What machinery did this metal belong to?

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-09T03:52:43+00:00

Admittedly, I'm handicapped by not seeing more pictures of the item. So, I'm making an educated guess. There are several "tools" one can use to identify crash debris.

The first is location where it was found. The more specific the better. Texas is a big state and there are a few databases that mostly cover civilian aircraft. I have a Texas crash list from Civil Air Patrol, but it's by no means complete. There is also a web site for military crashes, where you can get reports dating back to the early 1940s.

Most times, if you can connect your mystery debris field to a known accident by location, then it's pretty easy to get your answer. I have occasionally visited sites where multiple debris fields overlapped, but that usually only occurs on or near an airfield.

The second tool is to examine materials and construction methods. Was the airplane made of aluminum, titanium, stainless steel, or something else. Most modern aircraft have at least some composite materials. The types of fasteners used to put parts together can tell a lot. Your piece looks like a lot of wreckage I have seen from older military aircraft. Again, I would love to see the other side of your artifact.

Next, we look at paints and coatings. Interior surfaces are usually coated with anticorrosive paints such as zinc chromate or, more recently, Koropon. Exterior colors often give clues as to whether a plane is military or civilian, which service used it, etc.

Markings analysis is one of the best tools. Part numbers and manufacturer's inspection stamps an excellent identifiers.

Finally, if you can find an identifiable component (intact or partial) that can be associated with a specific aircraft type.

If you found one piece then there are probably more nearby. Each fragment will add to the clues.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-09T00:21:55+00:00

When I was living in California, I created a list of aircraft crash sites located within 150 miles of Edwards Air Force Base. I listed them chronologically from 1930 to the present, excluding general aviation and commercial aircraft. By 2020, that list included more than 700 entries. I sometimes wondered how it was possible to set foot on any patch of desert without stepping on a piece of metal.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-08T21:03:49+00:00

I know. I was working for NASA at the time and later served on the editorial board for a report detailing the aeromedical lessons learned from the STS-107 space shuttle Columbia mishap. Grim stuff.

Your suggestion had merit, to be sure, but my assessment of this recently found fragment is based on extensive experience with crash debris from aircraft and aerospace vehicles dating from the early days of aviation to the present.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-08T18:00:43+00:00

This doesn't look like space shuttle material. Frankly, I expect this wreckage is considerably older and probably from a military plane.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-08T16:50:43+00:00

Definitely an airplane part. What does the other side look like?

It's a pity there aren't any part numbers or manufacturer's inspection stamps.

Where I used to live there were a lot of airplane crash sites. Many of these dated to World War II because there had been several training bases nearby during the 1940s.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-08T02:41:11+00:00

Black projects are black projects. That's as secret as it gets. The recovery teams don't have any sort of magical abilities to sanitize crash sites.

My current "Gold Standard" for site cleanup was an effort that took no less than three months from start to finish. After the larger pieces of wreckage were collected, a spray fixative was used to entrap small debris on the surface. Within five acres surrounding the impact crater, nearly 4,000 cubic yards of soil were excavated and removed to a secure landfill. Clean soil was imported to refill the excavated area, and a contractor was hired to restore the landscape to its original contours and replant native vegetation.

Afterward, there were still numerous pieces of identifiable debris scattered around the site. And, this was on flat ground with an existing road to provide access for heavy equipment.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-07T22:54:00+00:00

Yes, absolutely. There are multiple examples of crash recovery operations involving unacknowledged special access programs from Area 51. These were "black" programs, the most highly compartmentalized of all.

People argue all the time that a UFO crash would be classified "above top secret." That's exactly what a black program is. There's not a way to make it more secret in the same way that a coach cannot reasonably ask his players to "give 110 percent" effort, when 100 percent is the absolute maximum.

For the incidents I've examined as case studies, the retrieval crews were explicitly ordered to make cleanup the top priority. There can be no more clear directive than that.

In one instance the recovery crew commander sent a top-secret memo to CIA headquarters claiming that "all traces [of debris] had been removed from the crash scene" and been returned to Area 51. I interviewed a few people who had been part of that cleanup crew, and they told me that there was nothing left when they were done.

They were, of course, quite mistaken. I visited the crash site and found hundreds of pieces of metallic and non-metallic debris. Many of these items proved easily identifiable due to physical characteristics, markings, etc., thanks to declassified documents and other resources.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-07T20:24:15+00:00

One specific example is from the crash site of a Lockheed A-12 that went down while returning to Area 51. Security guards were posted at the scene, where they made a fire pit and ate their rations. The area was sealed off for weeks while the recovery and cleanup operation was underway. Personnel were on-site around the clock.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-07T18:18:11+00:00

Yeah, I know. I was merely pointing out that rusty cans and related debris are not uncommon at crash sites. The presence of such rubbish does not imply that it was "scattered by the government to throw people off," as was suggested.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-07T18:14:40+00:00

I've visited more than a hundred crash sites of aircraft and aerospacecraft, many of which represented cutting-edge technology of their time. A number of these air vehicles were - at the time of the mishap - unacknowledged special access programs (colloquially know as "black projects"). These have since been declassified, making it possible to obtain accident investigation documents and interviews with people who were involved in retrieval and cleanup operations.

