Tornado Airframe & Parts Question

[Panado]

Does anyone know of a way to identify which aircraft a -for example- flap was fitted to using only the ID plate fitted to the part? I have 6 Tornado flaps and slats but one has no paperwork!
i notice that the part numbers seem to change but the individual item’s serial number always stays the same. Does this mean an admin change or could it mean the part was upgraded?
I’m new to this site, no aviation experience just a collector of bits and bobs. Any thoughts greatly appreciated

[Easy Street]

Parts like that may have been fitted to more than one airframe during their life. Indeed, I would say it is more than likely. Especially once BAES took over the deep maintenance in ~2006, logistic efficiencies meant that parts being removed from aircraft as they entered maintenance were often added to different aircraft about to leave maintenance, reducing storage and inventory requirements (and saving a lot of money). The only way to find out which airframe(s), and when, will be through painstaking correlation of maintenance records. This was primarily done by computer, and any hard copy records which were printed may well have been destroyed after a minimum retention period. I’m sure a friendly engineer will be able to advise, but I think it highly unlikely that you will be able to establish much of a provenance. Sorry.

[Panado]

I’d suspected as much. It’s great that so many aircraft parts have the paperwork attached and the internet hosts so much info and imagery .....but I guess it was too much to hope for! Thanks for the insight & kind reply

[insty66]

Part numbers will usually change if a part is modified.

[Alber Ratman]

Components made on a jig and will fit any aircraft. You need the log cards to know what they would be fitted on (and LITS did not remove the need for logcards, just reinforced it!) Civvy components, you have no clue on its fitment history at all, unless it has stayed in your company.

[Panado]

Insty / alber ....many thanks

[Pontius Navigator]

A part, in addition to its reference plate often has another plate which is the Mod State. A simple plate with a table of numbers, say 1-50. When the design is modified to a new standard then the new Mod Number is punched on that plate.

[Panado]

Thanks for that Pontius Navigator

I was ultimately hoping to match a port inboard flap with one or more of the aircraft to which it was once fitted. It has a pretty crude looking “Panavia” plate riveted to the track which gives it’s:
part number P155001 803
individual serial number 0567
date 4/84
and an unknown number of A4388

there is also some hand engraved info on the same track which includes a BEM number? another number similar to the part number and the letters BAe which I’m guessing could all have been added by engineers at BAe?

The other flaps I have (on my living room wall....I’m single) all have a form 731 and one has an engineering log card which of course gives the complete history

If the flap was built in 1984, would anyone know which type of Tornado it was fitted to?

It’s painted in a pretty dark battleship grey, it isn’t two-tone or striped like others and is an incredible bit of engineering. Despite the BAe indications, I always thought these were made in Italy!

[ivor toolbox]

You may be lucky, and find the build date on the data plate and could possibly correlate that to the airframes that were in production at that time, beyond that once a tail is in any form of deep strip all comes back to the individual component log card.

Ttfn

[Panado]

Originally Posted by ivor toolbox

You may be lucky, and find the build date on the data plate and could possibly correlate that to the airframes that were in production at that time, beyond that once a tail is in any form of deep strip all comes back to the individual component log card.

Ttfn

i hadn’t thought of that. So I could -in theory at least- narrow it down somewhat. I’ve got what I believe is the build date. Thanks for that

[insty66]

Originally Posted by Pontius Navigator

A part, in addition to its reference plate often has another plate which is the Mod State. A simple plate with a table of numbers, say 1-50. When the design is modified to a new standard then the new Mod Number is punched on that plate.

Aaargh, Sometimes known as the strike plate. Confusingly, not every strike off mod resulted in a change of part number
Each strike number referred to a specific assigned mod but that might not apply to every part manufactured to the part number standard

[EAP86]

Panado, one identifier you might find is the number of the Inspector who certified the final build of the flap. This may account for the 'A4388' assuming an Alenia inspector. Most BAe inspectors would be using a number of the for EEP NNN (as in English Electric Preston 123).

Insty66, industry preference was to change the part number for change in mod state as it provides better configuration control. Strike off mods were the preference of the Services (less work required) but in theory they should have only been used for relatively small configuration changes. Theory is one thing, expedience is another...

In general terms, all assemblies were designed with interchangeability (ICY) in mind so could easily have been fitted to many airframes throughout their lives.

EAP

[Rigga]

Part numbers were the key point to interchangability of similar parts effective to a certain mod state of airframe - whether your could replace one part with another similar part or not.