Martin B-26 Marauder - Frame Fuselage Aft ID plate

[SXS]

Hi,

Boxted Airfield Museum has recently received an ID plate from the Frame Fuselage Aft section of (we assume) a Martin B-26 Marauder (please see attached photo). The plate carries the part number of R-274078 and has the number 577 stamped in the upper right section of the plate and the number 55 stamped into the serial number section of the plate.

The plate allegedly comes from one of 2 Marauders from the 394th Bomb Group: 42-107592 (B-26C-45-MO) of the 584th Squadron which collided with 42-96249 (B-26F-1-MA) of the 587th Squadron over Battle, Sussex, England on during the morning of D-Day (which, as I'm sure you all know, was on 6 June 1944).

We would be grateful if any of you knowledgeable folk could shed some light on the ID plate. Ideally, it would be great to identify the specific aircraft the plate came from. Otherwise, if plate can provide the model and production block number of the aircraft, perhaps we can use the information identify which of these 2 aircraft the plate may have come from.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[Capt. Vick]

Have you tried the Glen L. Martin Museum in Maryland, USA, or E-mail the NASM

 

[Tony Kambic]

I can check tomorrow as I am currently working on the bomb bay of Flak-Bait.

 

[Tony Kambic]

Here are two images taken of B-26B 'Flak Bait' rear section and the dataplate attached. This aircraft is at the NASM Udvar-Hazy Museum in Virginia USA. The tail number for Flak Bait is 41-31773. This data plate is attached to a longeron in the lower right corner between the white bags. Those bags contain control cable ends until the aircraft is put back together. The yellow frame is the jig holding the section. The tail gunner section is the opening at the end.

I cannot see any correlation between the data plate numbers and the tail number.

Tony

 

[SXS]

Many thanks to Capt. Vick and Tony Kambic for their suggestions and information.

The data plate for 'Flak Bait' is similar to the one that we have. However, there are some differences, such as only Flak Bait's has a date field and the serial number field seems to contain the model number i.e. B25-MA. The part number appears to be stamped with "379078" whereas ours is printed "R-274078", and Flak Bait's has "B26" stamped whereas ours does not. Also, I wonder what significance the numbers 574 and 577 have !

Maybe the format of the plates changed over the B-26's production lifetime, and maybe ours comes from a later model. I think the best course of action is (as suggested by Capt. Vick) to contact the Glen L. Martin Museum in Maryland. If they can shed any light on this matter, I'll share their feedback on this thread.

PS Wow Tony, you're working on Flak Bait !!! That'd be one of my dream jobs.

 

[Crimea_River]

I think that the 574 and 577 might be inspectors' stamps but could be wrong.

 

[SXS]

I contacted the Glen L. Martin Museum in Maryland asking for any information they had on the ID plate. Stan Piet (Archive Director) of the museum kindly sent the following:

" Nice to hear of the B-26 finds. Unfortunately the company kept no production records at all so we have little to reference. The Museum has a copy of the B-26B/C parts manual and the frame plate # is not listed in that series of B-26s. So my guess is that the plate is from the B-26F referenced. Also looking at the serial # of that part and the low number referenced would possibly refer to one of the 100 B-26F's built. Just a guess. NASM has a full listing of B-26 manuals so contacting their library might help you get a better ID on the specific part. The circular stamps are from the quality inspectors both Martin and AAF. They used punch type stamps.

I've attached the specific page from the B-Series parts manual where the part # would be referenced and you will see that the number does not appear."

 

[fubar57]

I wasn't aware of the B-26F and now I find most went to the RAF and SAAF, known as the Marauder III

 

[SXS]

Thanks again to everybody who has responded.

Based on the "55" stamped in the serial number section of the plate, it's been suggested that perhaps the plate comes from 42-96050, which was a B-26B-55-MA. This aircraft also collided over Gillingham, Kent, England on D-Day. It collided with 42-96263 (a B-26F-1-MA). This was the first of 2 collisions that day involving the 394th Bomb Group, the other has been described previously. More information about both collisions is available at:
The Gillingham & Battle B-26 Crashes of 1944 - Home

I've completed an Archives Research Request Form on the NASM website. I'll report back when I get a reply.

 

[ram957]

Here's another one that I've run across..I'm assuming it's from a B-26

 

[Maty12]

Very late to this, but I can answer some questions!

Here's another one that I've run across..I'm assuming it's from a B-26

Ram, you are correct. R-263299 is the part number for the bottom engine hood/engine cowling panel (as stated on the plate), the one with the intake for the oil cooler. It was fitted to the B-26-MA, B-26A and some B-26Bs (short wing) and early B-26Cs according to drawing D-263943. This part was replaced on late B-26Bs (short wing), some B-26Cs and all B-26B1s (long wing) by part number R-378734. In July of 1941 (7 1941) Martin was in the middle of building B-26-MAs, the first production model. The serial number 295 is for the part only, not the aircraft, so it does not help with identification.

Hi,

Boxted Airfield Museum has recently received an ID plate from the Frame Fuselage Aft section of (we assume) a Martin B-26 Marauder (please see attached photo). The plate carries the part number of R-274078 and has the number 577 stamped in the upper right section of the plate and the number 55 stamped into the serial number section of the plate.

The plate allegedly comes from one of 2 Marauders from the 394th Bomb Group: 42-107592 (B-26C-45-MO) of the 584th Squadron which collided with 42-96249 (B-26F-1-MA) of the 587th Squadron over Battle, Sussex, England on during the morning of D-Day (which, as I'm sure you all know, was on 6 June 1944).

