Gotta be Part of a Military Aircraft

[cambria09]

Hello All. I dug this the other day a few miles from a Naval air station active during WW2.

I was ready to chuck it till I turned it over and read the words "BOMB RELEASE". It also says "SAFE ARMED" at the bottom. It is made of heavy aluminum and there is nothing engraved on the backside.

This one is outside of my experience. Any ideas on the vintage and model airplane this must have come from?

Thanks for the view and Good Luck out there. C9

 

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[Old Pueblo]

Cool find.

 

[cambria09]

Cool find.

Thanks for the reply OP...at least two of us think so. Good Luck out there. C9

 

[Terry Soloman]

Very cool find! First, what type of base Navy? Second, what aircraft were stationed there? Crashes reported?

 

[Dug]

Likely an access panel from an external bomb rack. BTW, external bomb racks can be jettisoned in the event of a hung bomb.

 

[EOD Operator]

It’s older than a jettison able pylon. We haven’t made those since the 40s and 50s. I’d say B29 or B17. Possibly from a B88.


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[P.ALLEN]

It's a manual control for the bomb bay, the crew chief would have been utilizing this, probably pre electrical release, or failsafe for electrical release. There would have been a knob/crank coming out of that center hole. I'm leaning B-17 ,B-26Marauder like EOD, dunno about the Stratofortress.

 

[nhbenz]

Going on the theory that it's from a dive bomber, rather than bomber, I do find one similar in the Dauntless here: Dauntless Walk Around

 

[Icewing]

I think it looked a bit like this.

 

[cambria09]

Very cool find! First, what type of base Navy? Second, what aircraft were stationed there? Crashes reported?

Hello Terry. Been real busy and just getting around to replies. I found this thing about 6-IN deep here in FL in some woods near the Sanford Naval Air Station.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Sanford

Looks like we had a lot of aircraft stationed there during WW2 including bombers. I have hunted this site a fair bit and haven't dug any other parts I can identify as aircraft related so I don't believe it is part of a crash.

Thanks for the reply and let me know if you have any other insights on this thing. Chris