Avro Anson help please (652a) Aircraft to I.D.

Hi Anon and Whitley Project
Thank you for your replies, in regards to where i purchased these relics around 6 years ago, they came from a dealer who was based in Hythe in Kent, i purchased 5 boards a Blenheim from Sarre, airfield relics from Manston, a late War Spitfire from Whychling and a Meteor from the Bromley area, all these relics were within the Kent region so i would imagine the Avro Anson relics originated from this area, all the other boards were labelled bar the Anson as unfortunately this was lost by the previous owner all remaining was the safety pin and a tiny piece of the card, i feel these would of come from the same collection at some point, even possibly someone who may of been a former Archaeologist.
The boards were displayed on the same type of hardboard that looked very 1970″s.

Its interesting that you have narrowed it down to the N serial prefix if you dont mind me asking how was this achieved? also another good suggestion that you have mentioned as a possible way of narrowing down the search via the mod plate.

I can now confidently put an i.d to the wind deflector i tried but up to now have found no images to show this in situ.

Also with displaying the images there is always a chance that someone may recognise them and help to find its identity.

I agree with Anon – given the large numbers of Anson wrecks in the UK these parts probably came from a high ground wreck. It is not easy to pin down an Anson serial number from a frame number but I can tell you your parts came from an Anson with an ‘N’ prefix. Most likely in the N5000 – N9000 range.

Who did it come from? If you can get an idea of a region in the UK – peak district, central scotland, north wales etc. you may be able to narrow it down if you have a copy of D J Smith’s High Ground Wrecks.

Your mod plate only has two modifications – you can request a list of Anson modifications from the RAF Museum – that will give you a date the modification was implemented and give more information on when it may have been lost. For instance if mod 144 came in after Feb 1942, your Anson will have been lost after this date. This could give you a fighting chance of getting an ID.

The flap/hinged item is a wind deflector from the canopy.

They look like relics which have spent a considerable amount of time exposed outdoors. Thay may well have been recovered from one of the many Anson high-ground sites that litter the UK.

Do you have any idea from whom the parts originated, Hawker?

Anon.

Hi Whitley Project
That sounds very promising, there are 2 large boards to the Avro Anson i will try and post some photos today.

Hi Hawker1966 – I have been doing some research on this subject – if you can post a picture of those Anson parts, including the plate I may be able to help you narrow down the serial.

Thanks for advice creaking door, never gave it a thought to try that route, will get cracking, if any news will let the forum no Cheers.

Presumably, if you’ve got relics mounted on boards, this Avro Anson crashed and was ‘dug’ at some stage.

If you’ve got a rough range of serial numbers (can’t be that many built in 05/1939) possibly there aren’t many Ansons within that range that crashed and where relics were recovered during a dig (the Anson primarily being a trainer for much of the war).

Some ‘deductive’ detective work may sort a serial number out for you! 😉

Thanks Tim for your reply, always a great shame when the I.D is lost on a particular Aircraft. still a great display of Anson relics i will be posting a part in the next few days as cant I.D. but have managed to identify 80 per cent of around 80 parts. Cheers Brad.

According to “The Anson File” published by Air-Britain, those aircraft with frame numbers prefixed by R3 LW were constructed at the main Avro works in Manchester. RAF serials were it seems ” not issued in direct sequence of frame numbers, but there is often an approximate relationship … …” The book provides no data on frame numbers related to RAF aircraft apart from some sold onto the civil market where the frame number may have been utilised as a pseudo c/n during registration. So it seems unlikely you’ll ever establish now which specific example was involved if your material is from a service machine.

Tim