We would be grateful if any of you knowledgeable folk could shed some light on the ID plate. Ideally, it would be great to identify the specific aircraft the plate came from. Otherwise, if plate can provide the model and production block number of the aircraft, perhaps we can use the information identify which of these 2 aircraft the plate may have come from.

Thanks,
Steve

Steve, I hope you have been able to identify the data plate in the meantime, but if not I can be of some assistance.

I cannot positively identify your plate but I can give you information. Martin part/drawing numbers are sequential with some "series" set aside for the specific aircraft type and model they first appear in, and the endings of the numbers are usually repeated in each "series". For example, xxx000 is the ending for the 3-view drawings. For the B-26-MA the 3-view is R-257000, for the B-26A it's R-311000, for the B-26B it's R-313000, for the B-26B1 (long wing) it's R-344000, for the B-26C it's R-360000, for the B-26F it's R-503000 and for the B-26G it's R-504000. Not all drawings for each model have the same first 3 digits, B-26-MA parts go up to the 270000's, some 313xxx parts are on the B-26A but not the B-26B, and the 312xxx series is generally a mix of both. To add to the confusion, some parts starting with 260xxx were only fitted to B-26Bs and not B-26-MAs, and some drawings starting with 378xxx are for the B-26-MA. As shown in the plate, the ending xxx078 is the identifier for the Aft Fuselage.

Unfortunately, I do not have R-274078 in my collection of drawings, but I can tell you with certainty that it's not the part number for the aft fuselage of the B-26-MA, B-26A, B-26B, B-26B1 or B-26C, as those are 257078 (B-26-MA), 311078 (B-26A), 313078 (B-26B), 344078 (B-26B-10 & B-15), 363078 (B-26C-5), 379078 (B-26B-20 through B-55) and 381078 (B-26C-10 through C-45). I do not have the drawings for the F or G model nor do I know the drawing number for those, though 379078 does mention the F and G models so those might also use 379078. Larger assemblies rarely carried through unchanged between models and often got new drawing numbers, but smaller parts like individual frames or ribs often had the same drawing number for the entirety of production.

Something of note: the only number in my collection in the 274xxx series is 274063, which is the Cover Assembly for the Rudder of the Martin 187B-1 and 187B-2 Baltimore and was mistakenly placed in the Smithsonian's B-26 collection (some XB-33 drawings also ended up in there). The xxx063 ending is also used in the B-26 drawings for the Rudder Cover Assembly, which leads me to think that xxx078 is Martin's number for the aft fuselage of several different aircraft, and that R-274078 is the Aft Fuselage for a Martin 187 Baltimore, not a B-26 Marauder.

I hope this is helpful,
-Matt

 

[SaparotRob]

Very late to this, but I can answer some questions!

Ram, you are correct. R-263299 is the part number for the bottom engine hood/engine cowling panel (as stated on the plate), the one with the intake for the oil cooler. It was fitted to the B-26-MA, B-26A and some B-26Bs (short wing) and early B-26Cs according to drawing D-263943. This part was replaced on late B-26Bs (short wing), some B-26Cs and all B-26B1s (long wing) by part number R-378734. In July of 1941 (7 1941) Martin was in the middle of building B-26-MAs, the first production model. The serial number 295 is for the part only, not the aircraft, so it does not help with identification.



Steve, I hope you have been able to identify the data plate in the meantime, but if not I can be of some assistance.

I cannot positively identify your plate but I can give you information. Martin part/drawing numbers are sequential with some "series" set aside for the specific aircraft type and model they first appear in, and the endings of the numbers are usually repeated in each "series". For example, xxx000 is the ending for the 3-view drawings. For the B-26-MA the 3-view is R-257000, for the B-26A it's R-311000, for the B-26B it's R-313000, for the B-26B1 (long wing) it's R-344000, for the B-26C it's R-360000, for the B-26F it's R-503000 and for the B-26G it's R-504000. Not all drawings for each model have the same first 3 digits, B-26-MA parts go up to the 270000's, some 313xxx parts are on the B-26A but not the B-26B, and the 312xxx series is generally a mix of both. To add to the confusion, some parts starting with 260xxx were only fitted to B-26Bs and not B-26-MAs, and some drawings starting with 378xxx are for the B-26-MA. As shown in the plate, the ending xxx078 is the identifier for the Aft Fuselage.

Unfortunately, I do not have R-274078 in my collection of drawings, but I can tell you with certainty that it's not the part number for the aft fuselage of the B-26-MA, B-26A, B-26B, B-26B1 or B-26C, as those are 257078 (B-26-MA), 311078 (B-26A), 313078 (B-26B), 344078 (B-26B-10 & B-15), 363078 (B-26C-5), 379078 (B-26B-20 through B-55) and 381078 (B-26C-10 through C-45). I do not have the drawings for the F or G model nor do I know the drawing number for those, though 379078 does mention the F and G models so those might also use 379078. Larger assemblies rarely carried through unchanged between models and often got new drawing numbers, but smaller parts like individual frames or ribs often had the same drawing number for the entirety of production.

Something of note: the only number in my collection in the 274xxx series is 274063, which is the Cover Assembly for the Rudder of the Martin 187B-1 and 187B-2 Baltimore and was mistakenly placed in the Smithsonian's B-26 collection (some XB-33 drawings also ended up in there). The xxx063 ending is also used in the B-26 drawings for the Rudder Cover Assembly, which leads me to think that xxx078 is Martin's number for the aft fuselage of several different aircraft, and that R-274078 is the Aft Fuselage for a Martin 187 Baltimore, not a B-26 Marauder.

I hope this is helpful,
-Matt

I'm glad you revived the thread.