OCE scanner

The machine was a model similar to the one pictured below… You could put a stack of cards (2″ thick or so) in the left, and the scanned cards would fall in to the cavity on the right. When the place was closed down, there was a big fight with a clearance house over disposal of such things – if things had been a little more civil, I would have tried to buy it.

We can all thank Jimmy Woods!

Parts or Assemblies with Serials

Usually parts or assemblies have serial numbers because they are removable or have some other reason for needing independent traceability. Control surfaces, undercarriage legs and engines are all good examples. They can have maintenance, mods or repair work done on them away from the aircraft. Like the airframe itself, the hours on them need to be tracked. I may be saying some obvious stuff, but this needs to be said considering some of the discussion points in this thread. The aircraft log tracks these removable parts – sometimes a part with a different serial is installed in lieu of what was removed. Not all such serialised parts are removed as easily as a rudder or main junction box. On the Vampire, the main wing attachment fittings, joints A & B, are serialised because they are fatigue critical and don’t have the same life as other parts of the aircraft. They are held in with a lot of ‘permanent’ bolts.
Things like the control surfaces, undercarriage legs, and engines have plates with engraved or stamped serials. These markings are not easily obliterated. The main wing attachment fittings do not have room for plates. The part numbers and serial numbers are stamped or engraved directly in them. This practice was maintained throughout the Australian Vampire programme – into the sixties. A fatigue critical part; but if the design team can pick the right location, it wont affect the part’s life. My point being that it is not necessarily a problem at all for such an aggressive part marking method. Acid etching did not become any more dominant than any other method, and the method chosen was determined by a number of factors. Single-seat Vampire side instrument panels, which are made from Tufnol, carry both stamped part numbers and ink marking. The Mosquito panel (bulkhead or floor?) in post 48, if my interpretation is correct, is a fixed fuselage part (glued & screwed) and any modifications, servicing, or repair work would most likely be done in-situ. If the part mark was obliterated, nothing would be lost as long as the airframe is still there; there would be no doubt what the part was and everything would be in order as long as the quality system prevailed when the part was first made and glued and screwed in place.
On Mosquitos and Vampires the simplest of parts just had single digit batch numbers for manufacturing traceability. Some more complex parts that I have seen, which may have been sourced externally had two numerics followed by two alphas followed by four or five numerics.

Constructor’s numbers

The Australian-built Vampire’s had dedicated constructor’s plates. Below is the one from Mk.31 A79-308. The plate is on display at the Air Force Association museum at Bullcreek in Western Australia. The aircraft ended its days, as far as I remember, at an ATC in Fremantle. I’m not sure of the location for the single-seaters, but the trainers had theirs fitted to the RHS canopy sill – just below the aluminium capping. I remember seeing that the trainer plate of course reads ‘DH 115’ rather than ‘DH 100’, and I think the plate is generally of different arrangement.
One place, P&P, that you may be able to find references to c/ns for Bankstown-built Mosquitos is in the DHA monthly reports to the DAP. I have copies covering the entire period where Vampires are mentioned up until when monthly reports ceased being prepared. This batch only covers the last 2 or 3 Mosquitos built and does not mention c/ns. Vampire c/ns are often mentioned over the 4 year period, usually when an aircraft is assigned as a prototype for mods, as an incorporation point for production mods, or if an aircraft had an accident. The full set of monthly reports is in the DHA/Hawker de Havilland archive at HARS.

DHP Inspection stamp

Hi all.
I saw this thread for the first time only about 5 days ago and have taken I bit of time to digest it and round up some associated info.
Coming in at this late stage, I apologise for upsetting one of the older conclusions.
There is a problem with the view that DHP is de Havilland Portsmouth.
Most of the DH-drawn parts in the Australian built Vampires – both the single-seaters and the trainers – were actually made at Bankstown. This includes detail sheet metal parts, castings and assemblies. The only major departure was the first 7 (if I remember rightly) T.33 fuselages, which were imported. Looking at the history of the company through letters, reports to the DAP, publicity, delivery of plant, etc, there is all the evidence that the Bankstown facility was built up with this capability for the Vampire project. The capability was of course used on the Drover as well. Also, many of the parts for the single-seater were unique to the Australian build as it was powered by the Nene. (Some Nene-related parts did actually have the same p/ns as the French-built aircraft, but that is another long story). Anyway, back to DHP: Australian-built Vampire parts have DHP inspection stamps. The final wing assemblies, which without doubt were built in Bankstown, have DHP stamps. Pictures attached of the RH wing of A79-733 are a good example – picture of mod plate included for good measure.
There are a number of possible explanations:
Portsmouth held a register of issue of inspection stamp numbers or supply of stamps;
Portsmouth Inspectors were located in Bankstown – I think this is unlikely as the programme ran for more than a decade, and the Inspector(s) would just have taken up local residence;
DHP does not always mean DH Portsmouth – the number on the stamp is quite large and I doubt there were that many inspectors at Portsmouth over a period 10 years – and maybe P means ‘production’.
The VMS number (Vampire Main Starboard) and partnumber – this is the top-level wing part-number and is the same wing that was installed when the aircraft was first delivered – refer to snippet of delivery list.
VMP (Vampire Main Right) and part-number – lower level assembly – this I believe is the main structural assembly of the wing before equipping.