Building One Aircraft from Two

[lucky52]

" Doomed from the Start " is probably one of the best aviation books I have ever read. " Destination Corregidor " is another great book about the submarine resupply of Corregidor until the surrender.

[Noha307]

Unknown to me, thirteen months before I began this thread Cory Graff wrote an article for Air and Space Magazine titled "These Frankenplanes Are Built From Parts of Other Planes". It mentions some of the aircraft already covered in this thread - the DC-2 1/2, Little Miss Mischief - but it also brings up some new ones. There was another B-17G with the 457th Bomb Group named Arf n’ Arf that was made from part of one damaged in a ground collision. In another case, similar to the Qantas case mentioned in a previous post, the Boeing 707 damaged by a bomb after the hijacking of TWA Flight 840, N776TW, was repaired with a new-build nose section from Boeing to become N28714.

I searched for the term "Frankenplane" while trying to find the article on another computer and came up with a number of relevant results. One is an article about the story of the rebuilding of one of Torpedo Squadron Eight's damaged TBF Avengers on Henderson Field from the remains of five airframes. The other is "a concept FAA Safety Briefing first explored in [an] article called 'Beware the Frankenplane!' [in the May/June 2014 issue]" and revisited in the March/April 2022 issue "Frankenstein's Airplane" about the dangers of "layering" supplemental type certificates.

[junkman9096]

At least one, possibly two, A-1E Skyraiders were repaired in Vietnam by grafting good front halves and rear halves together at a joint adjacent to the wing trailing edge. There's a photo of one with a gag stencil that says, "GLUE SECTION A TO B".

Ken

Here's what you may have been referring to, a well and truly zapped A-1E.


Back in my dim youth I recall reading about some "Tales from Vietnam" story that there was an instance of an aft fuselage of an A-1E being mated to the front of single seat A-1. It had some differing flight characteristics but was otherwise OK.

[Cubs2jets]

Originally built as NC16009 for American Airlines, this was the FIRST DC-3. In 1959 her aft fuselage was damaged by a C-46 that had a gear collapse on landing in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The aft fuselage from a C-47 was grafted on and she continued service. Now on display in Puerto Alegre, Brazil.

Acidente PP-ANU.jpg (56.43 KiB) Viewed 7095 times

Cubs2jets

[Noha307]

Just in case anyone thought that this sort of thing had stopped, according to a news article the Air Force is currently gluing back of one F-35 that suffered a nose gear failure, 17-5269, to the nose of another damaged in an engine fire, 10-5015.

[Dan Jones]

Any Stearman rebuilt from an old sprayer probably has parts in it from every year they were made!

[Ken]

Back in my dim youth I recall reading about some "Tales from Vietnam" story that there was an instance of an aft fuselage of an A-1E being mated to the front of single seat A-1. It had some differing flight characteristics but was otherwise OK.

The engineering side of that would have been incredibly challenging and, in an era where cameras were plentiful, there are no pictures? Never say never, but that is most likely a wive's tale or the innocent twisting of a real story.

Ken

[Dan Jones]

Back in my dim youth I recall reading about some "Tales from Vietnam" story that there was an instance of an aft fuselage of an A-1E being mated to the front of single seat A-1. It had some differing flight characteristics but was otherwise OK.

The engineering side of that would have been incredibly challenging and, in an era where cameras were plentiful, there are no pictures? Never say never, but that is most likely a wive's tale or the innocent twisting of a real story.

Ken

If there was only one set of “wide” fuselage tooling (which I think was the case) I could see that being done. A lot of work, yes, but the engineering was probably more “eyeball” and along the lines of “that’ll never break now” than anything else.

[Zac Yates]

I just wanted to say 1) I'm really enjoying the thread and reading the stories, and b) seeing the real "GLUE SECTION A TO B" makes me very happy! How cool!

[Noha307]

While not performed by the military, like the B-17 mentioned in a previous post, the mismatched parts on these UH-1s is a pretty good illustration of parts being swapped around:

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Incidentally, I remember being told that forward fuselage on the UH-1 is the essential component that carried the identity and the tail boom was regarded as "just" an interchangeable component. Which is similar to the situation with Spitfires, apparently.

[Noha307]

Tornado ZA326, which was heavily damaged in a fire, was "repaired with a set of Batch 2 wings and a Batch 6 rear end".[1]

[JohnB]

Yes, tail booms on Hueys are routinely replaced. Civilian models often receive new, improved units.
In the photo above, the doors and fairings are not structural components, hence easily swapped.
Rather like seeing a pickup with a mismatched replacement door. Not a big deal.

The ultimate example of two into one:
I recently read where the Coast Guard is buying new basic front fuselage structures (no tailboom) for its MH-60s.
The plan is to replace the existing fuselage during depot overhaul.
At that time, the airframes are stripped while the dynamic components (aka. the life limited expensive bits) are removed for replacement or refurbishment.

So, when the Sikorsky gets out of depot, it will have a new forward fuselage, becoming an aircraft with the original serial.
https://www.dcms.uscg.mil/Our-Organizat ... t-program/

Now the fuselage is not a highly stressed item (and its certainly not pressurized) so even though the aircraft are 30+ years old, I wonder what is prompting the new units. Corrosion?

[Hooligan2]

Didn't we discuss the swapping of parts between different Bell 47s before? Or was that a different forum? Seem to recall it was which bit counts as the major airframe component, the bubble or the tail structure...

Just reading in a book about BOAC that one of their 707-436s suffered a wing fire while parked at Heathrow in the early 1960s (not G-ARWE which had an engine fire just after take off in 1968). I think the centre section was intact but everything outboard was destroyed. Boeing designed a repair scheme which used the mid wing section of a wing from a written off Pan Am 707 plus a brand new outer section. The work was undertaken by BOAC engineers and the aircraft continued flying with BOAC and then British Airtours probably until the early 1980s when Airtours began receiving their 737s and TriStars. Doesn't appear on the Aviaton Safety Network.

Edit - correction: Amazing how the mind muddles facts after a couple of days... It was G-APFP and the fire was in early 1973. The aircraft was back in revenue service by 3rd April 1973, donor aircraft was a TWA 707, I'm guessing either N15712 which over ran at San Fran during a rejected take off the previous September, or N761TW damaged by a bomb at Las Vegas. N788TW was damaged at JFK in December 72 with main gear and engines torn off - perhaps parts of its wing were donated to 'PFP. PFP went direct from BA in 1976 to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia where it was broken up in 1988 sad to say...

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dlberek/7146839385

[JohnB]

Hooligan2

It was probably here, and probably with me being a Bell 47 fan/pilot.

Probably the cabin is the primary structure since that is where the data plate is. The center section (also called the engine basket), is sometimes replaced due to wear (cracks? corrosion?), and the tail boom is easy to replace in case of damage (tail strike during high angle landing, I suppose...I know I scraped the paint of the tail rotor guard during a practice autorotation).
Having three fuselage structures and replaceable blades, there isn't much of a main structure to a 47D/G.

[phil65]

Still going on...

https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-wing ... 75.article

Phil