If I had to chose a plane on Tighar’s list of Canton airplane wrecks as the source of 2-2-V-I, I think the one I’d put my money on is the PBY-2 that went down on 16 March 1940. I say this based on Ric's comment that 2-2-V-I appears to have spent time in a surf environment. The PBY-2 is listed as ‘hit reef on takeoff’ , so this seems the likeliest of the Canton plane crashes to have left parts on the reef, where the edges were smoothed off by mother nature until, a la the beachcomber hypothesis a Gardner Island worker collected it and brought it home with him — the lack of sharp edges would have made it easier to schlep home on the Viti (or whatever colonial ship was in use then) than a piece of sharp-edged wreckage from a purely terrestrial crash site.
Why not the example of 27 March 1943 - USN PBY-5A of VP-54 - Destroyed in Japanese bombing attack on Canton -
2-2-V-1 also bears evidence of severe trauma in terms of forced removal from the mother structure and signs of heat damage (loss of ductility) in some areas. It does not bear the tell-tale pock-marks of explosive damage per one expert who looked at it (upstring - the gent who worked TWA 800 before being retired from NTSB), but perhaps another modus of explosive force, e.g. gasoline creating a rupturing scenario, etc. could have done it (whew - run on...).
Oddly enough, BTW, given the heat damage and suggestion of explosive force, I've found myself wondering a bit lightly whether Hooven might have been right...
That said, the main problem I have with the PBY is that we've already looked at the manual for it and the fastener size and type is wrong, unless somebody put a really light, down-scale patch on something for some reason I cannot imagine: the entire structure uses heavier fasteners than what we see in 2-2-V-1.
But that's not to disclaim it away - if we get to examine one I'd happily clambor all over it to see what can be learned (a bit tongue in cheek... no worries Ric, I realize the museum will have some limits on how much touch is allowed and I won't embarrass the family... ).
Jeff,
I was just trying to connect Ric's observation about 2-2-V-I appearing to have been in a shoreline environment with the list of Canton wrecks, and on that sole basis, the PBY-2 looked like the best fit. By the way,
at this site is a brief mention of a PBY wreck on the beach:
"
Thomas S. Equels adds:
While working for contractor H&N on Canton Island in 1971, we saw the hull of the troopship and nearby on the beach was the fuselage of a PBY with a radial engine close by";
So this wreck was on the seaward, high energy surf environment shore, but which of the wrecked PBYs was it?...I definitely think every Canton plane type should be considered a possible donor and carefully researched. And, if clambering over a PBY to research is
fun research, all the better...
But, thinking about how narrow the rim of Canton is, I suppose it might not have just been seaplanes that ended up in Canton's nearshore environment. Looking the airphoto of the island at
this site you can see how close the runways were to the water (I know I've seen better photos of this, but this is what I came up with).