Warbird Information Exchange

Can anyone ID this engine and offer any guesses to aircraft type it used to belong to?
This is in the Gulf of Mexico approximately 40-50 miles offshore Tampa Bay, Florida.
Thanks,
Mike

Neat picture, and based on the look, without any size reference, I believe it to be a Snark. Back then that area was jokingly referred to as unsafe for swimming due to “Snark infested waters...”. The picture jibes with the engine and scoop of the SM-62. It’s an aircraft. Just not a very good one....

Thanks for providing a potential suspect!
Here is another view that shows the (suspected) ventral surface of the engine assembly...looks a bit different than the Snark?

No survey notes as to the scale of this thing? The squarishness of the scoop and the tight conformity of the superstructure around the engine doesn't really suggest Snark...or Regulus II for that matter. Things that make you go hmmmmm...

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

could it be the rear fuselage of a humped back Mig-21 with part of the engine still inside?

Sean

Don’t think so... I think this is target drone. If it’s small, perhaps a BQM-74 Chukar....? But I still think it looks like it has the potential to be Snark parts!

I don't know, the Chukar used a centrifugal compressor and this looks like a straight turbo jet. I brought up the Mig-21 cause that does not look like an intake, it is full of "stuff", and there is a wire hanging out.

VERY interested to see what it turns out to be!!

Sean

That was my thought, some sort of target drone....Beech, Ryan, whatever.
Especially considering the location.

_________________
Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.

BQM-74 is looking likely...or something very similar. At the bottom of the BQM-74 Wikipedia page there is a cutaway sketch that contains several of the features if we're looking at the power section with both ends shorn off. The "scoop" aft of the intake for the engine becomes an accessory section and fairing.

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

I think the BQM intake shape looks pretty close. Here is another image...note the fish. I think the relative size makes sense too...this doesn’t look big enough to come off a “proper” aircraft...