Bell Trading Post of Albuquerque, NM: examples and patterns

[Tinman]

Hello all – I’m hoping that someone can provide some information. I’m trying to put together a collection of Bell pattern ‘Issue’ wings, both 3” and 2”. I have everything except the Service and Liaison. My question is do the 3” version of the Liaison and Service pilot wings even exist? I have searched far and wide and I have found nothing. - Jim

[Tinman]

backs

[pfrost]

backs

 

Yes, I believe they do both exist. However, they are pretty highly sought after.

 

Patrick

[B-17Guy]

Very nice group of wings!

I believe any of the Bell S, G, or L wings go for quite a sum.

I recently encountered a Bell 3" Glider wing from a private collector, asking price was $650.

Personally, I have not seen a L or S wing in 3", but I would think they exist.

All the other Bell wings (in 3") seem to be fairly common.

 

Best, John

[CliffP]

Personally, I have not seen a L or S wing in 3", but I would think they exist.

 

Best, John

That makes two of us since I've never see a full size 'Bell' pattern Liaison or Service pilot wing either.

 

Cliff

[pfrost]

That makes two of us since I've never see a full size 'Bell' pattern Liaison or Service pilot wing either.

 

Cliff

 

If anyone knows for sure, it would be Russ.

 

Patrick

[rustywings]

If anyone knows for sure, it would be Russ.

 

Patrick

 

 

As much as I would like to give hope to those who are looking for a Liaison Pilot or Service Pilot in this pattern, I've not seen either in my years of collecting outside of the two inch shirt size.

 

Russ

[B-17Guy]

IIRC there is a Bell G wing on eBay or was in the last week.

 

Cheers

John

You are correct, one closed on ebay yesterday for $611.00.

Best, John

[Tim B]

I've heard that Bell produced a bombardier wing in both one and two-piece construction, similar to what we see with their aerial gunner wings.

 

Has anyone ever actually seen a 2-pc bombardier wing by Bell? If so, can you post a photo of the front and back here?

 

Thank you,

 

Tim

[5thwingmarty]

Picked up this wing off ebay. Funny how the photo of the back of the wing on ebay was totally clear but the one of the front was much more fuzzy. I could tell it was a Bell-pattern wing though so I took a chance. When I got it today, I was thrown off by the wings on this. I was expecting the nice fine detail I have seen on my other couple of Bell-pattern wings, not this funky bespeckled stuff. Is this normal for all Bell-pattern Navigator wings?

 

I looked on Bob Schwartz's wings website and the one on his site looks the same as this one.

 

 

[pfrost]

Yes, I have a similar Bell-pattern wing with "chicken pox". I don't have it in front of me now, but IIRC it is also a navigator wing.

 

Not sure what would cause that, but you do see them like this periodically. I had always assumed it was something to do with a failure to clean the dies fully, and some small beads or something got mashed into the pattern and was then subsequently passed onto other strikings.

 

Nothing wrong with the wing itself. Just one of those mysteries.

Patrick

[5thwingmarty]

Thanks Patrick. I now have Bell pilot, bombardier, navigator, gunner and observer wings, and only the Navigator has these weird bumps.

[manayunkman]

Here is another one.

 

Has same back.

 

The bumps are only on the feathers which leads me to believe that the bumps are for detail.

[5thwingmarty]

Since these specks are only on the navigator wings, I wonder if the intent was to have them represent stars.

[pfrost]

I doubt this is a subtle and whimsical variation thought up by an insignia manufacture to represent stars. More than likely, they just didn't clean the dies very well and this is the result.

 

If it was something planned then all the wings should have the same pattern of chicken pox, no?

[manayunkman]

The bumps do not follow a pattern.

 

Their pattern is unique to each wing.

 

And they are only on the feathers.

 

Observations

[5thwingmarty]

In comparing my wing with the other one posted here and the one on Bob's website, the bumps look consistent from wing to wing, not random. If it was just a lack of cleaning the dies, why would it be all the navigator wings but none of the other types of wings, and why are none of the bumps in the center of the wings?

[Tim B]

I've seen these "bumps" on the Bell bombardier and (observer?) wings as well. They seem to be most common on the navigator wings and I would agree, its probably attributed to dirty dies, where the feathering didn't completely stamp out.

 

Here's my Bell navigator and the feathering is as good as on the other wings. Only drawback is this mottled patina in the obverse but, the details are sharp throughout and the pin is brass.

 

Tim

[Tim B]

A couple of closeups:

[Tim B]

enjoy!

[manayunkman]

I would have to agree with the opinion that the dies were dirty or something and prevented the complete strike.

 

Those wings you posted are beautiful.

 

The ones with bumps are a defect ?

[5thwingmarty]

A friend of mine has Bell navigator wings, one with the regular feather detail and one with the bumps. He had me take high resolution photos of my wing so he could compare them with his wings. He compared them and said the bumps on the two wings were identical so they were not caused by random bits of debris on the dies.

[5thwingmarty]

Does anyone have Bell Flight Surgeon or Flight Nurse wings in their collections? I have heard they also exist but have never seen a photo of them.

 

Marty

[5thwingmarty]

My Bell wing collection has been growing so I thought I would share what I have so far. I may never be able to find or afford any of the other more rare Bell AAF wings, but I like what I have right now. The little sweetheart aerial gunner wing has the Bell Trading hallmark on the back. This wing lacks some of the details of the larker wings such as the fine feather detail and the three notches on the shoulders of each wing, but the general outline is the same as is the way the gunner emblem sort of drapes over the observer background.

 

I will post shots of each of the individual wing types in additional posts.

 

 

[5thwingmarty]

Pilot Wings