Name the plane

March 30, 2011 11:57 AM

Can anyone kindly identify this WWII era plane? Thanks.
posted by Brodiggitty to Grab Bag (24 answers total)

Best answer: Looks like a Hudson bomber to me. Especially the lineup of the wing and cockpit and glass in the nose.
posted by circular at 12:06 PM on March 30, 2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Hudson
posted by circular at 12:07 PM on March 30, 2011

I think Circular gets the ring. The number/shape of windows, the nose shape, and the position of the wing root matches the Lockheed Hudson.
posted by SpecialK at 12:08 PM on March 30, 2011

The British bought/borrowed planes from the United States, hal_c_on. So the markings aren't necessarily dispositive.

My guess is a Douglass C-47.
posted by notyou at 12:08 PM on March 30, 2011

Possibly a North American B-25 (Mitchell) or a Lockheed Hudson.
Both were used by the Royal Air Force.
posted by lungtaworld at 12:10 PM on March 30, 2011

C-47 was my first guess, but it isn't accurate -- wing root is in the wrong spot vs. the cockpit and the windows are the wrong shape/size/count.

B-25 doesn't have windows.
posted by SpecialK at 12:11 PM on March 30, 2011

Response by poster: I think circular is right. The windows peeking out from the nose cover match up nicely. As does the body shape. Nose is too short on the C-47.
posted by Brodiggitty at 12:13 PM on March 30, 2011

I'm pretty sure it's not a C47 (Douglas Dakota), the nose is all wrong and probably there is glass under that tarpaulin.
We need a picture of a wing to be sure.
posted by lungtaworld at 12:13 PM on March 30, 2011

Response by poster: That's the only picture I have. Thanks for the input everyone. If anyone has a smoking gun that suggest otherwise, I'm going with "Probably a Lockheed Hudson." There are obviously a lot of variants under that model, but it is close.
posted by Brodiggitty at 12:18 PM on March 30, 2011

Doesn't look big enough to be a C-47 (almost 64' long). The Hudson is only 44' and change, which seems about right.
posted by jon1270 at 12:19 PM on March 30, 2011

It's a Hudson, and I suspect it's the one that was lost in February 1941 en route from Gander, Newfoundland via the RAF Atlantic Ferry Service. The written caption on the photo says TOWED OUT OF CODROY.

This would make it the aircraft crash Major Sir Frederick Banting, Nobel Prize winning discoverer of penicillin, was killed in.
posted by Sallyfur at 12:19 PM on March 30, 2011 [6 favorites]

Yeah, it definitely looks like a Lockheed Hudson. Too vertically-oriented to be a transport like a C-47. The weird part is - is there some place called Codroy that's not in Newfoundland? I can't find any record of the RAF operating Hudsons in Newfoundland. RCAF, sure, but they don't have the same roundel.
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 12:20 PM on March 30, 2011

damn, Sallyfur with the knowledge.
posted by The Bridge on the River Kai Ryssdal at 12:20 PM on March 30, 2011

I'm interested in the caption -- Codroy? Codroy, Newfoundland?

On preview: lookit Sallyfur go!
posted by notyou at 12:23 PM on March 30, 2011

Except I mean insulin, not penicillin! Yow.
posted by Sallyfur at 12:23 PM on March 30, 2011

Another vote for Lockheed Hudson.

Check out: http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/RNZAF_Hudson_Survivors.html#13
posted by Man with Lantern at 12:24 PM on March 30, 2011

Response by poster: Sallyfur - Codroy is well west of Gander. This site says he died in a crash 7 miles from Musgrave Harbour, and was enroute to England. If he left Gander en route to england, it would not have ended up near Codroy.
posted by Brodiggitty at 12:26 PM on March 30, 2011

Here's a bit of info on Lockheed Hudsons and their service in Newfoundland, from a Newfoundland aircraft museum.
posted by notyou at 12:27 PM on March 30, 2011

Here's a CBC report about the accident, with images of the plane and some interviews.

And a news clipping, if you can read it.
posted by Sallyfur at 12:29 PM on March 30, 2011

It could be one of the 55 Lend-lease Hudsons returned from the British to the RCAF in February 1942.

Unfortunately none of those listings mention anything about an impromptu naval conversion.
posted by lantius at 12:29 PM on March 30, 2011

Response by poster: I just spoke with someone who was there. No deaths, as he remembers it. Four men showed up at his house in flight gear. The plane crash-landed on a bog but was in good shape. It was disassembled, shipped out, and put back into service.
posted by Brodiggitty at 12:37 PM on March 30, 2011

Oh, do you have the crash location and date, then? It should be pretty easy to find some more information.

Looks like "Codroy" might be the name of the individual plane, rather than a geographical clue, going by the nose.
posted by Sallyfur at 2:22 PM on March 30, 2011

Yes, it is a Lockheed Hudson, certainly not a DC3/C47. It doesn't look like a crashed aircraft that killed anyone inside though.
posted by GeeEmm at 8:58 PM on March 30, 2011

Response by poster: Codroy is on the nose. According to the people who were there, it took the men of Codroy four days to drag it to the coast. They first had to cut a road in to the plane. Somewhere along the way someone painted "spirit of Codroy" on the nose. The high res version of the photo confirms this.
posted by Brodiggitty at 2:13 AM on March 31, 2011