David Billings "Chiming in"
SWTT is perfectly correct in saying
"service tag" which is what I am putting forward as a
"Repair Tag" as the reason for the Metal Tag held on by wire to the engine mount tube.
Currawong is also correct in it being
"odd" that it was on a supposedly serviceable component.
Pilots and other Aircrew (except for Flight Engineers) would not really comprehend that this tag would be a
"Repair Tag". I have spent nearly all of my Aviation Engineering career caring about "Airworthiness" and I had the same thoughts as
Curra as it being "odd" that a metal tag was held on by wire to the engine mount tubing carrying both Engine and Airframe details..... but then I remembered (the light bulb went on) that the No. 2 Engine mount had been completedly replaced with a new mount after the Groundloop at Ford Island in March '37 (see picture on website), but the No. 1 Engine Mount had been repaired as information came my way that this mount had been damaged but had been repairable.
The picture of the result of the groundloop at Ford Island, shows the No. 1 Engine to be only slightly out of line whereas the No. 2 is looking at the roof and has a large pool of oil underneath from the ruptured oil tank behind the engine.
Repairing a steel tube truss is by Oxy/Acetylene Gas Welding and it is standard practice in Aircraft Engineering to use a scrap of metal out of the Sheetmetal Shop to stamp or engrave details on it, if it is going for flame welding. Obviously you do not use a card tag where flame is around. Punch or drill a hole in the tag and tie it by lockwire to the steel that is to be welded.
Incidentally, a "Repair Tag" is one of the only Hangar or Line documents where details of the component come together with the Airframe details, in this case, Engine Details with Airframe details.
All that would be required by Lockheed to identify the Mount would be (because they used a few different engines on the Model 10), the Horsepower Rating, The Engine type and the owner of the Mount. I doubt very much that a repair shop for engine mounts was flooded with mounts for repair in 1937... so only basic data on the Metal Tag backed up by the purchase Order from Lockheed carrying more detail and the mount sent off.
Nowadays Repair Tags need to be filled out with much more information than a patient going for a by-pass but that's the modern way.
When it got back to Lockheed, they fitted it and some kind fella left the tag on there. That's another one of these "ifs" which abound in this project. If it hadn't been left on the Mount we wouldn't know Sweet Fanny Adams.....
Do Repair Tags get left on Components ? Not normally, and even if they do, the Aircraft Records Section notifies Line (or rather QA notify Line) to find the tag and send it to Records. In my time at Air Niugini, for instance maybe we had to send out Inspection Notices to retrieve tags maybe five times in the ten years I was there. We were "pretty good" at catching things there.... At other places, well very few. The last one at PX I remember very well because the hangar engineers left a Repair Tag in the poly envelope on a brake unit they had changed and it began to smoke when they towed the F28 to Line. So, the leaving of Repair Tags on components after fitment does happen.
David Billings
www.earhartsearchpng.com