Wooden Aircraft Wheels

[Airframes]

That sounds interesting VB.
Maria, training ammunition, that is blanks, hasn't changed much in the last 80 years or so. It sounds likely that VB's info will probably/possibly answer your question better than I can. Although I'm not a foresenic expert in the field of ammunition and ballsitics, since leaving the armed forces, I have been involved, for the last 16 years, in lecturing on infantry weapons of the 20th (and early 21st) century, and have also been called as an 'Expert Witness', to Crown Court, on firearems issues on three occassions. My miitary qualifications include Weapons Instructor, Skill at Arms Instructor, Range Supervisor and Assistant Armourer.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I stand corrected. I found the book Mostly Murder by Sir Sydney Smith and it was talking about paper pulp, not wood.

"There was an amusing sequel {to an earlier investigation involving shootings by British soldiers}. Among the projectiles which I found in the bodies were a few bullet-tips composed not of aluminium but of paper pulp. I reported this fact to the War Office in London, suggesting first that some contractor was using paper pulp as a substitute for alumimium, and secondly that, since the paper-pulp tip seemed to serve the same function (if any) as the aluminium tip, it might pay them to discontinue the use of aluminium." [page 90]

Their response was that it was not cheaper as the paper had to be sterlized so that the wound would not get infected.

 

[Junkers88A1]

hi

i am not home at the moment but when i get home i will post some pics of german 7,92mm wodden bullets.
now the funny thing,,they have dummybullets that does not fire..what we in norway call a click cartridge..as they are just to save the firepin from getting damage.. now i found several boxes of these.. and they also have live wodden bullets ( they look the same but the click cartridge has some tracks further down on the shell that is not present on the live ones.. this is did not noticed so when testing my mauser rifle indoor showing it to a friend i usually put one of those click bullets inside..well..suddenly i learned that some were alive..and man.. that wodden bullet made a hole in my wodden wall from 10 feet and also wodden spliters all over the wall.. guess who stood there with his mouth wide open.. b oth of us.. and that was how i learned the difference of the two bullets.. will pist pics when i get home on tuesday and yes..i had to tear down the panels on my wall and put up new

 

[vikingBerserker]

Man, what a way to find out -

 

[GrauGeist]

hi

i am not home at the moment but when i get home i will post some pics of german 7,92mm wodden bullets.
now the funny thing,,they have dummybullets that does not fire..what we in norway call a click cartridge..as they are just to save the firepin from getting damage.. now i found several boxes of these.. and they also have live wodden bullets ( they look the same but the click cartridge has some tracks further down on the shell that is not present on the live ones.. this is did not noticed so when testing my mauser rifle indoor showing it to a friend i usually put one of those click bullets inside..well..suddenly i learned that some were alive..and man.. that wodden bullet made a hole in my wodden wall from 10 feet and also wodden spliters all over the wall.. guess who stood there with his mouth wide open.. b oth of us.. and that was how i learned the difference of the two bullets.. will pist pics when i get home on tuesday and yes..i had to tear down the panels on my wall and put up new

Good God man! Good thing no one was down range of that muzzle!

 

[Airframes]

Heck Guttorm, you were darned lucky! Good job the weapon was pointed at the wall!
The 'click' bullets are known as Drill Rounds in the British armed forces, and normally have a bright steel or alloy cartidge case, with channels or grooves down the length of the casing. Where the primer cap would normally fit is an open depression, painted red (as are the channels initially, but this wears with time), to aid in instant recognition, for obvious safety purposes. Most often, the bullet head is a real, although inert, Ball bullet head, although hardwood heads have been used in the past. They are made and used, as you rightly state, for Drills (exercises), in order to prevent damage to the firing pin and bolt-head of weapons.These 'drills' are for loading chambers, magazines, belts etc, and for learning how to clear stoppages and so on. One of the very first safety notes in all weapons training/ammunition issue pamphlets clearly states that blank and Drill Rounds, must NEVER be mixed, and also the same with live/blank/drill - for fairly obvious reasons!!

 

[Junkers88A1]

i agree. but it sure made me aware of german ww2 bullets in wood and how they worked. when i get home i will post pictures so ycan see the difference on click cartridges and live wodden bullets ! and it sure made two guys standing there with wide open mouths and wondering what the heck just happened.. lol

 

[Junkers88A1]

and you are quite right airframe.. it was just that i found a huge box filled with these from WW2 and they were mixed so i dident noticed the difference on the live and the inert until one made a large hole in my wall

and i never point a weapon at anybody ever.. even if i know the chamber is empty. and that showed just how dangerous it can be..as i "knew" the bullet inside was inert as i had operated on one earlier to see what was inside,. and it was cotton instead of gunpowder.. but when i learned that some was live i studied them more and the difference was fast obvious..

 

[Junkers88A1]

here is the promised pictures of the wodden german bullets..and as you see it was not easy to actually identify the ones that are inert as the inert has the small markings around the casing further down.. on this picture its 6 live bullets and one inert. and they do make a nice bang and also a nice hole in thick wood from 3 feet..so obvious pretty dangerous. and not easy to see those tracks if you are not aware of the difference ( as i was not aware of..when i first found them i treated them as live..as i dident know what they were..but tested one..nothing happened..opened it and it was filled with cotton.. so i was sure that they all were the same and harmless.. NOT..and typical my luck..just picking one out of several hundreds in boxes i managed to test a click cartridge first..later i learned that they were not the same types..and that was quite a job to remake the whole livingroom wall..hehe ) i have no idea why the heads are in different colours as that has nothing to do if its live or inert ( click cartridge )

on the ones you see the bottomn of the one to the right is the live one

 

[Junkers88A1]

sorry..the one to the LEFT is the live one.. hehe

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Guttorm, interesting stuff, the inert round appears to have a 'soft' filling inside the annulus, where the percussion cap would normally be. I also see you've hit your thumb with a hammer, or jammed it somehow! I thought I heard some Norwegian curses wafting across the North Sea!!

 

[Junkers88A1]

you have a good eyesight there pal..but its not a hammer..it was the precusionbolt in th Mp 40..thumb in the chamber and fire.. yes..that equals curses spelld far out into the north sea..hehe

sometimes things seems very smart inside my head but often something happens on the way out..and then i get resaults like that lol

 

[woodhaven]

 

[Capt. Vick]

Ah! An addition!

 

[Wurger]

Nice shots.

 

[tyrodtom]

OK, why the wooden wheels on the Mustang ?

I notice some joker wrote " do not inflate " on one.

 

[GrauGeist]

To conserve rubber while the airframes were being assembled and moved about the Inglewood facility.

Once the airframe was finalized, the rubber tires were fitted.