There are bunch of discussions here on the WIX and throughout the internet about the aircraft disposed of at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland.
I am going to stir the pot today with my own findings that I personally conducted with what I found on location.
First, for the average reader, let me give you a quick briefing on aircraft production and archaeology.
How aircraft are built during and before WWII (this is REALLY important for me to explain my findings below to the average reader):
The Army (and later the Air Force) plus the Navy (including the Marine Corps), when they want to obtain an aircraft, they go the the aircraft store and place an order for 25 or so. Correct? No.
First, an engineer or the government (or a combination of both) comes up with an idea for an aircraft (or tank or jeep or ship on and on). Then, a company puts in a bid to build said aircraft. They draw up ever part on a blue print, hand the blue print over to a factory worker, then they bang together an example. That example is given a "X" or "experimental" designation. If the government likes it, they order a a few more and they give the aircraft a "Y" or "prototype" designation. After they try out a few of them and they like them, they order a bunch more...this is know as the production variant.
Now, this is IMPORTANT, and most forget this detail - aircraft (tanks, ships, jeeps etc) is all about $. Period. This was business.
THE PARTS: Every aircraft maker marked their parts in conjunction with a blue print drawing. This was done to assemble the aircraft and so it could be fixed and kept airworthy. All makers marked their parts slightly differently, but using a similar method. This is where the archaeology part comes in...you can tell what an aircraft is - just by it's parts!!!
So the average reader can follow along, this is an aircraft part that I personally recovered this year from Kingman Airfield, April 2015.
This part is marked GK32W1581R. This code means: GK (Ford built) 32 (Model 32 Aircraft - The B-24 "Liberator" bomber) W (wing) 1581R (right hand wing part). This is part of a Willow Run, Michigan produced B-24 Liberator bomber:
Now that the average reader understands how to follow along, back to the NAS Pax River aircraft.
This aircraft section was found years ago, which I visited today:
It was believed to be from either the Bell XFL-1 "Airabonita" or one of the Arado 234's: USN BuAer.121445 "Jane I" or USN BuAer.121446 "Snafu I".
Here is where I'm going to throw a wrench in all of this.
Here is a section of the above shown aircraft section with a little archaeology work thrown in:
On the wreckage are some numbers discussed above:
Each aircraft inspector had his or her own stamp. This one is HT 9 (inside a circle):
The part number for this part is 142-14215-5 (stamped and then written in black pencil):
And lastly the aircraft manufacturer stamp which is often marked on every piece of the aircraft. This part is marked N over A A over 14. NAA is for North American Aviation:
I'm not going to ruin the fun, I want everyone to do some research too...but this IS NOT from the Bell XFL-1 "Airabonita", the Arado 234's or any other Axis aircraft.
So...fire away and have fun with this.
_________________
Thanks,
Van
Kosovo, Afghanistan (x2) and Iraq Campaign Veteran
B-29 42-24791 "Big Time Operator"
C-47A 43-15137 "7H" Normandy/Holland Vet
SNJ-5B S/N 84947
UC-45F 43-35764 Cockpit
PT-26A 42-71104
LNE-1 S/N 31556
CG-15A Cockpit
CG-4A Cockpit (x2) and fuselage
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Was really hoping for an Arado!
