Arabella-Cox
February 20, 2011 at 1:43 pm

T-33A fuselage plate…what's it for?

Hi everyone

Can anyone tell me what the panel shown arrowed here is for?

Presumably it’s a strengthening plate, but as I’ve seen photos of some French T-33As with it and some without, is it a later upgrade or only on certain versions? The French operated both the Allison J33 powered Lockheed Shooting Star and the Canadair Silver Star version with the Rolls Royce Nene engine, so is it related to a specific version?

Regards

Simon

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By: JT442 - 20th February 2011 at 16:07

Yes Simon… I re-did it almost 6 years ago…. 😀

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By: Arabella-Cox - 20th February 2011 at 16:02

Thanks!

Thanks for the replies.

JT – the photo was taken almost exactly 8 years ago (March 2003), so was that before you worked on it?

Cheers

Simon

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By: JT442 - 20th February 2011 at 14:27

Modification or repair patch. As previously said, that canopy is heavy and likely to induce stress cracks in the skin at that location. The french T33s were high houred so you’d expect various doublers to be fitted as they got older.

Its faded a bit since I last polished it and re-marked all of the lettering……

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By: RPSmith - 20th February 2011 at 14:06

I’d take a wild guess at a strengthening plate to do with the upward hinging canopy.

Roger Smith.