Plywood of German aircraft from World War 2 - Markings (1 Viewer)

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Truffle Pig

Airman
46
32
Dec 3, 2020
Cologne
It is well known that Germany increasingly used wood as a construction material in aircraft construction during WW2 and especially in the late stages of the war. In addition to the predominantly wooden aircraft, e.g. Ta 154, the He 162 or the prototypes of the Horten brothers, there were also various models in which only certain parts were made of wood. E.g. Bf 109, Me 110, Me 309, Me 410, Me 419, Me 262.
The reason for this was a temporary shortage of aircraft aluminum and metal aircraft builders, as well as an attempt to involve woodworking companies more in the armament effort. Unlike the actual aircraft industry, these often small companies and their qualified employees were scattered over a large area of the Reich and were therefore more difficult to eliminate by bombing. High-quality aircraft plywood, laminated wood and shaped beech wood served as an important raw material.
So much for the historical background.
During my research on the use of aircraft technologies and materials after the Second World War, I came across a few wooden suitcases, some of which were made of aircraft plywood. This can be recognized by the fact that the plywood complies with the specifications for aircraft plywood, i.e. it has, for example, more layers with the same thickness. In rare cases, a diagonal imprint can also be seen, which was applied at the time to prove compliance with the relevant specifications.
Fortunately, this also documents the year and calendar week in which the plywood was produced. Very occasionally, there is also uncoded information about the manufacturer.
The following pictures show some examples from cases of the years 1944 and 1945.

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Detail of the print: Made in week 6, 1945.

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A suitcase made short after the war by a company in southern Germany, which made wooden parts for several Messerschmitt models, but most for Bf 109. They were perfect in riveting wooden parts and made more than two thousand of these suitcases.

An example of a manufacturer's stamp of an aircraft plywood manufacturer from occupied denmark from another case:

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What I am looking for now are photos showing such imprints on German aircraft and aircraft parts. Unfortunately, the probability is rather small, since these imprints were always applied to the inside of the plywood and will often also be covered by paint.
So if someone knows such pictures I would be glad about a hint.
 
Hi Truffle Pig, You could try Gosshawk Unlimited in Arizona. We did the Fw-190 D-13, Yellow 10 and I'm almost sure we had some original ply from the restoration. The flaps were of ply construction, and the hatch behind the cockpit.
I hope they can help.
 
Hi Truffle Pig, You could try Gosshawk Unlimited in Arizona. We did the Fw-190 D-13, Yellow 10 and I'm almost sure we had some original ply from the restoration. The flaps were of ply construction, and the hatch behind the cockpit.
I hope they can help.
Hi Steve, thanks for the tip, I emailed Gosshawk Unlimited today. Let's see if they can help here. According to their homepage yes a really impressive specialist.
However, there is still a problem, which I would like to present here a little more exactly: Plywood in the airplane occurs in two versions. As "ordinary", flat sheet material and as so-called molded plywood. Both consist of veneer layers. Both are usually turned 90 degrees each. But aircraft parts made of molded plywood are molded in special forms, whereas aircraft plywood is supplied by specialized plywood manufacturers to the processors as sheet material (with the roll stamps shown above).

The following illustration shows a type sheet for a "lid in baggage compartment in cabin" of the Bf 109 from 1944. It consists of seven layers of 0.6mm veneer, each turned by 90 degrees. This part certainly did not have any stamping as found in the suitcases, as it was not made of plywood panels.

As you can see, it probably won't be easy.
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There are two other interesting additions to the topic:
1. I've searched the internet extensively for pictures of wooden German WW2 aircraft parts and came across a photo that shows the characteristic roller stamp overprints. It is a piece of plywood taken from the tail of an airplane with a swastika on the outside. A popular souvenir among Allied soldiers, which turns up in stores from time to time. This example here is featured on www.combat-relics.com. On the inside there are not only the typical black remnants of the Kauri glue with which the plywood and frames were glued, but also remnants of the typical imprint.
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2. A recently discovered suitcase shows similar marks on its inside.
The case is approx. 70 cm wide and made of 3.0mm aircraft plywood (5 layers). According to the stamp, the plywood was produced in the 40th calendar week of 1943. The frame construction consists of recycled Duraluminum extruded profiles, to which the plywood was riveted rather unprofessionally. The grey-blue color was only applied to the untreated wood after the case had been built.
If you look closely, you can see that the two vertical frames in the lid run vertically. However, the horizontal stringer is not horizontal, but slightly inclined. I therefore assume that it is part of the fuselage skin from the tail of a German aircraft. Since the plywood was still unpainted at the time of dismantling, it must have been an unfinished model.
Interestingly, the suitcase came to me from France. Since I assume that unfinished wooden airplanes (or their parts) were not produced or assembled in France, I believe that this suitcase only came to France after the war.

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"17" producer, "40-43" week-year, "RDLI" = Reichsverband der Deutschen Luftfahrt-Industrie (Reich Association of the German Aviation Industry)
 
Great info on the wood components!
The BFH Typenblatt sheet is very good. Look at the Dez '44 date, it looks just as complete as early war paperwork. Remember that Daimler Benz were, it seems, unable to put out complete paperwork on their engines after about mid '44. The last small documentation in standard format that I have from DB dated Dez '44 and info/illustrations after that are poor quality with almost no illustration except hand drawn simple diagrams.
The wood suitcase is very interesting. I can understand how, after the war, aircraft material like wood was reprocessed, most of it into domestic items. Metal items found far wider recovery into scrapping and smelting.

Thanks for posting!

Eng
 
During my ongoing research on German aircraft plywood from WW2, I was able to make another exciting find.
In the archive Stefan Moosburg (whom I thank for the kind permission to use these pictures) there are several photos of historical aircraft plywood, which were taken in 2016 and 2022. They show typical, still completely preserved aircraft plywood panels, which originate from the production of Bachem Natter in Waldsee/Württemberg in 1944/45 and have been preserved in the warehouse of a former manufacturer of this aircraft. Both panels have the characteristic diagonal stamping with the material and manufacturer's specification. Interesting in one case is a second subsequent red stamping that reclassifies the material as "2.Klasse" = grade 2. The reason for this was the material defects, also subsequently marked in red on the plate, which prevented full use of the entire plate. However, if these marked defects were omitted, then the material again corresponded completely to grade 1.

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As Spitfire Steve notes, a lot of FW190 models were built using not only plywood control surfaces and access panels, but D models that had an extended rear fuselage with the Jumo engine, and often used wood for that approx 50cm structural extension.
Also, remember that the Me163 rockets had all wood wings, and I've never heard of any structural failures with near Mach speeds.
I have at least two well preserved sheets of US WWII era birch plywood. 45 degree grain, 3/32" x 4' x 8' IIRC. At my aged and arthritic dexterity, I won't use them, and am open to offers. A friend used sheets from the batch recently to make some very nice and useful kayaks, so wood and glue are in good condition. They are in Kansas City, MO.
 

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