Spitfire ID from Data Plate?

Does any one have any lists or info to identify the following on Data/Modification plates attached to Spitfires ?

1. Modification Numbers relating to the modification carried out.?

2. The Factory code, ie GAL, CBAF, FL, MU1 etc for the factories that carried out the modification work.?

3. Any data base for the production numbers stamped on the mod plates that correspond to the aircraft RAF serial numbers ?

Incidentally,  while I’m sure this has been answered else where,  as Ive seen the question a few times : correct me if Im wrong but,  the number 30064/325 stamped on the back of any Spitfire data plate is simply the data plates part number. It has nothing to do with any parts, work or RAF serial number.

regards

Jon

Thats interesting, does the data plate count as equipment? or have I got it wrong, in my notes 64 means equipment.

This one could do with a clean up. A mod plate from the wing (wheel bay) of a Mk XVIII.

Part number of plate at bottom.

Mark

Thanks again chaps – the hunt continues… 😀

On the reverse. Quite small?

This is usually the part number………of the data plate.:)

Mark

Thats interesting, does the data plate count as equipment? or have I got it wrong, in my notes 64 means equipment.

Sorry to dredge up an old thread but I just noticed a stamped number on the reverse side of the data plate shown above:

30064/325

or maybe it’s ‘30064 325’ (the slash could be a mere scratch)

Does this offer any further clues as to identity of the aircraft?

paging Mark12 as ever… 😀

On the reverse. Quite small?

This is usually the part number………of the data plate.:)

Mark

Sorry to dredge up an old thread but I just noticed a stamped number on the reverse side of the data plate shown above:

30064/325

or maybe it’s ‘30064 325’ (the slash could be a mere scratch)

Does this offer any further clues as to identity of the aircraft?

paging Mark12 as ever… 😀

300= MK1 Spitfire could be used on later Mks
64= Equipment
325= part number

No is the answer

Incidently, when I was a teenager I went metal detecting around the perimeter at Biggin Hill – found a ton of fired blank .303 cartridges. I wonder if yours were just in the vicinity.

The slash is in the right place! Can’t help with the part number though 🙂

I’m sure someone else can.

Sorry to dredge up an old thread but I just noticed a stamped number on the reverse side of the data plate shown above:

30064/325

or maybe it’s ‘30064 325’ (the slash could be a mere scratch)

Does this offer any further clues as to identity of the aircraft?

paging Mark12 as ever… 😀

Sorry to dredge up an old thread but I just noticed a stamped number on the reverse side of the data plate shown above:

30064/325

or maybe it’s ‘30064 325’ (the slash could be a mere scratch)

Does this offer any further clues as to identity of the aircraft?

paging Mark12 as ever… 😀

Blimey Pete! I take it you know a bit about these then? 😉
Thanks

Well, sort of, but to be fair I had to look at our magnetos to check which type it was!
It`s nice to be able to help sort out a mystery now and again.
The other bit is crankcase as you said by the way.

Pete

The part on the right is the magneto flange attached to part of the wheelcase. The position of the small steel screw next to the mounting lug means that this is a BTH C1SE-12S or C5SE-12S so if the aircraft is a Spitfire then it cannot in theory be later than a MkV, or a Seafire I, II or III

Incidentally, it is the port side mag 😉

Pete

Blimey Pete! I take it you know a bit about these then? 😉
Thanks

In photo 7, is the casting in the hand aluminium or perhaps lead?

One of my old Seafires had a lead mass damper clamped to the the spade grip to assist the pilot / reduce force effect transmission etc

This might be a Seafire thing.

Mark

Nah, it’s a heavy cast(?) iron piece – it remined me of a bomb attachment kind of thing, but it was in the box of mixed stuff so I have no idea of it’s origin. Some of the stuff I was given looks like somebody’s childhood shrapnel collection i.e. pieces of bomb casing, the bits that screw in the noses of bombs (but shattered) pieces of grenade etc… There is a lead weigth included in the box, but I thought it looked decidedly un-aircraft-like. here it is:

I love the “one of my old Seafires” bit 😀

In photo 7, is the casting in the hand aluminium or perhaps lead?

One of my old Seafires had a lead mass damper clamped to the the spade grip to assist the pilot / reduce force effect transmission etc

This might be a Seafire thing.

Mark

Nothing’s ever simple is it! Thanks for the help.

Any ideas as to the brass disc with fast-slow adjustment markings on it? – seen here on the right.

What about the piece on the left here:

Lower part of the crankcase on a merlin? No idea about the bit on the right.

and sorry for all the questions!

The part on the right is the magneto flange attached to part of the wheelcase. The position of the small steel screw next to the mounting lug means that this is a BTH C1SE-12S or C5SE-12S so if the aircraft is a Spitfire then it cannot in theory be later than a MkV, or a Seafire I, II or III

Incidentally, it is the port side mag 😉

Pete

Tangmere & MerlinPete, if u both read my post #7 I gave an explaination of the use of .303 blank rounds ( i used to use both rifle & MG blanks) Rifle blanks cannot be used in a .303 calibre MG as they will jam. Bex

Nothing’s ever simple is it! Thanks for the help.

Any ideas as to the brass disc with fast-slow adjustment markings on it? – seen here on the right.

What about the piece on the left here:

Lower part of the crankcase on a merlin? No idea about the bit on the right.

and sorry for all the questions!

Thanks Mark12, very interesting, but I’m left pondering why an armed seafire would be in the ground in Biggin Hill? Could the same mod be incorporated on a Spitfire? Would you agree it looks a bit like the plate you sometimes see in a spitfire’s wheel well?

By the way, in answer to your question, the (exploded) ammo ranges from 1937-1941, I haven’t found anything later than that.

Zwit

Yes…and in many other places on a Spitfire. It is a standard plate with its own Supermarine drawing number.

The mod, if we are interpreting the plate correctly, was Seafire specific. That does not mean that say in a parts recovery operation at a CRO that it would not also service the need of a Spitfire.

Mark

Thanks Mark12, very interesting, but I’m left pondering why an armed seafire would be in the ground in Biggin Hill? Could the same mod be incorporated on a Spitfire? Would you agree it looks a bit like the plate you sometimes see in a spitfire’s wheel well?

By the way, in answer to your question, the (exploded) ammo ranges from 1937-1941, I haven’t found anything later than that.

Merlin Pete, the Spitfire bits in my last photo were in a bag together, but I don’t think everything else came out of the same hole, the blanks could just be home guard or local defence forces cast-offs…? When my neighbour comes back from hols I can ask him more about the source.

Thanks all 🙂

Zwit

The segment of fibre gear wheel is unique to BTH magnetos, but early and late types look the same.

Does anybody know why some of the 0.303 rounds are blanks?

Pete

I think that very little on that tray of ammo is related to the Spitfire. There is some AA shell shrapnel, what seem to be 9mm cases, fired .303 heads, blanks and undamaged .303 bullets that I would bet are unrelated to the Spitfire. As for the lead musket balls….well….I knew things were desperate in 1940….but…!!!! 😀

Mod 229 is associated with ‘Fixed Aileron Trimming Tab’.

In theory you can reasonably assume the plate is from an Aileron from a Seafire IB, IIC, III or XV.

Mark