Warbird Information Exchange

I'm very glad to hear she's awaiting test flying - I'm at work, so Facebook and its photos are blocked

I look forward to seeing it online tonight, and thanks for sharing the news!

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Zac in NZ
#avgeek, modelbuilder, photographer, writer. Callsign: "HANDBAG".
https://linktr.ee/zacyates

"It's his plane, he spent the money to restore it, he can do with it what he wants. I will never understand what's hard to comprehend about this." - kalamazookid, 20/08/2013
"The more time you spend around warbirds the sooner you learn nothing, is simple." - JohnB, 24/02/22

Yeah, you're right. The accident was due to a leaking oil cooler and the further damage on landing was a result of the fact he was going too fast for the runway and went off the end. One of the landing gear folded under due to the latter, which is what I was thinking when I wrote the above. The landing gear collapse was more of a result than a cause. Sorry to confuse.


Okay, that's kinda what I figured. Makes me feel a bit better. Thanks for the info.

If you don't mind, where did they find the wreck? I've always pictured it being recovered from the side of one of Hawaii's more remote mountains.


Just expressing my opinion. I'm not trying to get into a heated argument here, so sorry if it seemed that way.

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Tri-State Warbird Museum Collections Manager & Museum Attendant

Warbird Philosophy Webmaster

If you recall back, the Collings Foundation (former The Fighter Collection) P-40B 41-13297 was initially a restoration that was started by the 'Tomahawk Project' in the 90's - a time when there were no early-model P-40B/C's flying (today there are 4). The aircraft was recovered from the Hawaiian hillside in the late 80's, where it had remained following a crash in early 1942 (the Tomahawk Project was also said to have recovered parts from the crashed P-40's 39-285 and 39-287 as well, which were beneficial in the restoration of 41-13297). As stated earlier, the aircraft is almost entirely newly-manufactured, with the original wreckage being used primarily as templates, but some parts that could be used in the restoration were, such as forgings/castings. Some early restoration photos can be seen here: http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p40regis ... 297-2.html

As time went by, the Tomahawk Project wasn't going to be able to see the restoration through, and Stephen Grey (The Fighter Collection) stepped-in and purchased, I assume, everything the group had and sent it to Matt Nightingale's shop, California Aerofab, to be completed. The aircraft flew for the first time following restoration on January 12, 2007. It is often cited that the aircraft likely owed its survival on December 7, 1941 due to the fact that it was likely inside a hangar at the time, undergoing repairs - it had been damaged in a landing accident at Wheeler in October 1941, and was under repair until first flying again on January 9, 1942 (only to crash a few weeks later, while on a familiarization flight, which took the life of Lt. Kenneth Sprankle).

Noha- Your quote tree is scrambled. You'll have to ask DaveM2 about the recovery, not me.

John- Thanks for those photos.

Here goes, I was on the board of directors for Project Tomahawk, the project started in my hangar at TOA and I unloaded the container from Hawaii with "'297" in it and I still hold the files and records for the Curitss Wright Historical Association. There were a substantial amount of structure from the aircraft, and true most of it was used as patterns to make airworthy parts as the goal was to fly the aircraft. There were a surprising number of original parts that were going to be usable, what they ended up using once it went to Matt Nightingales shop I don't know. At the time it was with us at TOA I would estimate 10-15% or the aircraft was original and another 10% made up of original P-40 parts. If it was repairable and useable we wanted to use it. So it's built to Currtis specs, using some original parts and many of those came from the original "'297", wether it's a Pearl Harbor survivor or not, that's a someone else's horse to beat. I do know there are no other aircraft flying that have as many parts that were there on Dec. 7th.