Warbird Information Exchange

Hiya,
This wheel was found as part of a dump of WWII aircraft parts in Darwin Harbour, amongst bits from PBYs, Spitfires and B-25s. I first thought it might be a tail wheel; certainly has an aircraft look to it, but I've never seen anything like this with the support arm on both sides and have got nowhere with research so far. I've tried to have a better look at it, but it's in very bad condition so wasn't able to get much from it. Does anyone recognise this at all? Or am I on completely on the wrong path and it's not aircraft? Any help would be very much appreciated! I've attached a few before and after photos (scale is in 50 mm bars) - sorry, it's not in great shape.
Thank you!
Caroline.

Looks like it could be aircraft landing gear to me, many aircraft had forks on both sides of the wheel, especailly tail wheels.

I would surmise tail wheel as well, or main gear on a smaller trainer/liaison type.

Did some quick image searches and rules out a few, and a few get close but not quite: Ventura/Lodestar, Twin beech, etc....

Most twin forked tails assemblies seemed to have a simple hole at the end of the fork where the axle was put through. This one seems to have a bolted on axle mounts. Think this could be the definining characteristic of your find.

Hi sandiego,
I'm very glad to hear you think it looks like aircraft and that I'm not on completely the wrong track.
Thank you for doing the image search - I've had a look at some of those you mentioned and I see what you mean about many aircraft having twin forks. I hadn't been able to find any examples but was no doubt using all the wrong search terms (!), so thank you very much for that. That's very interesting re. the axle mounts and being a possible defining characteristic. I'll do some more searching and see if I can find anything about that particular style.
Thanks again, I really appreciate it

Looks awfully like the front end of a wheelbarrow to me.
Sorry Caroline.

_________________
Paul Bellamy

401BG Association Historian & Honorary Life Member
401BG Historical Society (UK) Member
1st Air Division HQ Historical Society (UK) Founder Member
Director of Archives & Collections, Airfield Research Group Archive, Alconbury
RAF Alconbury Base Historian

It doesn't have to be part of an airplane to be 'airplany' or related. A lot of ground service equipment was provided, or designed by aircraft companies and has an aeronautical feel to it, even if it's just a cart or a stand.

_________________
Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

Ah darn it!! It does too.
Well, at least now I don't feel so bad for breaking it while I was trying to clean it!
Thanks Paul
(yeah, thanks for ruining my intriguing story about the lovely and mysterious tail wheel I found.... )
Just joking

Thank you shrike, I like the sound of that....and it makes me feel better! This dump was just outside an RAAF base, so I guess it's very possible that this might be from some type of airplany ground support equipment rather than just any old wheel barrow. Thank you!