Something a little more modern than usual

[Paul B]

Something a little more modern than usual, kindly donated by an ex-RAF BD chap who found it during an airfield EOD clearance sweep:



Control wheel centre cap from a SAC B-47 based at Greenham Common from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s

All the best,
PB

[Gunny Hartmann]

That's great, thanks for sharing!....

[octavian]

OH yes! The B-47 was a superb bird. True story. I was lost in San Antonio....really lost. So i went with it and was like ok... see where i end up at. After some time i wound up at a business in the defense sector (electronics maker i recall right). Out front they had a B-47 on display. I always wanted to see one of those birds, and on a lost adventure I came across one! Hope i still have the pics. Will post em later.

[ian_]

Great find and worth a small fortune! Nice.

[Paul B]

The initial thinking was it may have been from one of the two B-47s lost on the ground through accidents at Greenham Common, one crashed on landing and was scrapped on site (53-2134 "City of Lincoln"), the other being destroyed by fire after being hit by a jettisoned drop tank from another B-47 while being preflighted (53-6204).
However, the serial numbers show these two aircraft were Douglas-built and Boeing-built respectively.

Graham Luxton kindly provided another potential source today, Lockheed-built B-47E 52-258 formerly of the 305th Bomb Wing (a descendent of the wartime 305th Bomb Group).
"She arrived from MacDill AFB, FL, in 1959 to serve as a weapons loading trainer and was parked for many years at the west end of the base next to buildings constructed for rotating SAC bomb squadrons. Engineless, gunless and missing lots of other parts it was cut up for salvage in early 1964 as part of a base clean up before SAC departed."

Sadly, because the centre caps weren't individually marked, there is no way to prove this particular cap belonged to any particular airframe.

PB

[DioMac]

That would sit nicely very nicely in a bar room methinks.

[Paul B]

It will be living in the Archive room at Alconbury airfield when I've finished cleaning it up.