"So, the actuator flap on #1052 doesn't prove that that markings matching 2-2-V-1 were present on pre-war Alclad."
Thanks Steve, but I specifically refrained from suggesting the markings on 1052 "proved" anything. I said it was "interesting" and still think so. I am fully aware it may be a replacement piece. In any event we now appear to have other examples of sans serif italicized fonts used prior to WWII and serif roman fonts in WWII. We also have examples that fit somewhere between, design-wise.
These are interesting data points, but we are far from being able to say anything definitive or exclusive about font styles vs time periods yet. Clearly, when it comes to this issue, we literally haven't even counted all the variables...
Mark,
I'm not following you. You just said (the part I put in boldface) that the 1052 photo is pre-war sans serif font. But according to what Ric said (we don't know if the cover was original construction or a later replacement) we don't know the dating, pre-war or WW2 era. And as best as we can tell, the AN-A-13 seems to indicate a post-1941 military specification.
Can you explain why you think this is pre-war? Maybe I'm just up way past my bed time...
Steve I think you're trying to impute meaning to my language that I don't believe is there. Maybe my deliberate imprecision is misleading you... Let me be clear: I haven't seen any
proof of anything yet. I don't even know if one can divide the font styles into the arbitrary categories "Pre War" and "WWII." I made those terms up. I do think it's
interesting that examples of a variety of font styles and sub-styles is emerging. Some seem to be associated with pre-war and some seem to be associated with WWII.
The sans serif typeface
is on #1052. Original, replacement, or otherwise. It's
there. That's a fact. Therefore it's "associated" with a pre-war aircraft. So that's "interesting" to me. The Enola Gay example seems to represent a reversion to any earlier sub-style. But I ain't claimin'
any of that to be "true." Only "interesting." And "as best as we can tell," while true, is not definitive.
In fact, you may ignore anything I've said except for, "we clearly haven't fully characterized the typographic labeling variations and permutations on aircraft aluminum c 1935-1945."