Keyboard Builders' Digest / Keyboard Spotting
Vintage aviation keyboard
u/Loitering_Potato posted his find and commenters tried to figure out what this is.
Published July 17, 2022
I found this at work today. Anyone know exactly what it is? – Loitering_Potato.
As Keagan458 points out, the switches look ITW magnetic valve ones (sound test).
According to paladinado, who works as an avionics tech on old French fighters, the board seems like an aerospace/aviation test equipment keyboard or other military/defense application. It has a mil-spec connector/cannon plug at the end.
As it turns out, the OP is in the Air Force so it absolutely makes sense if the keyboard is part of the "Test Cell or something". (It was in a storage area and could have had other uses as well.)
Btw, the marking on the connector reads: Bendix 9417 PTO6M-12-88.
Another fellow Redditor from the same industry, preludeoflight, seems to agree:
Yeah we put those sort of amphenol connectors on just about any of our projects that is designed to go in an aircraft. For when you need that guarantee of “it’s not gonna disconnect mid-flight!”
Published on Sun 17th Jul 2022. Featured in KBD #87 (source).
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