How it started...

On May 15, 2004 my friend Dave, from the Pannikin Coffee shop in La Jolla, California (in San Diego) was showing me photos he took while on his weekly hike searching for Indian campsite remains in southern California's vast Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. In typical "Dave" fashion, I could see by his dithering around that he had something to surprise me - and he did. As much as I enjoy viewing pictures of rocks, caves, and pottery, something that looks like the wreckage of a space ship or the remains of "The Terminator" was far more interesting. Dave said he was so spooked by the unexpected encounter that he didn't notice his shadow was in the photo. I'm glad I wasn't there - finding something mechanical and unidentifiable in a very remote area would've given me the absolute creeps.

(click on photos for blowup)

As I had nothing better to do, I decided to try and identify it. I scanned the photo and made it available on my web site, then emailed a query to the (a) San Diego Aerospace Museum, (b) two World War 2 aircraft message boards, and (c) Usenet (news) group sci.space.history.

The museum was totally uninterested in it but I did receive a helpful answer from Walt on the "Oklahoma Wreckchasing" board who replied:

Looking at the photo I'd say it's the afterburner nozzle ring from a J-57 or similar mid-'50s turbojet. The actuators move the nozzle ring which acts via linkages to control the shape of the exhaust nozzle. All afterburning engines have variable nozzles. Unfortunately the parts would probably have engine part numbers not airframe numbers so identification of type would be circumstantial. Look at photos of certain F-100s and F-102s that have a ring type nozzle, not the articulated "turkey feathers" nozzle. The ring type nozzle is very similar to the wreckage you saw. I'm not familiar enough with Navy birds to pick out a '50s era Navy fighter with a ring nozzle.

Walt

Two Weeks Later...

Since I was bugging Dave about only taking one picture of such a cool object, he took another trip out to the site to take a few more. In doing so he stumbled across another piece of debris about 1/2 mile away in a more traveled area. This one had some graffiti on it from previous visitors and is located at approximately 33 00' N 116 22' 30" W.

We both assumed (mistakenly) that this was an aircraft main wing - but neither of us knew one end of an airplane from the other.

If you look at the close-up photo on the right you can just make out the number "212" in white. Also, inside the second "2" there is a label which says "NATO CODE NO.___". According to my research that label specifies a standard aircraft fuel or oil type. Dave also said he though there was a fitting of some kind in the white circle.

Here are two more photos of the first item. We are guessing that not too many people have seen it since there is no graffiti to be found, and it's well-off the beaten track.

We did eventually deduce that the cylinders are probably hydraulic actuators "bused" together to operate at the same time, and have heat shields laced (like shoes) to the cylinder bodies with wire, to protect them from heat.

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Images on this page courtesy of Pannikin Dave

© 2011 Paul Axford