Re-used a/c parts

[Kingscoy]

Hi guys,

Perhaps an interesting topic. Few days back we received this stovepipe made out of the piping of the superharger/ exhaust system from B17G (43-37846/"Phoney Express") of the 398st BG. This fortress made a force landing on the 26th of November 1944 approx 15 miles east of Arnhem, The Netherlands after being badly damaged by German FLAK. The pilot had to execute a wheels up landing in a Dutch field with several injured crewmembers and one 500lb bomb still hanging in its bomb bay. All went well and the complete crew was taken PoW.

The "stovepipe" was just recently removed from a farmhouse close to the site where the fortress came to rest in 1944.

Would be interested to see if other "inventions" from salvaged a/c parts are out there....

Cheers Sander

 

[Shinpachi]

Interesting

 

[vikingBerserker]

That is really interesting.

 

[herman1rg]

Looks good

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Cool!

 

[nuuumannn]

At one place I worked in a few years back there was a big access ladder stand that had P-51 Mustang tail wheels fitted to it. Mustangs were stored at the base until either scrapped or sold. I think the value of the wheels had been noted and they've been removed now.

 

[Kingscoy]

Yes...very recognizable story. Many stories regarding tailwheels being used on wheelbarrows...but at one point thrown away. We do have a set of B24 main undercarriage wheels which were used on a piece of farm equipment. Took us quite a fair bit of work to get them off. There must be still a lot of re-used parts out there.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff.
Back in the late 1980's, one of my clients was opposite a small railway siding, where a trailer in use for hauling timber panels was fitted with four main wheels from a P-38, with what looked like original tyres !
How they got there (in west Yorkshire) I don't know !

 

[Shinpachi]

The rear fuselage of a Mitsubishi G4M which was re-used as a core to form a concrete bunker during the Battle of Iwo-jima.

Source: 千鳥が原のトーチカ群

 

[Wurger]

 

[GrauGeist]

I used to know a guy who had a drop-tank modified into a salt flat racer.

There were actually quite a few of them in the late 40's through the 60's.

 

[Kingscoy]

How cool...guess the weight/ power ratio made you almost fly again
I have a German 300L drop tank made into a boat...will post some pics of it later in the week.

 

[herman1rg]

The Bristol Blenheim which flies here in the UK was rebuilt after it's crash with a MK1 nose which had been used as a chassis for an electric car.

Mk1 Bristol Blenheim

 

[Kingscoy]

That's so cool...talk about a classic car

 

[Kingscoy]

This fuselage section of a Short Stirling bomber was discovered only a few years ago near Arnhem, the Netherlands. It was used as storage room at a farm, completely overgrown with bushes and forgotten. It is now on display in a museum at the airbase Deelen also near Arnhem.

 

[GrauGeist]

I do recall a while back, a discussion about the Angelpoise map light from the Lancaster and they can still be found, modified into desk lamps.

 

[nuuumannn]

This fuselage section of a Short Stirling bomber was discovered only a few years ago near Arnhem, the Netherlands.

Like the Halifax reproduction at Elvington; the rear fuselage is from a Halifax that was being used as a chicken coop.

 

[nuuumannn]

After the war the RNZAF bought de Havilland Mosquitoes and on retirement these were bought by farmers for their useable equipment, such as their engines, various generators, hydraulic components, wheels and so forth, whereas the wooden fuelages were regularly burnt as they were of no use. To this day there are bits of Mosquito being found in rural locations. Same with Airspeed Oxfords. I stayed in a homestay at a farm outside a small town once and noticed some metal tubing stuck in a bush; turned out it was an intact engine mount for an Armstrong Whitworth Cheetah engine from an ex-RNZAF Oxford. I duly asked permission to recover it and gave it to a guy restoring an Avro Anson.

 

[gumbyk]

After the war the RNZAF bought de Havilland Mosquitoes and on retirement these were bought by farmers for their useable equipment, such as their engines, various generators, hydraulic components, wheels and so forth, whereas the wooden fuelages were regularly burnt as they were of no use. To this day there are bits of Mosquito being found in rural locations. Same with Airspeed Oxfords. I stayed in a homestay at a farm outside a small town once and noticed some metal tubing stuck in a bush; turned out it was an intact engine mount for an Armstrong Whitworth Cheetah engine from an ex-RNZAF Oxford. I duly asked permission to recover it and gave it to a guy restoring an Avro Anson.

Is that on Bill's aircraft?

Apparently there were also a lot of Tiger Moth rear fuselage frames that were used as stands for various uses. I remember being told about someone finding a dozen or so used as umpire seat stands for tennis.