Brass components in WW2 era aircraft

[hamishunger]

Hi all,
Just a quick question that many of you will know the answer to, posting questions here is easier, less frustrating and the answers are always better than using Google (unless Google directs me to an answer from this forum). Could somebody give me a brief lowdown on the use of brass in ww2 era aircraft. Why was it used instead of other metals such as copper to make certain parts, and for what purposes was it used as pipe work. I have a broken,twisted section of brass pipe that has a diameter of 5-7mm and comes from a Spitfire, what possible uses could this have had? I also have a brass regulator from a 109, again why brass?

 

[Wurger]

IMHO it was used because of its feature like the toughness, durability and being not ferromagnetic. It is malleable, easy to form. It has good casting properties. By varying the proportions of copper and zinc, the properties of the brass can be changed nicely, allowing hard and soft brasses. But mostly because of the tolerance to the corrosion causing by many fluids e.g. moisture, oil, also gases and the self-lubricating feature improving sliding that are much greater than of the cupper. For the reasons the brass is used for making of many aircraft parts ( but not only ). So you may find the matal alloy as the pumps or their parts, pipes, valves, bushings etc.

 

[Tony Kambic]

There are a number of on-board fire extinguishers in a PBY I'm helping with restoration, which have brass valve fittings at the top near the nozzle.

 

[Frog]

Brass was used for the cases of the MG cartridges...

 

[Crimea_River]

All of the tubing I'm dealing with so far on our Mosquito restoration for hydraulics, fuel tank venting, compressed air, vacuum, and pitot systems is aluminum, not brass. Brass tubing was often used in the radiators.

 

[MiTasol]

I think that hamishunger might have something from something like an oxygen regulator that had multiple brass components and tubes but the other possibility is that they have some Tungum tubing which looks like brass but is a different alloy. It was widely used for hydraulic tubing in aircraft like the Beaufort/Blenheim/Bolingbroke. I can't remember if the Lancaster used it.

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