Now something totally new.... CBI pilot wing or? Honduras?

[pfrost]

Picked this up today at the local flea market this morning. Its about 3 inches long and hand carved out of a silver metal colored planchett. It has the "Chinese" style hinge with a "C" catch.

 

Nicely chased and detailed, but where the normal shield of a USAAF pilot wing would be, there are simply 5 stars.

 

Is this a variation on a USAAF wing or perhaps something else? Maybe an early Chinese/India based airline? It is rather rough and "masculine" to be a sweetheart wing.

[pfrost]

The back. There is something scratched on the back. I can't really make it out, but it looks like a "Y" over HHSS (or HISS) and then a bit farther down, "ANKR"? I wonder if it is misspelling of Agra?

[pfrost]

It looks to have been all hand done, and rather nicely at that. A close up of the hardware.

[pfrost]

Finally, this type of hinge is what you sometimes see on Chinese made insignia (as opposed to the "commonwealth-style" bent metal hinge of Indian made wings). Although, their does seem to be some overlap.

 

All in all, a very handsome wing, even if I am totally stumped as to what it is for...

[tarbridge]

Great looking wing...

[mghcal]

Venezuelan republic...

 

Just to be clear I believe the "Chinese wings" are actually from somewhere in central or south america. The only two that I've seen identified belonged to airmen who never made it to China as far as I can find. Pretty much in the minority with those views I think lol.

[rustywings]

That's sure a fine looking mystery wing! And it certainly does have a CBI feel to it. Is there something faintly scratched or inscribed on the back? Maybe the name "ANN"?

 

Patrick, if anyone can pull terrific pieces out of the woodwork, it is you Sir! I hope this one pans out to be something historical as well! Thanks for sharing your find...

[mghcal]

The flag

[pfrost]

I have a WWII version of the Venezuelan pilot wing and it has the national seal on it. The Venezuelan flag does have stars, but there are significantly more than 5 (7 or 8 depending on the year) and in a different pattern. The colors on the Venezuelan flag are yellow, blue and red. Frankly, I don't think this is Venezuelan.

 

I think the flag you show in the post above isn't a real flag but something from an "alternative universe" game?

 

I think your point about a S American wing is well taken however. In fact, I agree with you that many of the "so-called" CBI wings may actually come from someplace else.

 

But i do have a very nice CNAC wing that has a very similar feel to it. Still, I'll expand my research into other countries.

 

As to your point Russ, it does have writing scratched into the back. Sadly, I can't make it out yet.

[mghcal]

I don't know the history down there. Just did a search of South American flags and came up with that one but can't find much else. Hopefully it's not something weird lol. A game really? Ha. Let's take down that one if we could. But you gotta admit it's very similar lol. Maybe they got the idea from something real? Dang google image search! Sorry.

 

Really I believe these wings are probably something from the south American or central American theater. If you look at India made wings they just didn't have the quality of your new find. The silver work is really exceptional on yours. They also have that weird black oily look to the silver which is unique if you've handled enough of those "Chinese wings". India made wings besides the die struck example that's well known were really artistic but just seemed to be rough. That's why I think people lean more towards China because of the quality silverwork you sometimes see from things like China marine groupings. But have you ever seen a known Chinese wing with similar box hinge fastenings?

 

The two wings I know of that are identified with similar "Chinese fastenings", one was a pilot stationed in Panama and ive found nothing to show he was ever in China, he wasn't ATC. The other is owned by a fellow forum member and if I recall correctly it was a flight engineer based in the central American area who also had never been in China. So perhaps a search of the ATC route through central and south America would be a good idea? Or again I could be totally off as I was with the flag from Google lol.

[pfrost]

I think you may be on to something. I did a further search and this wing closely matches the Honduras flag... Which is 5 stars on a white field between two blue fields. Looks an awful lot like the pattern on this wing! Honduran pilots flew anti-sub missions in the Caribbean during WWII.

 

I'll see what I can find.

P

[pfrost]

The flag of Honduras sure does look like the center of this wing. Still doing research into this wing as American pilots could have been flying in and out of Honduras.

[pfrost]

It seems that staring in the 1930's up until after WWII, the Honduran Air Force was run by Americans. So, it is possible that this was something that they wore.

[mtnman]

Beautiful my friend...and classic "Patrick" as Rustywings noted! The synchronous design to the Honduran flag is uncanny. Well done Patrick...just exquisite.