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UNKNOWN BOEING ITEM


ram957
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1 hour ago, ram957 said:

Does anyone have an idea what this is off of ? Looks 1930ish to me but I have no clue !!! It’s about 2” in diameter. THANKS

 

 

That is a 1930's BOEING logo.  I saw one photo online of it being used on a data plate for the "FLYING FORTRESS" - worthpoint.com is full of completed sales of repro "FLYING FORTRESS" plates, but not a one for a fuel tank. 

 

My guess would be data plate or inspection port access for a fuel tank. If it was an inspection port I would expect to see gasket remains on the back. 

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My gut feel is that is for a civilian aircraft and it rivets onto the fuel cap. It could be a repop for restoration projects.  I cant tell if that brass color is a wash or not.

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My thought is that this does not attach to the fuel cap itself, as fuel caps have very robust locking mechanisms to securely lock them down against the tank.

A plate such as this would interfere that mechanism.

In my opinion, this plate rivets to the access panel that covers the fuel cap.

I agree, most likely a civilian item.

John

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12 minutes ago, ram957 said:

It’s all brass....

 

As a non-sparking metal, that's a good thing around a fuel tank. Is there any capacity number?

 

As noted above it is not suitable for a fuel tank cap, but would work when the cap is behind a hinged access panel. 

 

I looked at literally hundreds of images from a variety of keyword searches, mostly of worthpoint which goes back  few years. I found nothing like this, so if it is a reproduction, it's one-of-a-kind. I did find a lot of the alleged Flying Fortress data plates which use the same 1930's logo and which all seem to be reproductions or maybe just fantasy pieces:

 

Screen Shot 2021-01-21 at 3.03.09 PM.png

 

I found two of these that might be real - here's one:

 

Screen Shot 2021-01-21 at 3.08.00 PM.png

 

And here's a B17 wing fuel cap - your cover wouldn't fit at all. 

 

Screen Shot 2021-01-21 at 3.16.04 PM.png

 

 

 

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Bob, 

No capacity on it...I’ve also looked at hundreds of photos of 1920-1930 Boeing aircraft, with no luck.. Most of the photos don’t have enough detail to help..I’m still hoping to find where it went..I have an email into the Boeing Historian

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1 minute ago, ram957 said:

Most of the photos don’t have enough detail to help

I once had a small access panel from an F4U Corsair with good provenance but even detailed drawings posted online came up short in showing all sides. You needed the engineering plans to find it!

 

The brass and the dimple would seem to date it earlier rather than later, as they got more serious about streamlining, a dimpled brass ID plate was not good design and a stenciled capacity on flat aluminum was cheaper than enameled brass. I like the looks of it. As I said, if it was a repop you'd expect to find at least one more of them,  real or fake. 

 

 

 

 

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While re searching...there was an identical one on ebay...was a thumbnail pic...and did not open to an active ebay auction....

 

Would this be attached to a fuel tank vs a cap?...or to an extended range tank

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