R0D.com

What is that rod behind the cockpit of piston-engined planes?

I have noticed from pictures that there are sometimes rods behind the cockpits of piston-engined aircraft (A6Ms, Fw 190s, and MC.200s.) It seems that there is some kind of cable from the top of the rod to the yaw.

Public Comments

1. I believe the wire is an antenna. It runs to the vertical stab. Yaw is the movement about the vertical axis. The rod could just be a support or also an antenna.
2. The wire is the ADF, automatic direction finder, sensing antenna. The rod just holds it away from the fuselage.
3. It's the antenna wire. WW2 aircraft had low power VHF and HF radios. If you're talking about right behind the seat, that's a reinforcing bar for the seat armor. If you see a circular antenna, that's the automatic direction finding (ADF) antenna. Used to get bearings on radio stations
4. The 1 line cable which fitted at the back of the cockpit to the tip of the tailplane is a High Frequency antenna. It's used for High Frequency (HF) Communications where Very High Frequency (VHF) Commnication is not within coverage with other aircraft & also with air services if fiited in the cockpit. HF has a larger coverage compare to VHF. Other than that, the antenna is also used for the ADF Navaid to aid pilot in navigating by receiving signal from the station & the ADF in the cockpit will point the needle to the station. Pilots use moss codes send by the station to indentify each station.
5. It could be two things. An HF radio antenna (still used up north on small planes and mounted similarity, also used on trans oceanic airliners but can be mounted internally). It could also be an ADF sense antenna. The loop will give you two bearings to the station and the sense tells you the correct bearing of the two. In WWII, most planes only had loop antennas, resulting in more than a few aircraft flying the wrong way and landing in hostile territory.
6. ADF antenna