Good work Pat (and Dean) - it sure looks like a match!

Check out this photo - not sure that it's the same serial number but
check out the feature in the last "2" in 149212

http://members.aol.com/scottyv2/149212.jpg

compare with my friend Dave's photo of the tail base:

http://home.earthlink.net/~jpa_2/index_2.htm

Dave also said he thought the (tail) tip was partly fiberglass
(antenna?) and that a visible internal bulkhead was made of wood. I
saw a reference to wood in one description.

I'm really pleased you guys tracked this down - it will settle a lot
of "discussions" we have been having at the local coffee shop.


-Paul



On Fri, 28 May 2004 19:17:04 -0500, Pat Flannery
wrote:



Pat Flannery wrote:

.....

AND I'LL FIND IT ALSO!
Dean Peeters was right- it's the vertical fin off of a Vought F-8
Crusader, (or possibly a A-7 Corsair II...but I'm betting on the F-8).
Look at the crashsite photo, and note the paneling that's shifted
backwards just under the bulge, so that it aligns with the front of the
fin rather than its overall shape:
http://home.earthlink.net/~jpa_2/pages/item2a.htm
....now look at this photo of the vertical fin on a F-8 (French Navy in
this case):
http://www.aeroslides.com/modelpubli...8p/F-8P-49.jpg
Everything matches; hinge location, bump, panel arrangement, circular
access panels at base of fin. The only difference is that the French
navy used different nav gear on theirs, so that the bump is rectangular
in section, rather than the more rounded shape of the one on the
late-model U. S. Navy F-8 Crusaders:
http://airpower.callihan.cc/images/Modern/f8u1-tm.jpg , which also
incorporated a tail light (the twin bumps on the back end would probably
be rear warning sensors to detect incoming enemy aircraft or missiles).
So I assume that the what's-it that was in the first photograph is the
crushed cylindrical tail section of the aircraft that incorporates the
hydraulic cylinders that move the tail control surfaces- stabilators and
rudder in this case.

Pat