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Posted (edited)

I'm aware of three WW2 aircraft that were assembled from the undamaged parts of several airframes and returned to flight; a P-51B/C Mustang named "Spare Parts", a P-39 Airacobra, also named "Spare Parts", and an F4U Corsair named "Sally".

 

As I understand it, the donor airframes for these aircraft were actually write-offs, but had salvageable components. So I'm not thinking so much in terms of replacement of battle damaged control surfaces etc, or even wings, more of instances where a "new" aircraft has been resurrected from parts of several others. 

 

Were there other aircraft like these that were documented?

 

Cheers,

Mark 

Edited by 2996 Victor
Clarity, hopefully!
Posted

It will probably never fly, but I believe the Halifax bomber in Canada is a combination of two different airframes. There's a Ju-87 Stuka in Norway (?) which I think they are intending to get back in the air. It has been re-built from a hulk pulled from a lake, IIRC

 

There is also a P-61 Black Widow being restored to flight in the US. Again if I remember correctly, it was salvaged as a big pile of parts from a Far East jungle. 

 

Cheers. 

 

Chris.  

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Posted

Alfred Price's "Spitfire: a Complete Fighting History" has these pics of a Mk XII Spitfire that was restored back to flight after a crash that totalled the original airframe:

 

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Posted (edited)

Wasn't there a B-17 (Little Miss Mischeif) that had the entire fear fuselage and tail feathers replaced from a wreck, one part camouflaged, the other natural metal.

 

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Found a build here on BritModeller ...

 

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235084996-b17-g-little-miss-mischief-91st-bomb-group-bassingbourn-early-1945-revells-172-kit/

Edited by Tail-Dragon
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Posted

Hi

     it was the late 70's, I spoke to an raf groundcrew guy who was at st mawgan and he was told

   there are three un serviceable  blenhiem IV's over there, make at least one working one, they need them for the desert air force

   he made one, he had photos, but i never got copies or serials,

    it wasn't my area of interest at the time, i was only tagging along with another group member, we were on a weekend trip and were on the way to a dornier crash site

   cheers

      jerry 

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Posted

It probably happened quite a lot, as the RAF identity went with the fuselage (forward fuselage in the case of the Lancaster and probably of the other heavies that were designed to be disassembled for transport).   Everything  else was just spares.  It may depend upon just what was intended by "written off" as opposed to being withdrawn from use and perhaps abandoned.

 

I have some doubts about that Spitfire - that is definitely a write-off and there's no way that fuselage can be used again.

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Posted

Wasn't there an A6M at Rabaul that was assenbled from leftovers after all the others had departed? 

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Posted
59 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

I have some doubts about that Spitfire - that is definitely a write-off and there's no way that fuselage can be used again.

 

I'm only going from what the good Dr. Price wrote in his book.  I agree it looks like a complete write-off - any repairs would be somewhat akin to Trigger's old broom.  

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Posted (edited)

The RNZAF had a Corsair that was pieced together. I built it in 1/32. 

 

DSC_0126-L.jpg

 

There was another B-17 but an F that was also pieced together from two different halves. Both were camo'd but different shades due to weathering. Zotz included it in their B-17 Heavenly Bodies decal sheet. 

 

Also either a Panther or Cougar but those were postwar. 

 

Carl

Edited by FG2Si
Fix typo
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Posted (edited)

Very very common in RAF, RAAF, RNZAF etc. That was a major job done at Air Depots. The Germans also built airframes from parts taken from junked airframes. The 109G in Australia is a known 'bitsa' 

 

Also USAAF in the early days in the Pacific would do the same. Later because they had no shortage of replacements they would keep some demountable bits and junk the main major components.

Edited by Hornet133
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Posted

Strictly speaking not WW2 - but they were WW2 aircraft - the REAF cobbled up several Spitfires, including a PR one, from various Seafire and Spitfire spare parts for their war against Israel.

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Posted

The RAF also established the Civilian Repair Organization (CRO) which reconstructed damaged airframes.  It was quite an extensive  collection of companies.

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  • 100% 1
Posted
52 minutes ago, mhaselden said:

The RAF also established the Civilian Repair Organization (CRO) which reconstructed damaged airframes.  It was quite an extensive  collection of companies.

 

As did the Luftwaffe in the later war years, with an extensive network of remanufacturing centres who reworked older and/or broken aircraft into serviceable fighters. The Australian 'bitsa' Bf109G is one of these reworked airframes.

 

SD

  • Like 2
Posted

Many thanks, everyone, for your answers - much appreciated. This certainly seems to be a very interesting rabbit hole!

 

9 hours ago, dalea said:

Wasn't there an A6M at Rabaul that was assenbled from leftovers after all the others had departed? 

You've jogged my memory with this - not sure whether it was this exact aircraft, but certainly one Zero was cobbled together for testing in the early days when the A6M was still considered unbeatable. I think it was beaten back to the States by the Akutan example.

