P-40's (2) ...

[tom d. friedman]

f.y.i. the 343rd fighter group p-40 pic in the aleutian islands is being piloted / or taxied by general claire chennault's son. forgot his 1st name though. the pic w/ the pre-war c-46 commando looks a little unusual to me. is it my 51 year old fast deteriorating vision?? or does that c-46 look a little chubbier than a combat accepted & operational model??

[Jollygreenslugg]

Great pics, thanks Mark. This Commando, 41-5159 was the first C-46 built, and was the first of a batch of 25 aircraft, before. These followed the single civil CW-20 prototype.

It looks different because of the fairing fitted to hide the 'crease' at the narrow point of the figure-eight fuselage cross-section. These didn't make any difference, and were quickly deleted from production, giving the familiar 'double-bubble' shape.

It's a great pic, thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Matt

[hang the expense]

f.y.i. the 343rd fighter group p-40 pic in the aleutian islands is being piloted / or taxied by general claire chennault's son. forgot his 1st name though. the pic w/ the pre-war c-46 commando looks a little unusual to me. is it my 51 year old fast deteriorating vision?? or does that c-46 look a little chubbier than a combat accepted & operational model??

I believe his name was John IIRC.

[CWBuff]

Great stuff as always, Mark... I think there may be one or two there that I haven't seen before.

Though some of them do look very familiar...

One in particular that I want to point out is this shot of 111 Sqn RCAF Hawks.


Project 914 Archives (S.Donacik collection)


A closer look... there are two survivors here: LZ-E is AK940 and LZ-D is AK905.


Project 914 Archives (S.Donacik collection)


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