[ARC5] [Milsurplus] Those P-39s Still in the Crates...

[Andy Young]

TR5043 was the British designation of the US-built SCR-522 aircraft transmitter/receiver – could that be the one?

 

Andy

M0FYA

 

From: Milsurplus [mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Todd, KA1KAQ
Sent: 06 May 2017 03:10
To: Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>; ARC-5 Mail List <ARC5 at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: [Milsurplus] Those P-39s Still in the Crates...

 

Not long ago we had a chat on here about surplus property disposal post-WWII and I mentioned a friend telling me about new, never uncrated P-39s still sitting. Someone had asked where and said that it was a myth that had circulated for years and likely not true. I said I'd check into it when time allowed.

Well, I just got off the phone with oz ex-pat and friend Gary and got more details. The call was about old cars but eventually drifted to warbirds, radio gear, and so on. I asked him again about the P-39s and he quickly replied "Oh - those are on Goodenough Island, Papua New Guinea. Just north of Ferguson Island. Still there. That whole area is stinking with stuff, still" 

He then told me some stories about a friend of his named Charles Darby who, along with another fellow, organized the retrieval of a large number of airframes from the area for a fellow named David Tallichet in the 1971-72 time frame. Charles wrote the book 'Pacific Aircraft Wrecks and Where to Find Them'. 

Now, it seems Charles likes WWII aircraft and their associated gear and ended up with some 70-90 tons of it from gov't auction which Gary helped him sort and store. Some interesting pieces he mentioned from IFF gear to the radar equipment used in the B-24M, of which apparently only a couple dozen were made. A special model used for Radar bombing, he said. Was news to me. I'd only ever heard of the small number of ferret aircraft B-24s.

Gary ended up with about a ton of the equipment too, including some IFF and radar gear. He also mentioned having owned and seen numerous....TR5034(?) radio sets from WWII with service tags from the 70s & 80s on them, the latest being 1984 and apparently fitted to F-111s flown by the RAAF. Sounds crazy, I know. And I probably messed up the set number, too. 

He told me about working at a restoration center on an airbase in or just outside Brisbane where they brought in a A-20 Boston (Havoc) bomber retrieved from a swamp in New Guinea still in good shape. And about a place off Sydney where the military dumped some 3000 aircraft after the war in very deep water. He said an expedition to the site in the early 2000s with an unmanned submersible yielded video inside cockpits in which he said the gauges were still easily readable. 

Then he mentioned another dumping site off Brisbane with about 700 aircraft, mostly Hellcats and Corsairs. He said occasionally some vessel in the local fish fleet will snag one and rather than cut their expensive nets, they drag it back and leave it on the shore. Water is warmer and not as deep, so corrosion is bad - except for steel parts, which he said often look like they could be plucked off and used on another plane. 

We discussed exploding sodium-filled exhaust valves from Roll Royce Merlin engines (the Packard variant didn't use them) and other fun stuff like the Sperry automatic sighting system for the Martin upper turret. Our 15 minute phone call that started around 7:30 ended just after 9PM. The wife and daughter are in Florida visiting family, so I'm off the leash for a few days. It was a fun call.

Figured I should share as much as I could before I sleep and forget 90%. 

 

~ Todd/KAQ

 

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