utility edge. To open the blade, the user points the knife downwards while flipping up the fulcrum-style operating lever, allowing gravity to draw out the blade to its fullest extent. Releasing the lever locks the blade into position. The LGK may also be opened by flipping the blade release lever while flicking the wrist holding the knife, causing the blade to extend. The LGK was also equipped with a folding marlinspike or awl. Primarily intended for untangling rope knots, it was also used as a prying tool or to fix jammed weapons. The spike does not lock when opened and was never intended to be used as a combat weapon. There are two principal types of wartime-era Flieger-Kappmesser with altogether 10 known variations. The Type I LGK (three manufacturers, five WWII variations) has wood scales (handle), was made from 1937-1943, and unlike successive models, has no 'takedown' capability. The Type II LGK (two manufacturers, five WWII variations) is the same knife, but with takedown features, and was produced from 1943 until 1945 and then again from ca. 1950 until 1965. After the end of World War II, the newly organized West German Bundeswehr placed new orders with German cutlery manufacturers for a postwar version of the Kappmesser for issue to the Army´s airborne forces and tank crews. The West German Luftwaffe abandoned the gravity knife concept completely and purchased completely different rescue knives including a shroud line cutter. The initial Type III "trap door" gravity knife, made from 1955-1961 did not prove to be very reliable and thus, the original WWII Type II design was reintroduced until it was finally replaced by the early Type IV knives in appr. 1968. The Type IV LGK, is very similar to the WWII-production Type II takedown knife, but features plastic polymer instead of wooden scales and was made by WMF, OFW and Eickhorn from 1972-1984. They were issued to the Bundeswehr soldiers until 2017. The third West German post-war model is the Type V LGK, initially named AES79 and still today produced under the designation LL80 (1979–present) by Eickhorn. The LL80 is smaller, has fewer parts and is more cost-effective to produce than earlier Flieger-Kappmesser. It was procured by the Swiss Air Force and issued to their Dassault Mirage pilots in 1983. These knives are marked AES83 and bear the number of the aircraft of the metal head. On the other side of