Need help with aircraft wreckage ID

[RareBear]

The aircraft wreckage shown in the photos below was found on Charleston AFB after clearing a wooded area. I noticed the wreckage shortly after it was uncovered, and asked the base PA folks if they knew anything about it.
I got no response, and soon thereafter the wreckage was cleared away. I have not been able to get any info from base folks.

Anyone have any idea what its from?












Walt

[A2C]

Hi Walt could be an A-26 or B-25. My grandpa served there at the end of WW2, and he said this was an A-26 training base. He said planes crashed there "all the time". He actually was training there, and saw an A-26 fly over with flames trailing 100' behind. The pilot panicked and brought the plane in gear up at high speed. It slid down the runway and off, then hit railroad tracks and then a train wrecked all at the same time! Maybe this is that plane?

[Oscar Duck]

not A-26 gear or wheel here.

[retroaviation]

I'm not sure it's B-25. The wheel isn't right for that. I think it's wrong for the A-26 too, but I could certainly be wrong there.

Whatever it was, it sure got pretty tore up. I wonder if it was used for fire training or something like that?

Gary

[Warbird Kid]

It slid down the runway and off, then hit railroad tracks and then a train wrecked all at the same time! Maybe this is that plane?

Sounds like something that would happen in an Family Guy episode.


This one is going to keep people guessing for awhile. Me included.

[Chris Brame]

Looking at the landing gear and the straight wing I'm thinking maybe Skyraider? The tire looks too small in diameter to be A-26 and the thickness of the wing spar would seem to take a lot of jet fighters out of the picture.

[Matt Gunsch]

Charleston AFB is a transport base, so that is where i would start looking.
they had C-54, C-121, C-119, C-124 and C-141s based there. The wheel looks alot like a nose wheel off of a C-124.

[B29Gunner]

That would be a Boeing product, most likely a KC-97 but could also be a B-50 as well

[Chris Brame]

Hope you don't mind if I post a link to this topic over at the Wreckchasing forum - let's see what we get.

[Airlift48]

That's not a KC-97 wheel.

[John Dupre]

Just comparing the photos it looks like there are double sets of wheels. One set has indentations around the inside of the rim of the wheel and another set has a smooth contour around the inside edge of the rim of the wheel. The smooth wheel is separate from the rest of the wreckage and seems to have an extended axle and is missing the matching wheel. With the wheel set with indentations you can see two wheels on a single axle in a couple of the photos. Looks to me like it could be a set of double nosewheels and a set of double main wheels. That would rule out the A and B 26 and the B-25, indeed most WW2 era nosewheel type aircraft.

[Matt Gunsch]

anyone have a picture of the nosewheel on a C-124 ?

[Larry Kraus]

Walt,

The landing gear looks like the main gear of a C-119,especially in your 3rd picture.I'd imagine that a fairly large number of them ended up in the woods in the Carolinas in the 1950's and 60's.

[A2C]

That's it. Larry has identified it. The spar is curved just like the C-119 as well.

[B29Gunner]

That's it. Larry has identified it. The spar is curved just like the C-119 as well.

I have to disagree...Look at the drag struts, jackscrews and universals on those gear, that's Boeing all the way. The Dollar-Nineteen was nothing like that! Walt, do you have any pics of the struts? That would tell ya for sure in a hurry!