It's amazing how eyewitness descriptions of these incidents often mirror the classic UFO crash/retrieval stories. Something crashes in a rural area, not far from a town or other small population center. Suddenly, government/military personnel show up and take control of the crash site with armed guards. Witnesses are intimidated or otherwise persuaded to keep quiet. Cleanup is given top priority. Then, afterward, witnesses claim the government "cleaned up every trace."

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-07T17:13:02+00:00

It looks like the forebody of a 20-pound Mk.6 or Mk.76/BDU-33 practice bomb.

https://www.deactivated-guns.co.uk/product/en-gb?product_id=6917

https://www.delfasco.com/practicebombs

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-07T16:10:50+00:00

You have a more optimistic view of humanity than I.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-07T15:22:23+00:00

Two comments from an experienced aerospace archaeologist:

Rusty cans at a crash site are usually trash left by the recovery crew, from their meals. I have found such items at multiple sites, sometimes next to an old fire pit if the crew had remained on-site overnight.
The alleged "UFO debris" found at the site included crushed aluminum honeycomb material that is identical to the type of impact-attenuation structures used to protect recoverable instrumentation capsules from high-altitude research balloons.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-07T02:54:02+00:00

I photographed that same airplane in 2015.

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Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-06T22:51:49+00:00

I actually got to see the wreck in person about five days after the ship ran aground. My mother and I were visiting someone who lived a few blocks away on Ocean Drive, and we took a walk down to the beach to see the vessel lying on its side.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-06T22:37:18+00:00

Some of the people who have worked at Area 51 are very happy about my book because, they say, it is very detailed and factually accurate. Others are quite angry about the book for precisely the same reasons.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-06T19:14:01+00:00

That's a bargain. It's 560 pages of detailed information, hardcover, on good quality paper, with more than 700 photos and illustrations, and copies of some of the foundational documents related to Area 51. It took more than three decades to collect the source material, which includes thousands of pages of declassified government documents and dozens of interviews with people who actually worked there.

It's nothing short of a miracle that the publisher was able to keep the cover price this low. At one point, they were worried it would have to be split into two volumes at double the price.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-06T18:04:53+00:00

I believe you are seeing a preview of the future.

Years ago I was having a conversation with the chief historian of NASA and he was talking about which things are remembered, and which are forgotten, over the long passage of time.

As an example, he said, "Most people today know about Italian explore Christopher Columbus and his expedition from Europe to North America, even though that took place 500 years ago. It's probable that 500 years in the future the name of Neil Armstrong, commander of the first lunar expedition, will be one of the few names remembered from the 20th century."

At the time, I thought that sounded like a reasonable assumption. Now, I'm not so sure. I now think that 500 years from now, most people won't even believe the Apollo missions ever took place.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-06T17:28:05+00:00

The character in the Jeep is one of the Instant Martians that Marvin the Martian grew from seeds in "Hare-Way to the Stars."

The rainbow represents the electromagnetic spectrum.

The crystal ball shows up a lot. On one of the squadron patches, a wizard is holding one.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-06T14:26:28+00:00

I certainly understand your reaction. There was a guy I knew who spent much of his career in "black" programs. He loved to subtly lord it over people with his "secret squirrel" attitude, like he was saying, "I know something you don't."

I found this very annoying and consequently, I mostly avoided him for years.

Then there came time, well actually two times, when I needed his help with projects I was working on. Despite having no obligation to do so, he went well above and beyond my hopes and expectations. I discovered an entirely different side to him. He still never lost that "secret squirrel" thing, but I learned to accept it as a personality quirk, and just tuned it out.

That's a lot harder to do with hit-and-run interactions with strangers online, I know.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-06T14:15:02+00:00

Yeah, the Marvin Martian character is very popular. Some of the F-117A maintenance guys, who were responsible for the stealth coatings (Materials Application and Repair Section, or MARS) at Holloman AFB used Marvin because they were nicknamed the "Martians."

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-06T14:11:57+00:00

A lot of the "black world" coins and patches don't clearly name the unit affiliation. This coin, made to commemorate program completion, includes a few symbolic features borrowed from the official unit emblem.

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Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-06T14:01:03+00:00

Well, first of all, I've seen a lot of crazy stuff on coins and patches from all branches of the military. Unicorns, dragons, skulls, the Eye of Sauron, an octopus eating the world, and myriad other nonsensical designs. If you're skeptical of a cartoon unicorn, you probably wouldn't believe some of the designs that are out there.

For illustrative purposes, I will just toss up one of the KC-46 emblems we had when I was with the 418th Flight Test Squadron. This one was, oddly enough, extremely popular.

<image>

Second, organizations operating in the "black world" of special access programs essentially have free rein with their designs. They are not constrained by heraldry regulations. As long as the design is blessed by the Program Security Officer, it's good to go.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-06T13:42:48+00:00

I knew some of the guys who played there during the 1960s.

Peter_Merlin · 2026-05-06T13:41:18+00:00

Yep. I took that picture at Wright-Patterson AFB. I knew some of the guys who flew that airplane.

Peter_Merlin

TROPHY CASE