B-17 Control Wheel from the USAAF dump site

[Bird Dog]

I thought I would post up a pic or two, we have almost finished sorting the 15 tons of dug aircraft parts from the October 'Big Dig' & quite a few more interesting parts came to light which we had missed. Here is one of the many control wheels we found, no prizes for guessing which aircraft it once belonged to though!

In the mud beneath one of the heaps surfaced this small perspex hatch from a B-17 located in the bombardiers dome.

Also many B-17 E, F & G exhaust manifold nomenclature manufactures plates denoting aircraft model number, contractor, material spec & date of manufacture.

The many tons of parts were revealed after two long days with 35+ strong team, the hole dug was 65ft diameter & 14ft deep, between 500 & 600 tons of soil were moved, 100 tons had to be trucked in with another 100 tons to follow before we complete the next dig later this year, £300 worth of red diesel was burned up on the two excavators working the site & the local fish & chip shop hit record sales Saturday night!

[fighterace]

Some nice finds but was it all worth it for half a control wheel Lol

[Bird Dog]

Half a control wheel, which picture are you looking at?

[fighterace]

Just pulling you leg, nice find that... By any chance dig you recover and 50cal barrels or butts?

[Walkwolf]

Fabulous B-17 control wheel...........!

Worth all the trouble, IMO !

[Whitehunter]

CRACKING STUFF! i bet that will take a while to sort through


In picture 2 is that a bullet hole?



John

[Bird Dog]

No, it is infact a spot weld which has broken............ unless the Flak gunners were sending up HV .22 cal!

[ian_]

Lovely pics, that Boeing cap would cover the cost of the diesel dirt and chips I'd have thought! Any spare ammo tracking? my Browning needs some decoration and I only find squashed bits. Thanks for the update.

[otminidau]

hi
you are find great things. do you selling parts ?

john

[colt45]

i like it, mabye the last thing he saw before it crashed?