Winnie Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 So I work in the Canadian arctic, where I am one of many who helps support the North Warning System, formerly known as the "DEW-Line". Anyway, at one of the sites we go to, there is a piece of aluminum, a crumpled piece of fuselage that has the following stenciled on it: C-123B 54-638A I did a google search but came up with an airplane that is at Warner Robins in Georgia (I believe), and my searches reveals no crash at the location where I found the piece of fuselage. Incidentally, Breevort Island, a small island of the eastern side of Baffin island. Anyway, any help would be awesome! Regards Harald Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gonzalo Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 The tail number doesn't seem correct. There shouldn't be a letter at the end. It appears to me that tail numbers on C-123 Providers have a two digit year of production identifier of 54, in this case 1954, then it should be followed by four digits of the aircraft serial number. To me it is strange that there would be a letter identifier instead of a number at the end. Are you positive the number ends in an A? Could it possibly be a number that the elements maybe obscured? Keep in mind I am hardly an expert on the subject. Just looking through the Internet, I haven't found any tail numbers that end with a letter. That being said I'm sure someone else will. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gonzalo Posted March 18, 2015 Share Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) According to this website C-123 54-638 belonged to the Thai Air Force! http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1954.html Edited March 18, 2015 by gonzalo Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Winnie Posted March 18, 2015 Author Share Posted March 18, 2015 (edited) the number is very clear, but I didn't have my camera to take a picture of it, and it is from the nose of the aircraft not the tail, it is in 1 inch stencil letters, in black. I was also curious about the A at the end. I did google it several ways, but never got the answer I was looking for. Edited to add: The one at Warner Robbins is 54-0633 NOT 0638. However, I have searched around and not been able to find anything at all. The site where the accident happened is called Brevoort Island, site BAF-3 in the North Warning System, and used to be called RES-X-1 under the DEW line days... Cheers Harald Edited March 18, 2015 by Winnie Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Winnie Posted March 19, 2015 Author Share Posted March 19, 2015 Latest info, flew to the site specially... lol. (But no I didn't). Accident sometime between May and September 1956 at "Site 42" later to become RES-X-ONE on part of the DEW Line. Landing incident or accident, if anyone can help with more research. (If not CAT A or B Accident) The "A" Appears to be applied with marker. Large piece: Small piece The smaller piece looks remarkably like theTthunderbirds paint, but I can't believe that. Cheers Harald Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gonzalo Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 Beautiful pictures! The "A" is hand painted though, interesting. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pete Posted March 19, 2015 Share Posted March 19, 2015 As for the A in the serial, from Joe Baugher's site: For a few years during the late 1940s and early 1950s, the serial number displayed in the Technical Data Block often carried a suffix letter, which was not actually part of the official serial number. Five letters were used--A for US Air Force, G for US Army, N for Air National Guard, R for Air Force Reserve, and T for Reserve Officers Training Course (ROTC) Quite a mystery, this plane. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
canadadry1 Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Harald, I just sent an email to the WARBIRDS RESOURCE GROUP....they have a C-123 page. No listing of your mystery aircraft but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask them about it. Maybe they have information squirreled away. I'll let you know if/when I get a reply... Chris Warbird Registry Quote Link to post Share on other sites
gonzalo Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 This is a pretty good mystery huh? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Pep Posted March 20, 2015 Share Posted March 20, 2015 Paint looks like it could be a coast guard stripe? but they where white not NM soooo mystery continues. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
yardbird78 Posted March 27, 2015 Share Posted March 27, 2015 (edited) Almost certainly not a Thunderbird aircraft. The team used 4 different C-123Bs for support between 1958 and 1961. Two of them were 40671 and 40672. Two of the four were lost in crashes. One on October 9, 1958, at Payette, Idaho, killing 19 people. Another,(40672), was lost on September 24, 1961, at Wilmington, North Carolina, with the loss of 3 people. Edited March 27, 2015 by yardbird78 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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