Warbird Information Exchange

Originally posted by Mark Allen

Soooooo time consuming. Apologies in advance if it doesn't arrive until after Xmas day ...


P-6 Fuselage Crated 2-19-30

Below a Bell P-400 being crated for shipment to UK







Below a Grumman Martlet being crated for shipment to FAA







Below a Grumman J4F-2 Widgeon being crated for shipment c 1944







Below a WACO CG-4A Glider being crated for shipment













Below the main components of a horsa Glider as supplied by their manufacturers brize Norton, Oxfordshire, on 26 April 1944



Below an F4U-4 Corsair in Weather-Proof Fabric Zippr Bag c 1947

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I remember reading an article about how people bought surplus Waco gliders after the war so they could use the shipping crates as chicken coups and storage sheds. The gliders were just discarded.

I believe the crate that they sent the Spirit of St. Louis back in, ended up a shed in N.H.

Phil

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A man's got to know his limitations.

I recently read a huge 2 volume book on the history of Dodge WC military trucks in WWII and the postwar M37 (and you think airplane guys get Nerdy...I rated this XXG...Extra Geeky)...and there was an entire chapter in crating Dodge weapons carriers and ambulances. Dodge had to build a new garage at its truck plant just for that purpose.

Why go to the trouble to disassemble a recently assembled truck and use something like 100,000 board feet of lumber a week?

Well as you might guess, space on liberty ships was at a premium and it was determined that boxing a truck took much less space. Pity no one had invented the Roll-on, Roll-off vehicle carrier then. Think of the trees it would have saved and the dozens of guys who had to answer their grandkids inevitable "What did you do in the war?" by saying "I boxed trucks in Michigan".

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

Great photos! Thanks for posting. Are there any more CG-4A photos?

The CG-4A broke down into tail section, main cabin section, cockpit section, inner wing panels, outer wing panels; the photos don't show the inner wing panels. There were 15,000 board feet of lumber in the five crates a CG-4A came in. I have been in a building which was constructed from the lumber of 3 gliders-worth of crates. The Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation nomenclature plate was on the boards I viewed, and we later found a load adjuster which had a tail number for a Commonwealth CG-4A.

I have multiple CG-4A pieces which came from people who used the crates for varying purposes. The best was for an elevated stage for a "hootenanny" (how it was described to me).

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

In the mid to late 70s, Gordon Baxter wrote in FLYING magazine about his visit to an airfield in the south, and there were WACO glider skeletons still there.

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

It also served to ship construction material and fuel (ie. crates)

Ford set an early example. Gearboxes for Model T's were subcontracted with very very specific crates required. Gearboxes were unpacked, crates were sent on, where they were trimmed slightly and installed as floorboards

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

Great stuff Mark, thanks. But I have an observation, none of this will fit down the chimney!

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Ain't no sunshine when she's gone!

Up my way there’s supposed to be a house made of surplus Hurricane crates. I know roughly the area it’s said to be in but not the exact house. The timeline seems kind of fishy to me about the whole thing but that’s what I was told.

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Keep 'em Flying.

As a kid(1960's), I met one of my Dad's aircraft mech/historian friends who was from Thunder Bay, Ontario. Part of the expansions to his aircraft mech shop were built from Hurricane crates. Kearney was his name, he had helped the Canadian air museum a few years earlier with the prep of their Hurricane for display. I think he was a Hurri mech late ww2.

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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

Maybe there’s truth to what I was told after all. I’m up in Thunder Bay.

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Keep 'em Flying.

Cool, unfortunately Dad passed 2 years ago St. Patrick's Day and Frank passed a few years before that. I'd liked to have been able to glean a few more local details for you Tim...tho my sister may still have contact with the daughters. I'll check it out.

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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

Checked with Sis, Tiger Tim. When she sent a letter notifying the Kearney family of my parents passing it was returned. Address Unknown. The daughters are married now and we don't recall their names. So, no Joy. They were Frank and Mary Kearney of Thunder Bay. Hit up the old timers around the flying patches is all I can suggest. Mebbee a Hurricane historian in the area?

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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 only have a few more gifts to wrap up ...

Below Harvard trainers are crated for shipment by rail. Warbird Factory Inglewood mechanic training school c 1943

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Got this Norseman to get in the mail asap ...

Below a C-64 'Norseman' is carefully unpacked for assembly at Karachi Air Base.

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“Knowing what’s right, doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”