected from most wear and tear. It could just as easily been left on a shelf in a parts depot, unused, unwanted. So now all you need is the camera, a B-17 and a couple of flyboys and the GNP of a couple third world countrys for gas and your all set!

[icecore]

I'll might have a look to RAF's museum or somewhere else around for the B-52! The gas is a little problem as well as the carbon emissions but I am sure that we will find something to sort this out! Thank you very much for your reply and the provided information!
sincerely,
Stathis

[PhotoSon]

Stathis, These are indeed K-21 lenses. My dad bought a K-21 from Langley Field just after the war and used it to take many aerial photos of the region where we lived. He had two small boxes just like this, and these both fit into the large wooden camera box with the camera. I recently contributed the camera and manual to the Tidewater Genealogical Society in Newport News, Va.
Jim

[Henry]

icecore wrote:

I'll might have a look to RAF's museum or somewhere else around for the B-52! The gas is a little problem as well as the carbon emissions but I am sure that we will find something to sort this out! Thank you very much for your reply and the provided information! sincerely, Stathis

Believe there is a B-17 at Duxford. I know that I well remember seeing, with astonishment, a B-29 there. Duxford is a wonderful WWII air museum, and I commend it to one and all!

The Turner Classic Movie channel (TCM) here recently showed "Twelve O'Clock High," IMO one of the top three movies to come out of WWII (along with "Best Years of Our Lives" and "From Here to Eternity"). Talk about B-17s! IIRC, Duxford is where they filmed it.

P.S. Don't think they have a B-52 at Duxford; that's a different critter altogether

P.P.S. Actually, it was filmed here: RAF Barford St. John Air Base, Oxfordshire, England, UK. I just looked it up on www.imdb.com.