AIRPLANE PORN!

P-40B over Lake Matthews - April 1998

So, over the weekend while going through stuff, I found an unlabeled box and when I opened it, it had a lot of photos I took at Planes of Fame circa 1997-2003. They were all prints, so I have scanned the best ones, and here they re.

These two first photos are of the first P-40B to be restored. It crashed in a forest outside Arkangel in the USSR in 1943 and lay there for 50 years till it was discovered and pulled out and brought to the United States to be restored at Fighter Rebuilders. When it arrived, the left wing was stove in on the leading edge back to the spar from when it hit a tree - fortunately the spar was still good. When they got the top coat of Russian paint off, they found the airplne was painted in Olive Drab and Grey, with pre-war USAAC markings for the 77th Pursuit Squadron of the 20th Pursuit Group (I was the one who made the ID - they may know every thing about the innards but we modelers know what they looked like). This was a real puzzler - how did a USAAC P-40B get to the USSR? Several years later, while researching one of my books, I discovered that in April 1941, FDR signed a secret executive order that when an Army unit upgraded their equipment, they were to return the old stuff to the manufacturer, where it would be recondition and sent on in Lend-Lease. The 20th PG gave up their P-40Bs for new P-40Es in June 1941. The 48 airplanes were then sent back to Curtiss in Buffalo. Around the same time, Hitler invaded the USSR and Churchill immediately cabled Stalin an offer of unconditional alliance and cemented it by sending 100 Lend-Lease airplanes intended for the RAF to the USSR as show of good faith.

While there is no paperwork, it’s fairly easy to guess the rest of the story. The RAF was getting P-40Bs (they called them Tomahawks) under Lend-Lease. When an order came to Curtiss to divert 100 of them to the USSR, someone got the bright idea they could crate up the 48 ex-USAAC fighters and send them on to Russia - they wouldn’t have to recondition them, and Curtiss would be paid twice for them; once sold to the USAAC, once sold to Lend-Lease. The Russians slapped paint on them and the fighters were used by the Red Air Force to defend Murmansk. Two years later, this one crashed in the forest. When the airplane was sold to Paul Allen for his air museum in Seattle, the research was done and they discovered the original serial number; my guesstimate was accurate.

These two shots were taken from the Planes of Fame B-25 “Photo Fanny.” That day they took the tail cone off, so I was sitting in the old tail-gunner’s position, shooting out the open tail. which allowed POVs you don’t normally get. The airplane was painted for the occasion as the ex-RAF Tomahawk long-time Museum Friend and flying legend Eric Schilling flew on the first Allied offensive mission of the Pacific War, a photo recon flight from the American Volunteer Group base at Rangoon to Bangkok, to photograph the Japanese airplanes that had just arrived. The date was December 10, 1941, and in 1984, Eric was awarded the Silver Star for the mission. As he always said “That’s the proof we Flying Tigers weren’t mercenaries - we were a secret operation by the U.S. government.”

This is the Museum’s F4U-1 Corsair, which was one of the first airplanes restored to flight status by Planes of Fame.

This is the Museum’s P-38J. Not a great day weather-wise for photography; it rained all morning and then stopped just before takeoff time. You take your opportunities when you get them - they don’t fly them every day. At least it was Southern California winter so the air was clear.

This is the Museum’s P-47G Thunderbolt. For a long time, it was the only flying “razorback” Thunderbolt in the world. It’s in the markings of the P-47 flown by the late 56th Fighter Group ace Walker M. “Bud” Mahurin, a long-time suporter of the Museum. I think Bud had the largest collection of off-color jokes in the world; I never heard him tell the same one twice. He used to give talks at the museum, and begin by saying “I’ve crashed every airplane I flew.” That wasn’t an admission of incompetence, but rather that Bud flew to the outer edge of the envelope, every time. I got a lot of stories from him and you can read some of them in “Clean Sweep.” (Obviously another winter day when you take your chances when you get them)

This is the only completely-original Japanese Zero left in the world. It’s an A6M5 that was captured on Saipan in June 1944 and returned to the US. It was flown at the Fighter Conference that October by every test pilot who was there, each of whom signed the logbook, including Charles A. Lindbergh. Ed Maloney retrieved the airplane in 1959 when the mechanic’s school at the old Gendale Grand Central Airport was closed to make way for Interstate 5. This Zero, the P-47, the F6F-3, an early P-51A Mustang, and the only original German Me-262 that didn’t have its main spar cut, were being used as “instructional airframes.” It took 50 years till the me-262 flew, but all of them were restored to flying status.

This was the “Cat Flight” flown in February 1997. It is every piston-engined carrier airplane Grumman ever made, all together. From nearest to farthest, it’s an F3F-2 “Flying Barrel”, an FM-2 Wildcat, an F6F-3 Hellcat, an F7F-3 Tigercat, an F8F-2 Bearcat, and tail-end charlie is a TBF Avenger torpedo bomber.

More airplane porn tomorrow morning.

You’re not going to find stuff like this at other Substacks, which is what makes That’s Another Fine Mess one of a kind. You can support this project by becoming a paid subscriber for only $7/month or $70/year, saving $14.

Comments are for paid subscribers.