ID help needed on RAF aircraft skin piece

[JustTesting]

Hello all,

I'm hoping someone can help with an ID on this piece. It is apparently from a German aircraft but beyond that I have no further info unfortunately. The only marking I can find on it is the 96R stamped on it. It appears to be painted on both sides. Given its unusual shape I mistakenly thought it would be easy to identify but it has me stumped. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Crimea_River]

There are two anchor nuts on that part that look very British. I don't know if any other countries used these but it's possible.

 

[JustTesting]

Interesting. I've taken a couple of measurements and they don't quite match up though so maybe not. I've only got the sellers word to go off that this is from a German aircraft but to be fair everything else they have for sale is German.

 

[Crimea_River]

The thread spec inside the nut would also be a clue. British threads at the time would have been BA standard for bolts under 1/4" and BSF for 1/4" and up. I have a set of British taps and dies here at home and if you lived close by we could check. German bolts would be metric though I'm not familiar with the spec.

 

[JustTesting]

Great idea, hadn't thought of that. Luckily I have some British BA bolts from a mk2 reflector gunsight display I created and lo and behold it fits perfectly. Looks like I need to start looking at British aircraft then. The pitfalls of buying something off ebay with no provenance I suppose.

 

[Crimea_River]

Good stuff. The "R" in the part number possibly indicates "right" which would imply there is also a left one that is mirror imaged. However, I would, have expected a longer string of numbers.

 

[JustTesting]

Yes I was thinking along the same lines. I'm also guessing that the light blue/grey side would be external facing with the dark green being an internal primer colour? If I'm thinking along the right lines here then would we be looking at the underside of an aircraft do you think?

 

[cammerjeff]

It kinda looks like the forward cowling detail just in front of the exhaust stacks on a Fairly Battle

Picture from Fairey Battle in Detail

 

[Crimea_River]

True colours of an 80 year old artifact can be tricky given the potential for discolouration, fading, and collection of dirt and grime over the years.

 

[JustTesting]

It kinda looks like the forward cowling detail just in front of the exhaust stacks on a Fairly Battle

View attachment 622183

Picture from Fairey Battle in Detail

I can see where you're coming from with that but it looks like it's a single piece of skin which goes back along the length of the exhaust seen here. Image taken from
Fairey Battle