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Aviation Detective: Finding BuNos and Serials for specific aircraft in photos.


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I am having a bear of time researching some aircraft. Some of these I am trying to draw decals for, others I already have decals of them, and its just bugging me that I can't figure out what their BuNos/Serials are for my records. 


Do you guys have any good resources to find this stuff out? I use Joe Bauer's database very extensively, but sometimes I can't find what I'm looking for there.

 

Here are the aircraft in question:

F6F-5 MB213 Maybe ATU-2?

F8F-1 B258 Maybe ATU-2?

SNB-3Q FP10 FAIRBETUPAC Fleet Airborne Electronics Training Unit, Pacific 

P2V-4 FP21 FAIRBETUPAC Fleet Airborne Electronics Training Unit, Pacific 

F4U-4 N51 VMF-155/VMO-155 (John Glenn) 

F4U-2 212 VMF(N)-532

F6F-3N 10 VMF(N)-534

TBM-3D 63 VT(N)-90

42738786821_94539be0ea_h.jpeg

42783911721_505fb1dce6_h.jpeg

28910018338_135ed431af_h.jpeg

Vought-F4U-1D-Corsair-VMO-155-White-N51-being-flown-by-John-Glenn-over-California-1943-01.jpeg

F4U-2 Black 212.jpeg

Grumman-F6F-3N-Hellcat-VMF(N)-534-White-10-Guam-Aug-1944-01.jpeg

vt-90-tbm-3d.jpeg

Edited by Orion Field
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You mean like some kind of documentation that would show what side number went with which BuNo?

Yeah.  I'd love to find it too.

 

I've got the opposite problem.  I've got a pilots log book that tells me squadron & BuNo.  But if I want to model any specific A/C, its a swag on the side number, unless I have a photo where I can make out BuNo.

 

You'd think it was written down somewhere in a squadron.  I did request a few Aircraft History Cards hoping it would document the side numbers, but they don't

 

https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-archive/united-states-navy-aircraft-history-cards-microfilm/sova-nasm-xxxx-0462

 

I feel your pain.  If you figure something out, let me know

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  • 3 months later...

Well, I have found that the US Navy History website to be of particular value.  The Navy used to publish an annual aircraft allocation booklet which had tons of information about what types of aircraft and units were at which bases with tail codes etc.  Usually, no BuNos though. 

 

For example here if the FY1962 version: fy1962-jan62.pdf (navy.mil)   You can truncate the URL to get to the master index.

 

Here is an example from page 102. US Marine Corps Aviation Units.

FMF_Air_196x.thumb.JPG.d4d6865e1d9840a2d3b8bc02ef4b57eb.JPG

 

HTH,

Dutch

Edited by Dutch
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