View of interior from South East.

Description View of interior from South East.

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number SC 654115

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of D 3093

Scope and Content Interior, first floor, World War II dome trainer, Rinnigill, Hoy, Orkney Islands At Lyness on Hoy, close to the sounds which made up the main fleet anchorage, naval quarters, stores and an oil depot were established during World War I and were considerably developed in World War II to become the Base Headquarters, HMS Proserpine. In World War II additional support facilities were also established at Rinnigill, opposite Lyness on the southern shore of Ore Bay. These came to include a Royal Navy Radar Centre and Air Service training unit, and one of the most conspicuous of the few surviving wartime buildings at Rinnigill is that which housed a dome or night-attack trainer for aerial navigation and gunnery practice. This interior view of the first floor of the trainer building shows, on the left and right, the edges of the collapsed dome itself, plaster-built on a wooden framework around a central circular pit. Targets and features were painted on the inner face of the dome, of which there are still a few slight traces. The trainee gunner, pilot or navigator was harnessed in a cradle which was suspended from the more substantial roof trusses in the centre of the building. It was activated in a manner which simulated airborne conditions. At the heart of the Orkney archipelago, Scapa Flow was the main fleet anchorage for the Royal Navy during both World Wars. Its vital importance led to the creation of one of the most concentrated defence networks in Britain. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/654115

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap