History has a way of popping up where you least expect it. From an arrowhead in an Texas corn field, to a carving on a tree in Ypres.
Imagine my surprise, when I had my A65 cylinders cleaned during servicing, to find an unusual grouping of graffiti on each base! It's not unusual to find messages and names scripted on to airframes, but it's unusual to find such markings on engines dating back to the war, especially technically important evidence. The inscriptions on each of the cylinders reads "OCASC 11-10-44 - " then the number of operational hours on each cylinder, in the case of the photo " - 256hrs". FYI An earlier set of hours and a date are also on each cylinder also dating back to 1943.
I believe that OCASC is the "Oklahoma City Air Service Command"? Other than that I am just at the start of an unusual paper trail....
Imagine my surprise, when I had my A65 cylinders cleaned during servicing, to find an unusual grouping of graffiti on each base! It's not unusual to find messages and names scripted on to airframes, but it's unusual to find such markings on engines dating back to the war, especially technically important evidence. The inscriptions on each of the cylinders reads "OCASC 11-10-44 - " then the number of operational hours on each cylinder, in the case of the photo " - 256hrs". FYI An earlier set of hours and a date are also on each cylinder also dating back to 1943.
I believe that OCASC is the "Oklahoma City Air Service Command"? Other than that I am just at the start of an unusual paper trail....