 

6 hours ago, Kyle H said:

Spitfire Vb ER824 was damaged while being transported onboard Empire Kingsley and repaired at Torbay, Newfoundland using two other damaged Spitfires, ES117 and ES881. The full story is about halfway down the page here: 

https://www.silverhawkauthor.com/post/canadian-warplanes-3-supermarine-spitfire

 

Kyle 

This is a very interesting example(s), which I want to look into more. I'd like to know how the completed "ringer" was painted, too! Thanks for the link.

 

8 hours ago, FG2Si said:

The RNZAF had a Corsair that was pieced together. I built it in 1/32. 

 

DSC_0126-L.jpg

 

There was another B-17 but an F that was also pieced together from two different halves. Both were camo'd but different shades due to weathering. Zotz included it in their B-17 Heavenly Bodies decal sheet. 

 

Also either a Panther or Cougar but those were postwar. 

 

Carl

Beautiful build, Carl, that's an absolute stunner! Another fascinating subject where its origins from several donor aircraft is apparent. Is there much info about it?

 

9 hours ago, brewerjerry said:

Hi

     it was the late 70's, I spoke to an raf groundcrew guy who was at st mawgan and he was told

   there are three un serviceable  blenhiem IV's over there, make at least one working one, they need them for the desert air force

   he made one, he had photos, but i never got copies or serials,

    it wasn't my area of interest at the time, i was only tagging along with another group member, we were on a weekend trip and were on the way to a dornier crash site

   cheers

      jerry 

That's a great story, Jerry, it would be great to dig up the photos and serials, wouldn't it? Unlikely after all this time, though. 

 

10 hours ago, Tail-Dragon said:

Wasn't there a B-17 (Little Miss Mischeif) that had the entire fear fuselage and tail feathers replaced from a wreck, one part camouflaged, the other natural metal.

Yes - I read about it last evening - not sure how the original tail section didn't simply fall off! The account I read had it suffering a second mid-air collision over the North Sea and being lost with all crew, but the photo rather suggests otherwise. Perhaps it was the other aircraft that went into the sea.

 

Thanks again - this is proving fascinating!

 

Cheers,

Mark

  • Like 2
  • 2996 Victor changed the title to Aircraft built during WW2 from wrecks and spares
Posted

Then there's the "DC-2 1/2" in China...

 

Not sure how related this is, but I've been curious about the re-serialing of Hurricanes when rebuilt/converted from Mk.I to Mk.II.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, gingerbob said:

Then there's the "DC-2 1/2" in China...

Yes, I'd forgotten about that one as well - a weird and wonderful beast taking the concept to extremes, I'd say. I can't imagine it would have been nice to fly.....like driving a car with a really bad tracking problem but multiplied at least tenfold!

Posted (edited)

The Macchi MC202 of Italian ace Franco Lucchini had the right wing replaced with the wing of another aircraft and for Luftwaffe aircraft it was normal to be repaired with parts from wrecked aircraft at Frontreparaturwerke.

 

Saluti

 

Giampiero

Edited by GiampieroSilvestri
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  • Thanks 1
Posted
10 hours ago, dalea said:

Wasn't there an A6M at Rabaul that was assenbled from leftovers after all the others had departed? 

This sounds like the one or a similar one to the one that now resides in the Auckland War memorial Museum.

 

1 hour ago, 2996 Victor said:

Is there much info about it?

Some photos of it on Asisbiz & even more on this Facebook page if you do FB.

Steve.

  • Thanks 1
Posted
12 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

This sounds like the one or a similar one to the one that now resides in the Auckland War memorial Museum.

 

Was that the one painted white with green crosses?

 

12 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

Some photos of it on Asisbiz & even more on this Facebook page if you do FB.

Fantastic, thank you!

 

Cheers,

Mark

  • 2996 Victor changed the title to Aircraft built during WW2 resurrected from wrecks and spares
Posted
21 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

Was that the one painted white with green crosses?

If the same one then yes, not sure our one was from Rabaul, it may have come from Bougainville, but would have been painted in the white with green crosses surrender scheme.

Steve.

  • Like 1
Posted
4 hours ago, Ed Russell said:

Strictly speaking not WW2 - but they were WW2 aircraft - the REAF cobbled up several Spitfires, including a PR one, from various Seafire and Spitfire spare parts for their war against Israel.

 

The first two Spitfires the Israeli Air Force had were built from RAF junkyard salvages plus useable parts from downed REAF aircrafts.

 

The first one, D.130:

 

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Posted
2 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

You've jogged my memory with this - not sure whether it was this exact aircraft, but certainly one Zero was cobbled together for testing in the early days when the A6M was still considered unbeatable. I think it was beaten back to the States by the Akutan example.

I was thinking of the Neumann Zero - link to J-Aircraft here.

  • Like 1
Posted
4 minutes ago, Fukuryu said:

 

The first two Spitfires the Israeli Air Force had were built from RAF junkyard salvages plus useable parts from downed REAF aircrafts.

 

The first one, D.130:

 

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Fascinating, Daniel, thank you! It would be interesting to know the colour of the paintwork - it looks like its retained the colours of the donor aircraft.

 

Cheers,

Mark

  • Like 1
Posted

On the edge of Lincoln, close to Waddington is a small industrial park where, during WW2  sections of Lancaster were used to build complete Aircraft from damaged ones. 

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