A friend in the UK was digging in her garden and found this little piece of metal looking up at her. It is about 2.5 cms square and when cleaned a little bit, had the following numbers stamped on it.
3 72
U 9029
There appears to be more numbers in front of the U
Could it be from an aircraft???
By: Wellington285 - 28th September 2010 at 14:11
In the first picture there seems to be some remains of light blue paint or grey still on the surface, so it could be aircraft?
Ian
By: pogno - 28th September 2010 at 14:01
It looks like a piece of aluminium extrusion, probably ‘L’ section with one leg broken off. You can see the tooling marks from when it was manufactured. I am not totaly convinced it is an aircraft apart from it having the part number and inspection stamp on it. Tractor/car/fridge/mower parts dont have that sort of thing usually.
Richard
By: Peter - 28th September 2010 at 13:28
Hello Guys
To answer a few questions….
its not ferrous, not magnetic, and has been soaked and cleaned , its very light as well, pretty sure its aluminium, but it is in good condition for ww2.
The circular stamp looks very like the type of stamp pieces of Lancaster?
The soil which this was found in was imported in from Newark area supplier so chances of more parts being in the garden are slim to nil. She would like to be able to identify it to an aircraft type.
By: Carpetbagger - 28th September 2010 at 12:31
Could the ‘3 72’ be a datestamp?
Would obviously put it out of WW2 but would account for lesser corrosion.
How old is the house?
John
By: Al - 28th September 2010 at 10:01
Looks like a circular inspection stamp above the central corrosion in the second photo – either starts or ends with a ‘S’…
By: piston power! - 28th September 2010 at 07:39
Find out if there were any crashes in the immediate area, and tell her to get digging and find more!
Lol Well said……………..:D
By: Bruce - 28th September 2010 at 07:21
There’s not enough to go on.
Its steel, almost certainly British by the part numbers (American numbers were often stamped in Ink, German part numbers were often not on at all)
Thats it!
Find out if there were any crashes in the immediate area, and tell her to get digging and find more!
Bruce
By: Stepwilk - 27th September 2010 at 19:56
Making the wild guess that if it’s from an aircraft it was somehow involved in WWII, I can at least say that it wasn’t German. The numerals aren’t in the style of the numbers that a German factory or fabricator would use.
Don’t know if there’s anything innately different about the numerals a British airframer would use, but they somehow look American to me (an American…).
Is it magnetic–i.e. ferrous–or aluminum? If the former, it would be substantially more corroded than it seems to have been, after 70 years, which would make doubtful my fanciful WWII theory.
By: Peter - 27th September 2010 at 19:34
Thanks for the detailed reply Bruce..;) Any idea what it could be from or what the part numbers signify?!
By: Bruce - 27th September 2010 at 15:04
Yes
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September 27, 2010 at 2:17 pm