Mystery Aircraft Bits in Museum

[Steve Nelson]

Hi All,

So the wife and I stopped into the Kruze Museum in Auburn, Indiana over the weekend. It's mainly a collection of cars and military vehicles, but there are some interesting aircraft related displays, especially a fair bit about the 509th Composite Group. But what caught my eye were these unidentified bits of wreckage used as "set dressing" in a military diorama. There's no signage about them, but they've got British markings. The roundel is visible on the outer panel, along with the yellow leading edge IFF stripe. Camo appears to be the later war Gray and Green. Of course, the bits could have been painted and "weathered" specifically for the display, which means they may not even be warbird bits (or even parts of the same aircraft.) I tried to get shots of all the visible structural details..does anybody in the WIX braintrust have any ideas what they might be? I'm wondering if they might be chunks of a Hawker Typhoon..

Here's the outerboard panel...








And what I presume is a chunk of the inboard section of the same wing.







Thanks!

Steve

[C VEICH]

Looks like the original paint to me. Would be fantastic if they were Typhoon bits but I am guessing more likely Hurricane.

[sandiego89]

No idea, but the photos seem to show a metal covering on the aileron, if I recall correctly the Typhoon (and Hurricane) would have fabric covered control surfaces...

It is a thicker wing. Looks very similar to a T-28 internal wing structure I have a remnant of (but common to many types)

[mike furline]

Looks like Typhoon to me.

[Steve Nelson]

That was sort of the direction I was leaning, although I figured a Hurricane was more likely..after all, what would something as incredibly rare as Typhoon wreckage be doing virtually ignored in a museum in Indiana? But I have read that the bulk of the museum's collection of vehicles and artifacts came from a now-defunct museum in Belgium..so it's not out of the question that the collection could have included some bits of a crashed or scrapped Typhoon.

SN

[JohnB]

The yellow leading edge is a giveaway it was RAF.

Post the photos (or even a link to this thread) on the FlyPast (Key publishing) forum, you'll be a hero.
They'll tell you what ac its off of then the pilot's mother's maiden name.

Last edited by JohnB on Tue Sep 20, 2016 2:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Warbird Kid]

The yellow leading edge is a giveaway it was RAF.

Post the photos (or even a link to this thread) on the FlyPast (Key publishing) forum, you'll be a hero.
They'll tell you what ac its off of than the pilot's mother's maiden name.

Methodical aren't they?

[JohnB]

Methodical isn't the word I'd use...

Seriously, many there would love to see it.

[flightsimer]

my guess is a Typhoon or Tempest.

[Steve Nelson]

Thanks guys..I actually just registered over at the Key Publishing forum. Once my registration has been approved I'll post these pics over there. I also shared them on the Facebook page of the group that's attempting to rebuild a Tiffie over in England.

SN

[Steve Nelson]

my guess is a Typhoon or Tempest.

Definitely not a Tempest..that has a much thinner wing. It was the extremely thick wing that immediately screamed "Typhoon!" to me.

SN

[Steve Nelson]

Thanks to the itrepid folks over at the Britmodeler forum, I think we have a positive ID. Here's a photo of a Typhoon forward spar (upside down in a jig.)



Here's the photo re-oriented, with the bracket attaching the outer wing to the inner web spar highlighted..



And here's the one of the chunks of wreckage at the Kruse Museum. The attachment bracket appears identical...



So...it appears there are some previously unknown significant bits of a Typhoon lying virtually ignored in a military vehicle museum amid the cornfields of Indiana. I wonder if they have any idea what they have.

[Steve Nelson]

Update: I posted the pictures on the Facebook page of the RB396 Project, the group attempting to rebuild/recreate a Typhoon. They went completely ballistic..apparently they had heard rumors of a Typhoon wing existing in Belgium for years, but had never been able to confirm them (as I mentioned, the bulk of the Kruse collection came from a defunct Belgian museum.)

SN

[DH82EH]

Some great sleuthing there, well done indeed!
Looks like the lions share of an entire outer wing panel.

Bits like this can be of great use to any of the teams recreating the Typhoon for pattern making and scanning.
Hopefully the owners will allow access.

Very cool Steve

Andy

[Zac Yates]

Closer to home there's a Typhoon project in Canada: http://www.typhoonlegacy.com/