This week’s updates are dedicated to surviving examples of the beautiful Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. I’ve always liked the P-40 and thought of it as the “American Hurricane”: it did not have the glamour and fame of other, better-known fighters but was a sturdy and dependable aircraft which served in all Allied air forces throughout the […]
Hawker Tempest Mk V EJ580 was flown by F/L Ron Bennett of the Royal Air Force’s No 501 Squadron in October 1944. MW820 was a Tempest Mk II operated by No 54 Squadron in Chibolton in March 1946. Squadron Leader Jimmy Sheddan was the commanding officer of No 486 Squadron in May 1945 and flew […]
Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina BuNo 2419 was flown by Ensign William Tanner of VP-14 on 7 December 1941. Tanner had been warned “to be alert during this period of great tension”. A few hours before the Japanese air raid, Tanner spotted a Japanese midget submarine trying to penetrate the harbor and destroyed it with the assistance […]
Until recently, “Fifi” was the world’s only airworthy B-29 Superfortress. Operated by the Commemorative Air Force, this mighty bomber has now been joined in the skies by “Doc”, which flew again in 2016. If you like the Superfortress, you will love AirCorps Art’s vinyl poster of “Fifi”, which is available in several sizes ranging from […]
Here is an aircraft type I tried to avoid for years ! Although I find the B-24 to be a fascinating aircraft, I also know that it is an aircraft with an extraordinary numbers of variants and equipment options. My notes on the topic add up to more than 15 pages, and is not yet […]
This Fortress II (serial FA704) was flown by Wing Commander Ron Thomson DSO and his crew of No 206 Squadron based at Benbecula, in the Outer Hebrides. This aircraft ditched in the Atlantic on 11 June 1943, its crew drifting in a dinghy for four days before being rescued by a Catalina flown by S/L […]
This Boeing Fortress IIA (serial FK202) was flown by No 59 Squadron of the RAF’s Coastal Command. The Squadron was one of the few RAF squadrons to operate the Fortress in 1942 and 1943 for maritime patrolling missions. The aircraft was equipped with ASV radar, with visible antennas on the fuselage sides and spine as […]
“February” is a P-51D-30-NA which was accepted by the USAAF in May 1945 as s/n 44-74391 and served in the US until 1958. It then served with the Guatemalan AF until 1972 when it returned to the US civilian market. It was restored in 2001 and registered as NX351MX. It carries the markings of the […]
This A6M2 Model 21 was flown by Lt Yoshio Shiga of the 1st Koku Kantai, 1st Koku Sentai during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941. Shiga was based on the Kaga aircraft carrier.
Out of more than 1,100 P-36 Hawk or Hawk 75 produced by Curtiss, only two are airworthy today (with a third being currently restored to airworthiness).* The first one is a Hawk 75A-1 which was among the first Hawks delivered to the French air force in 1939. It is now registered G-CCVH and operated by The […]