US Navy Aircraft History Cards

[CoastieJohn]

A FWIW only.......

I have some of the first CG aircraft cards from way back. Note the different contractors used. If anyone is interested....here's some.

[Noha307]

I recently contacted the National Museum of the Marine Corps to request some assistance understanding the immediate postwar order of battle for USMC squadrons. In the process, I ended up answering my question of whether there were any original cards still in existence. (I also learned that the original cards were double sided.) It turns out that the museum has the original paper cards up to about BuNo 98000. Apparently, a museum staff member saw them being thrown out by the Navy following the microfilming process and saved a bunch of them.

My most sincere thanks to Dr. Larry Burke for taking the time out of his very busy schedule (they're in the middle of a move to a new building) to provide these scans:

Here are higher resolution copies of the above:

(Source: Imgur)

(Source: Imgur)

For comparison, here are the microfilmed copies provided by the National Naval Aviation Museum:

AHC 92132 – Microfilm – Page 2 (Cropped).png (289.91 KiB) Viewed 1056 times

Finally, here's my recreation of the above:

[Noha307]

Part 2

[Noha307]

To build off of a post in the predecessor thread, AirCorps Library recently posted a bunch of issues of Aero Digest and a number of them include examples of forms:

• Charles G. Brown, "Tool Control," Aero Digest, January 1943, 229-230, 257.
• Franklin M. Reck, "Systematic Stock Keeping of Non-Productive Items," Aero Digest, August 1943, 179-181.
• Earle D. Williams, "Controlling Quality in Mass Production," Aero Digest, October 1943, 174-176, 226.

Based on the titles, there is a clearly distinguishable theme that emerges: they all deal with stock control. It is a good reminder that aircraft history cards were not intended for historical purposes, but were actually nothing more than inventory management. (After all, what are aircraft other than very large tools?) Correctly framing the role of aircraft record cards is important to ensure that we don't mistake their intent when interpreting them for present day use. (For further discussion of putting historical documents in proper perspective, see Session 4 of the Aviation Cultures Mk.VI conference: Logbooks & AvDocs: Critical Understanding & Case Studies of Key Flying Documents)

To emphasize this, there are also a couple of advertisements by Remington-Rand for both the Kardex system and Guardsman filing cabinets. Similar advertisements in other trade publications of the time show the former in use, the benefits of its layout, and list the aircraft manufacturers who use it.

EDIT (23-06-24): Although it's not from the Navy, page 198 of the Numerical Index of Technical Publications, T.O. No. 00-1, mentions that there is another technical order titled AAF Kardex Stock Record Control Sys, T.O. 25-1-7. If anyone could find a copy of that, it might be helpful in further understanding the cards.

Last edited by Noha307 on Sat Jun 24, 2023 4:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.

[Noha307]

While it's not a record card, I came across some pictures of the aircraft log book for the TBM-3E that's in the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum the other day:

(Source: Aerial Visuals)

(Source: Aerial Visuals)

(Source: Aerial Visuals)

(Source: Aerial Visuals)

Furthermore, it's interesting to note that in addition to the aircraft log book above, both the Tri-State Warbird Museum and the EAA Aviation Museum have the original U.S. Navy aircraft log books for their respective FG-1Ds.[1] (The aircraft history card mentioned in a previous post in another thread was found within the pages of the the former.)

Note that there appears to be a second log book off to the side in the top picture. This is particularly interesting as the TSWM's example is actually made up of three separate logs books stuck together to make a single volume.

Lastly, being able to see another log book is also useful in that it confirms that U.S. Navy aircraft log books from the World War II era were bound in a booklet with a hard, brown cover. (Indeed, apparently all U.S. Navy log books of the period were made in such a way, as examples (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) of U.S. Navy "Aviator's Flight Log Books", N.AER. 4111, from the vintage aviation logbooks thread have a matching style.) So for anyone searching through a collection for a log book or requesting a copy from an a museum should be able to easily either visually identify it or describe what to look for.