oliverkempe
29th January 2004, 09:03
Under a visit in the Solomon islands (north east of Australia) I acquired a piece of an downed American second world War fighter plan. Now I would like to find out what type of plane it is from and if it might be possible to trace my piece backwards to the individual plane and its history.
Attached (sorry- can't work out how it works in this forum) are three pictures of the piece. On one picture there is a pen lying on top to give an impression of the size. The white stuff on the surface is snow.
The exact origin of the piece is Munda on New Georgia. A lot of air battles occurred here during the war of the pacific. During the spring campaign of 1943 there was a lot off fighting over the Japanese air base in Munda. .
The piece is a closed section – like a box. Its part of the fuselage. Probably part of the wing or tail assembly. Maybe one of the steering flaps.
The sections dimensions: 1,95 meter (6,4 ft) long. 0,82 meter (2,7 ft) wide on one end and 0,48 meters (1,6 ft) wide on the other. The thickness varies over the whole box – between 50 mm (2in) and 180 mm (7in)
There is one small rivet plate attached.
On several places there are numbers and markings punched into the aluminum sheet metal.
There is even some writing still legible.
-The punched numbers -on the attached riveted plate: Assem.No 598; 5055919; (written inside a sphere) 609; (written inside another sphere) 222
-One set of punched numbers (the same set of serials is on at least two different locations)
5055920-88
-one set of big punched (or fabricated) numbers
vALCOAv (the first and last letters are probably downward turned arrows)
4061757 B-C
-one side of the box is covered with: “025 @(a circle crossed out; with a bar under and over) 24 STALC” written with small letters over and over again.
Could you please comment on how or where I could learn more over this subject.
[email protected]
Thank you!
Attached (sorry- can't work out how it works in this forum) are three pictures of the piece. On one picture there is a pen lying on top to give an impression of the size. The white stuff on the surface is snow.
The exact origin of the piece is Munda on New Georgia. A lot of air battles occurred here during the war of the pacific. During the spring campaign of 1943 there was a lot off fighting over the Japanese air base in Munda. .
The piece is a closed section – like a box. Its part of the fuselage. Probably part of the wing or tail assembly. Maybe one of the steering flaps.
The sections dimensions: 1,95 meter (6,4 ft) long. 0,82 meter (2,7 ft) wide on one end and 0,48 meters (1,6 ft) wide on the other. The thickness varies over the whole box – between 50 mm (2in) and 180 mm (7in)
There is one small rivet plate attached.
On several places there are numbers and markings punched into the aluminum sheet metal.
There is even some writing still legible.
-The punched numbers -on the attached riveted plate: Assem.No 598; 5055919; (written inside a sphere) 609; (written inside another sphere) 222
-One set of punched numbers (the same set of serials is on at least two different locations)
5055920-88
-one set of big punched (or fabricated) numbers
vALCOAv (the first and last letters are probably downward turned arrows)
4061757 B-C
-one side of the box is covered with: “025 @(a circle crossed out; with a bar under and over) 24 STALC” written with small letters over and over again.
Could you please comment on how or where I could learn more over this subject.
[email protected]
Thank you!