General Motors FM-2 Wildcat BuNo 16012 13 January 1944

The General Motors-built Wildcat had been delivered to the Navy only a few weeks earlier, and was on a ferry flight to NAS Litchfield Park near Phoenix, from Big Springs, Texas. Nearing Tucson, however, the airplane ran out of fuel and the pilot successfully bailed out. The crash site is a micro-site now, with many small fragments.

Power lines once ran near the crash site, and the remains of many glass insulators can still be found.
Interesting comparison of the blue glass from an insulator, and the blue paint from the aircraft's skin.
It is a micro-site indeed, with many parts scattered about a small area.
Some parts still had paint and primer.
Since the airplane had run out of fuel, there was no post-impact fire. All of the parts we found were impact damaged.
Many numbers and stamps on this piece.
I wonder if this may be from the navigation table that I've seen in other Wildcats...
Part of a frame around an opening for an access panel. I've seen similar fasteners used on engine cowlings.
Section of instrument bezel.
Testament to the force of the crash.
Thought this was interesting. I haven't seen this arrangement of set screws before.
I believe this is part of the windshield frame, left side where it meets the canopy.
I saw a lot of this at the crash site. No idea yet where it might have come from.

UPDATE: I've since learned that these are plates from the battery!
Portion of instrument bezel and a reducer.
"71" is a prefix for General Motors aviation parts. Helps confirm this as an FM crash site.
We found two of the four gun charger handles that would have been in the cockpit.
Section of electrical connector shell with a portion of the part number.
When we were at the B-17B crash site earlier in the day, I had seen a couple of these thin metal "E"s, only those were larger than these I found at the FM-2 site. Part of a motor or other electrical component?

UPDATE: I learned recently that these are the laminated plates from a transformer.
SNAKE! Nope, just a wiring harness....
Closeup of an end of the harness.
Pretty rock.....I've been in the desert too long....