Warbird Information Exchange

Yes, that one we had checked. "Only" three P-47D losses on the day in question; two in Italy and one in Germany.

None of these would qualify for our particular aircraft I'm afraid - the one we would like to ID is in the English Channel.

But thanks all the same - best to leave no stone unturned with this one.

Well its been over a month since I dropped the IARC request in on the 'Contact Us' page, but things have been very quiet.

I'm guessing I'm not the only one asking for cards, and I am also presuming Air Force Historical Records Agency won't be awash with folks just sitting around waiting for requests to come in...but does anyone have a feel about how long such requests can take from submission to initial response?

I've tried NASM three times on one request over the last year or so with no reply: I can only assume they are not answering these request now. Have you tried Maxwell AFB instead?

ArchiveFan

I have a large number of IARC's, and your serial comes close to my research area (P-40's). I'm away at present but return home on Sat, so will check and see if this serial number happens to be at the front of my P-40 rolls, if you haven't had an answer by then.

There's also a book around called "Aircraft Record Cards of the United States Air Force - How to Read the Codes" by Robert Mann. I found this helped alot at the start of my research.

Regards
Buz

http://p-47.database.pagesperso-orange. ... -2xxxx.htm


There is a P-47 database site, and it’s pretty good for internet searching beginnings. Interestingly the serial you quote is not listed. There could be several other options for this too.

Aircraft never accepted by the USAAF and retained by Republic for flight test, structural test or modification tests.

Aircraft crashed on a factory test flight prior to acceptance, or damaged after production.

Aircraft damaged after acceptance, but lost before arrival in either shipping or ferry flight, and no card actually started.

Good luck!

Related to this subject, is there a way to locate a serial number based on the assigned airfield number?

I am trying to track down the S/N for the first AT-6 my grandfather flew at Merced AAF in 1945. All I have is the side number E-843. Would like to locate the s/n for that aircraft.

Dunno if will help FT, but have you seen JD Voss' www.fuselagecodes.com website?

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DBF

The 'easiest' way would be to hope that '843 is the last three of the USAAF s/n (which it sometimes is). Then if you use a site like Baugher's USAF s/n listing you'll be able to list all AT-6s which had a last three of 843. There are likely to be a fair few, but so long as that 'last three' is indeed the final numbers of the a/c serial number, you'll 'only' have to request 10 or 20 record cards instead of trawling through thousands of AT-6 IARC's.

However I couldn't guarantee that the 'E-843' wasn't just a field-assigned number, so a bit of research would be needed before you get too carried away.

Good luck!

In fact I'm not aware of any AT-6/T-6 number crunchers, but if you can find someone who is that deep into the type, they may well have records of all Merced-assigned aircraft of the type. I can do similar for F-86s, having transcribed most of their IARC's, so not beyond the realm of possibility.

I'm no expert, but in my casual viewing, I don't think many airfield numbers...like E-843...corresponded to the aircraft serial.

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From what I've seen, it's the luck of the draw trying to get a serial with just an airfield code; maintenance and accident records (and accident photos) can be helpful if you can find them.

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Buz - many thanks on both accounts. I live very close to the former home of the Royal Aircraft Establishment and the local library has a massive section on all things aviation-related. Its good to support and use the local libraries, so I will check there first.



Joe - many thanks for the link. The gap between serials is really frustrating but very consistent indeed. The crash site is a long way from the factory and would be considered 'in theatre' so to speak...so its a bit of a mystery really.

The hunt continues.

Good news - Air Force Historical Research Agency have acknowledged the IARC request and have indicated a reply will be forthcoming in a couple of months.

We have been working on an ID for this aircraft for about 20 years, so this is really good news.

Thanks for all your assistance so far - much appreciated.

Nice one! Persistence pays off in the end.

Hi all,

In case the "583" from the Merced 1945 T-6 are the last three digists of the serial, here the list of "candidates" :

North American BC-1A 55 - 1593 39- 843
Texan, North American AT-6A-NT 78 - 6111 41-15843
Texan, North American AT-6A-NT 78 - 7221 41-16843
Texan, North American AT-6C-NT 88 -11238 41-32843
Texan, North American AT-6C-15-NT 88 -12683 42-48843
Texan, North American AT-6D-NT 88 -16624 42-84843
Texan, North American AT-6D-NT 88 -17624 42-85843
Texan, North American AT-6F-NT 121 -42565 44-81843

Texan, North American T-6G-1-NH 182 - 530 51-14843, 51-14843(FAF), Y-61…(TunisAF)

The last one is a 1950s machine, so this is not the one. Just here to have a complete list.

Regards,

Benno

Thanks!

It's a long shot, but on the positive side, according to my grandfather's logbook, E-843 was an AT-6A, so that limits it to just two airplanes on the list. Hopefully not too hard to track down if either went to Merced.