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Mysterious dataplate

Wed Aug 24, 2011 5:09 pm

Hi Guys,
I hope someone out there can help me.........
A guy I met, showed me a dataplate, that, according to him, his father had released during the war form a B-17 downed in the Dutch Zuiderzee, now Ijsselmeer. He also mentioned the name 'Dinah Might' but this was,as far as I know, a B-17G ...
This dataplate mentions B17-F (and not B-17F, what I would axpect from an early Flying Fortress)
Secondly, AFAIK no B-17 were built by Bell, or am I wrong?

Image
Plaatje B17F by aerovet1954, on Flickr

Hope someone can shed a light on this..

Aerovet

Re: Mysterious dataplate

Wed Aug 24, 2011 5:38 pm

Seeing the weight it must be a component that Bell built for Douglas that was used in the B-17.
Although it is stamped B-17F there is a possibility that it could also have been used on a later version or installed during a repair.

Re: Mysterious dataplate

Wed Aug 24, 2011 7:00 pm

True, look @ the Mary Alice thread about the BRIGGS (car body mfgr) tags on the elevators, Hudson built Martin B-26 fuselages, Oldsmobile built 20 MM cannons for the P-39 and 37 MM cannons too, Kenworth built B-17 horizontals, etc. etc.
In the end, Douglas' reliance on guys doing job shop stuff in the garage cranking out spacers, shims, etc. eventually helped bring about the end of MDC, as guys got old and died and stocks of spares got used up, no one (and there weren't many left) wanted to take on a contract to make 150 widgets for the money MDC wanted to pay, that's why big operators of DC-8 freighters (like UPS) started making their own landing gear 'porkchops' and other critical parts on their own STC's to keep the box haulers in the air.

Re: Mysterious dataplate

Wed Aug 24, 2011 8:12 pm

Bell Aircraft built 0.50" machine guns that were used in B-17s. Chuckie had (probably still has) several of them, notably the two cheek guns.

With the weight listed at 267 lb, that's probably not a dataplate from a machine gun.

Re: Mysterious dataplate

Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:01 pm

Fisher Body Company that built a ton of parts for General Motors for decades, also built a lot of the sub-assemblies for the B-25 during World War Two

Re: Mysterious dataplate

Tue Aug 30, 2011 2:06 pm

Thank you guys for taking the trouble to answer me....
Most appreciated!

Aerovet...........

Re: Mysterious dataplate

Tue Aug 30, 2011 7:37 pm

k5dh wrote:Bell Aircraft built 0.50" machine guns that were used in B-17s. Chuckie had (probably still has) several of them, notably the two cheek guns.

With the weight listed at 267 lb, that's probably not a dataplate from a machine gun.


Bell also built turrets and gun mounts. The tail gun set up in a lot of B-25's was Bell. Could it be a pre-Cheyenne tail gun 'stinger'?
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