Plenty of finds from a new site on a British Airfield.

[NickW]

I have seen something very similar to the lead discs before - in fact I have about 10 of them still on their mounting spindles, they are from the crash site of Defiant N3328 I will try to take some photos as I have a fair idea whereabouts in the workshop they are! As you say they are obviously some form of counterbalance, but when I showed them to representatives of the Boulton Paul Trust, they had never seen any before!

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

I find lots of scrap off cuts of aero alloy skin, most going in the scrap bucket. But this piece was unusual because the top is painted red and on closer examination you can see the the top corner curves shows it was part of a red circle which was roughly two feet across and around thath white painted. Could it be part of an aircrafts RAF or RNFA roundel?. The underside was painted green all over but when I used the de rust fluid (only a brief 5 mins) to remove some rust staining, it also removed a lot of the green paint, but interesting the paint that survived appears to be stuck to words/markings below.



First picture shows this fresh out of the earth, it was actually sticking out of the side of a rabbit hole. It's made of robust bakelite but sadly it has no markings, one side has a large toothed wheel. Could this be a film reel? perhaps for a gun camera? Where the film would have been held?, tappers from the top to a difficult to measure 20mm give or take a couple of mil either way. I've not seen one of these before so I'm open to suggestions on use, what do you think it could be?





Like most sites I usually find a few fired .303 cartridges, but I thought I'd show you these fired blank cartridges which are a bit unusual in design.



A couple of personal items.
First is a nicely marked little brass tin still showing traces of chrome, that held GILLETTE Razor blades.



Yet another toothbrush nicely marked QUIZ?



Finally after a bit of cleaning the bomb selector box a nice find. The first picture shows it just found sitting in the hole it was dug out of. It has cleaned up quite well considering the time it spent below ground. I'm please with this because it retains the switches unlike the one I found previously and exhibited earlier on this thread. I note also that the mounting brackets on this differ from the previous one meaning it was either mounted in a different position or even different type of aircraft.







I dont know what this is, its made of thin sprung steel, I was wondering if it was perhaps ammo related?



The last picture which is out of order shows a few more bulbs and fuses and hanging loops for wire one being intricately woven.

more pictures will follow

LUCKYSTRIKE

[Whitehunter]

cool stuff :thumbs: I'm looking forward to finding out what those blank rounds are

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

These brass tubes are chrome plated and almost give the impression of ink pens but they're bigger, sadly they have no noticable markings any ideas?



A nicely preserved Cement Filler tube still showing its stores reference.



A selection of small metal finds, including more Merlin engine exhaust manifold washers, cap from a 1 gallon fuel can. a plug and various other items.



Close up showing marking HIPHAM? on a control knob type disc and also the marking on an alloy component FM Fairey.



When I found this all covered in 70 years muck first thoughts were it was a Roman disc brooch . But a quick clean soon revealed the AM code 5D Aircraft armament electrical stores. The disc rotates freely but I dont know what it is?



A plug on wire with AM code 10H so I'm assuming its a connector for a radio.



This very relic brass item appears to be the remains of some sort of gauge, again sadly I cant find any markings.



An unmarked connector designed to attach to a tubular frame, its similar to one I found before so perhaps its a portable power supply maybe for bomb bay.



Thanks for looking

A few more pictures with follow

LUCKYSTRIKE

[iramsden]

192 is a spring-loaded safety cover for a switch. There were 2 of these at the bottom of the Barracuda's instrument panel, covering the push buttons for the fire extinguishers.

Your lead discs are ballast weights. They were used for adjusting an aircraft's centre of gravity and would have been fitted in the rear fuselage.

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Some sort of locking bar?, perhaps for cockpit controls marked TO BE REMOVED BEFORE FLYING. On a previous post I showed part of one of these in picture 157



When I found the cache of Merlin exhaust manifold gaskets shown previously amongst them there were quite a few of these circular ones? Whilst searching recently I found the end of the tubing that the gasket fitted too which is reinforced with a band of brass around it.



A couple of cup fragments, I like the RN brown one.



A couple of pad locks and perhaps a clock mechanism?



A robust and quite weighty piece of aircraft but what is it? one side was painted green and the other as shown red. It has a reference number and FM is marked so is likely from a Fairey aircraft. It also has MOLO4 stamp perhaps this is quality control stamp?







A brass chrome plated torch, by it's design and style and the fact that it says Made in the British Empire makes me think it's probably earlier than WW2.



Mechanics tool a broken long nosed pliers and a spoon



and finally a pipe bracket nicely marked FB419 673. FB for Bristol?



Thank you for looking and any help you can provide for confirming to identity's of any of the relics shown.

LUCKYSTRIKE

[Steve T]

Yet more superb finds LS !

The thing you have with the 'Hipham' mark on it. I think you're reading it incorrectly. I think it is NIPHAN who I believe manufactured power cables and power management items.

Your 'ink pens' look a little like cleaning rounds for gun barrels. Just a thought.......

Steve T

PS Quit cleaning that stuff and get the Sunday finds cleaned !

[381st digger]

Well done Lucky,
Pic number 179 & 180 is part of a trailing aerial assembly. Its a great find find and in good condition. This is a photo of one i found on google for you. Well done.

Andy

[LUCKYSTRIKE]

Hi Nick
Thats great news thanks for the confirmation, you'd think the Bolton Paul trust would have heard of the stuff wouldn't you? Id love to see a picture of your ballast still on its pegs, be good to see what they look like and the way they were secured.
Hi WH,
Yes it'd be great to get more info on the blanks, but I think I'd probably do better posting a pic in the Ordinance sub forum. But fingers crossed I may get something here.
Hello Ivor,
Thank you for your help, of course now that you've said it seems so obvious that it's a spring loaded switch cover and even better to confirm two were used on a Barracada's cockpit controlled fire extinguisher system. Also thanks for the confirmation on the ballast, they were all found fairly close together so Im now wondering if there may be more. Due to the weight of them they'd sunk into the soil quite deep.
Steve hello mate,
You know you could be right the letter font on the 'control type knob' could be an N instead of an H if it is thanks for pointing that out and advising what Niphan equipment was used for. I like your other suggestion too 'rods for cleaning gun barrels' it'd be great if that could be confirmed Cheers for your help.
Yes now this has all been posted I'll get on and finish cleaning Sundays finds, I just did't want to get them all mixed up .
Hello Andy,
You've made my day, thats definately the beast and a good picture match thanks for posting it. Its a very good id because I must admit I did think it was a little too robust for a film reel but the thought of a trailing aerial reel just didn't cross my mind. Thanks very much mate.
Best wishes all.
LUCKYSTRIKE

[big ned]

Hi Lucky,

The lead discs in pic's 168-69 are indeed aircraft counterweights. They were specifically used in single engined aircraft with a rear cockpit or turret. A tube was passed through the aircraft behind the rear cockpit/turret with weights attached on either side, outside of the aircraft for ease of fitting and removal. They were used to change the c of g on aircraft that were not carrying the gunner during flight. The Hawker Hind at Cosford had three on each side aft of the gunners position, and the hole for the tube can be seen in the photo below to the left and near the bottom of the fuselage roundel. This aircraft has now gone to Hendon. A nice and rare find, good on ya mate!

Regards, Ned.