Warbird Information Exchange

One story from the past that has always surfaced in mind from time to time was the one I read in Air Classics magazine about an Aussie gent who found 2 or possibly 3 P-39's. They had belllied in,in the Outback after getting lost and running out of gas.The planes were immaculate and 100% complete.Infact they were so intact that the Army explosives expert that trhe Aussie army sent along deceided that the only way to render the 37mm
nose cannons safe was to blow the guns and ammo up in place!I couldnt believe that the only way to handle this problem was to blow the noses off of these incredible time capsules!Oh my god no! I am still traumitized from this .But hey,then again I.m no corroded cannon ammo expert."what do I know"
Tim.
"What me worry?"
what was the gents name? advancing age prevents me remembering

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"WHAT ME WORRY?"

there were 2 p39's recovered in the late 70's/early 80's one is at the beck
museum in queensland and the other is at wangaratta to be restored to fly
both had there noses blown off because the ammo was said to be too dangerous to remove any other way
paul

HI I THINK THEY ARE P-400S THANKS MIKE

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IF YOU CAN FIND IT WE CAN FIX IT

I'm pretty sure they were P-39s but I could be wrong.I remember there were a couple of good photos of the nose cannon and ammo and I seem to remember the size as more 37mm than 20mm but that was a long time ago
(1970's)and my eyes have since aquired a less grand point of view.so maybe they were 20mm.

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"WHAT ME WORRY?"

Definitely P-39s. They put down in far North Qld on what became known as the 'Cobra Coast'

Dave

There are two at Wangaratta and the other is in a Queensland Museum.
I heard rumors about the noses being blown off.
That is they didn't realy know what they were doing,one of the guys had already unloaded one.
And to make things worse they took a heap of grog with them and they were pissed.
Aparently there was a lot of complaints about them.

I had the opportunity last night of having dinner with a well known Australian author of an Aussie based 4x4 magazine. I raised this topic with him - primarily to try and get info out of him for my own project - and he said that to the best of his knowledge he felt there were still a couple of P-39 wrecks located along the same stretch of coast where these others were recovered, albeit he added they are in poor condition, just mangled piles of metal to quote him. But I must add he is not a warbird fanatic so what maybe useless bits and pieces to him could be useful to others. Does anyone else here in Australia have any more recent information about the remaining cobra's? and I'm not talking about the ones in the sea just off the coast, but any inland.

Thanks

Digger