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What's the closest town to the location?I've been given a report describing aircraft wreckage sitting on a mountainside in Mae Hong Son Province, Thailand --- the northwesterly-most corner of the country. The site is not easily accessed, as in a 2-hour 4-wheel drive up a river bed followed by a 2-hour hike. And directions are not at all clear. Not the sort of trip to do in the current (very) rainy season with flooding, washouts, landslides, dengue fever, etc, and concerns about a coronapanic lockdown being reactivated.
From the limited information given about the wreck, I've checked a list of Thai military aircraft in Young, Aerial Nationalism (Washington: Smithsonian, 1995), pp 261-262, and find the only American, 9-cylinder, 2-blade prop aircraft is a Vought Corsair V93S. The model was purchased in 1934 and saw action during WW2.
With that as a hint, I pass the following details from the report to the forum and ask if anyone can confirm that identification from these details. A caution: the description is translated from Thai and terminology may be misleading.
"Shock parts & wheel hub with numbers 1 USA, ALS 4125, El 1241 AF BIC 2 F"
Inscriptions from "two aluminum plates thought to be from a wing" (see sketch "ww2_image_1.jpg")
A radial, 9-cylinder engine (see photo "ww2_image_2.jpg"), with various numbers (not visible in the photo): "14140 H 12414 L GRP 11"
A 2-bladed propeller
An unknown device that looks like a housing (see photo "ww2_image_3.jpg"). The letters "HAYES" are barely legible in the photo.
The report is dated 1998. The photos are dated 14 Mar 1998 and are obviously the result of several generations of copying; unfortunately better copies don't seem to be available.
Hak Hakanson
Chiang Mai
Thanks. We might be headed Khon Kaen way in a few months. Depends on travel hassle issues.In the case of the Corsair, about 20 km south of Mae Hong Son City.
For the Japanese aircraft, near Omkoi.
"Shock parts & wheel hub with numbers 1 USA, ALS 4125, El 1241 AF BIC 2 F"
An unknown device that looks like a housing (see photo "ww2_image_3.jpg"). The letters "HAYES" are barely legible in the photo.
The report is dated 1998. The photos are dated 14 Mar 1998 and are obviously the result of several generations of copying; unfortunately better copies don't seem to be available.
Hak Hakanson
Chiang Mai
Shinpachi:
My apologies. It is my fault for putting you at a disadvantage. I'm asking about information written in Japanese and have not given its context. Here is the source page for your clarification:View attachment 600633
(I would gather from other entries on the page that 2/31 is an organizational unit and refers to the 2nd Chutai of the 31st Sentai?).
Shinpachi:
My apologies. It is my fault for putting you at a disadvantage. I'm asking about information written in Japanese and have not given its context. Here is the source page for your clarification:View attachment 600633
(I would gather from other entries on the page that 2/31 is an organizational unit and refers to the 2nd Chutai of the 31st Sentai?).
MiTasol:
Thank you for your brainstorming. The photos & info I presented here (in my first question) are all second hand, more than 22 years old. Current staff at the source, Tango Squadron at Chiang Mai, know nothing about the subject; past / retired staff that can be found don't recall the discovery. Until we get up to the site (assuming that we can even find it from the vaguely worded description) --- and that will hopefully be this winter, I can't give you any more data.
Oh well, one can only hope. There are RAAF records of Oscars in Darwin raids as late as July 42 so I was interested in seeing if that was true or just miss-identification.