Hello all, I'm new to this site and this is my first post.
I've always had a interest in local WW11 history, had a knack to find things from fossils to spent .50 bullets and have a hoarding nature! Plus I can't walk past a skip without looking in it.....
This is how I acquired some aluminium airplane parts, it was in a scrap metal skip at one of my locals works depots about ten years ago. Originally I wasn't even sure they where plane parts but looked old and interesting so rescued them anyway, did ask a few questions from fellow workers but only got a very vague reply from one of them saying him and his dad had found plane parts while cutting fire wood years before in a local copse near theirs and he may have had a clear up at home and brought the bits to the skip. I then squirrelled this bits away until recently. I know where the bloke lived and have found that there was a mid air collision between two B24's in 1944 so trying to work out if the parts I have are from this crash or not. Now after using this forum and others I'm sure they are plane parts and after careful inspection have found part numbers on two of the bits the numbers are (I think) 192-53396-7 and 192-310109-6. One of this is a u beam strut about 10" long the other is more interesting and has a 4 inch square base and round tapered stub/pipe/inlet tube welded to it (this concertinaed near flat though) there is also a small circle mark with what looks like the letters A and H (possible third letter in between them) and the number 359. Both these parts are made of aluminium. I have six parts in all, 5 are aluminium and the other I think is stainless (has been very hot at some time). The biggest
bit weighs about 10 lb and is very complex in construction and made of various individual parts riveted or bolted together, they include what looks like a small pulley wheel, a plastic cable grommet and two anodised blue 90 degree pipe bends (seen the exact same on the web somewhere and said they where used in many USA WW11 planes). Tried finding the part number myself (don't really know how or where to look) but keeps saying Boeing in the results so are they in fact B17 parts which would make my theory wrong!
I realise as I don't know where the parts came from I can't prove what plane they belonged too but would still like to try.
Any help or advice will be appreciated.
Cheers Chris.
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