The W/T stencils on Hurricanes

[Puddlejumper]

I have a question about the W/T stencils on Hurricanes...

I had a trawl through all the IWM photos tagged 'Hurricane' and found 8 from the 1940-41 period where the W/T stencil aft of the cockpit, starboard side was readable.

All consisted of two lines of text: top line was always 'G 5/' or '41H/' followed by a five or six digit number and second line was always 'CX'.

Question is, what do the five or six digit numbers refer to? (The numbers are all different, but in the same location on the airframe, in the eight photos).

I assume 'G 5' is Gloster built and '41H' is Hawker production? Is 'CX' a paint code?

Alan.

 

[Crimea_River]

I have no definitive answer on this, just the results of a lot of back and forth between a number of sources. I'm told that the "CX" refers to the Cellon cellulose dope coating. The 5 digit number may refer to a contractor construction number.

 

[GrauGeist]

Wasn't the H41xxxxx stencil a copy of the Hurri's data plate?

The USAAF did something similar, like on the P-51, where it was stenciled on the port side cowl, just ahead of the cockpit.

 

[Puddlejumper]

I have no definitive answer on this, just the results of a lot of back and forth between a number of sources. I'm told that the "CX" refers to the Cellon cellulose dope coating. The 5 digit number may refer to a contractor construction number.

Thanks for this, so the 5 (or 6) digit numbers might refer to a particular sub-contractor and/or a part/drawing number, which would make sense of different numbers on different parts of the airframe.

Wasn't the H41xxxxx stencil a copy of the Hurri's data plate?

The USAAF did something similar, like on the P-51, where it was stenciled on the port side cowl, just ahead of the cockpit.

As far as I am aware, the RAF never applied a Technical Data Block (giving serial number, type designation, fuel grade and crew weight) like the USAAC/AAF did.

Thanks for your input guys.

Alan.

 

[MiTasol]

IF the CX stands for the Cellon dope the following number may be the factory batch number. I suggest that because the Brits had a habit of stamping the batch number on metals on critical parts at one stage.