Hello, my name is David. I am assisting a French Historian in researching a Spitfire crash site in Normandy.
This site was only located a few weeks ago, and currently the Merlin engine, complete with ID plates, and 2 x 20 mm guns have been located and retrieved.
I looked through your website and noticed the enormous amount of technical information. I am wondering if you could advise me on how to link the engine ID plate information to an airframe – construction or aircraft number.
We want to research further into the pilot and squadron information, however with only the engine ID details we have little to go on so far.
Were there manufacturing archives for Spitfire which listed aircraft, engine, and airframe numbers.
We also found a propeller housing, which revealed it was a 3 blade Spitfire, so a possible V series aircraft.
I would appreciate any advise on how I can possibly identify this aircraft. If anybody can help us I would be willing to share the backstory of what we have researched so far, along with photographs and updates on the archaeology in Normandy.
There seem to be 2 serial numbers on the engine ID plate which I know to be the engine serial number and the other I have been told is an Air Ministry number.
The engine ID plate has text which states…
’Type Merlin XLV No 67319’ which is the engine serial number. We believe this engine to be a type 45 (going by the text on the plate)
The other number is an ‘A’ number 280002.
We also believe this Spitfire to be a ‘V’ series aircraft, possibly a Vb or Vc.
Any help would be really appreciated, as we want to identify the aircraft and research what happened to the pilot and inform any family members that we can locate.
Thank you
David
By: Trolley Aux - 11th April 2021 at 12:22
If the RAF museum have the Aircraft Record Card it will give the engine number fitted from new and if a swap that would be recorded also.
By: Normandy-Archaeology - 11th April 2021 at 10:58
We are hopeful that Rolls Royce can provide us with details of date of manufacturing and/or date of delivery to the production factory.
If they have archives listing possible airframe/aircraft or construction numbers then we would be very lucky indeed.
If we can link the delivery date to the production factory then we might be able to list the batch of engines under the contract number to possible aircraft numbers produced from around that date.
From there we could check if any aircraft from this batch are listed as missing/crashed in the area of our crash site in Normandy.
The search continues…
By: stuart gowans - 11th April 2021 at 08:32
I don’t believe the engine number is recorded in relation to a specific A/C, they were changed as complete units at I think 100, 200, 500 hours progressively as the war continued the engine life was extended by RR.
By: Sopwith - 11th April 2021 at 08:25
Ok thanks for the reply, wonder what happened to the rest of it.
By: Normandy-Archaeology - 10th April 2021 at 12:26
Hi, no we were not that lucky. We only recovered the engine, 2 x 20mm guns, the propeller housing, rear caster wheel, and an engine mounting.
The propeller housing revealed that this aircraft was a 3 blade Spitfire, so narrowed the search to a possible Vb or Vc variant.
By: Sopwith - 10th April 2021 at 12:14
Is it just the engine that’s left David, or is there much fuselage wreckage at the site?. You may be lucky and find it’s serial number amongst some of it if there is some left.
By: Normandy-Archaeology - 9th April 2021 at 23:29
Thank you, I have emailed them…
By: MN138 - 9th April 2021 at 20:55
You can try and contact heritage.trust@Rolls-Royce.com
I’d have thought it unlikely they will be able to give you a specific aircraft, but worth a shot.
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April 8, 2021 at 6:51 pm