Warbird Information Exchange

Bret,

Thanks,I think that the coding finally sank in.If I understand,for horizontal,the notches should be in either the top right or the bottom left.For vertical,they would be on the top left or bottom right.

So,I outsmarted myself on this one earlier because I figured that the blue/green nav light should be on the right wing.What I didn't think of was that the wing might be upside down.



The only other pictures that I see with wings under construction are these









There are several of fuselage contruction,but they are quite dark and Photo Shop didn't really help.Here are some of them













Here are a few more general shots with original and lightened a bit with photo Shop on some of them

Larry, these are really nice pics.I always learn more from these pics as to the constuction methods.The one pic of the two guys riveting a top wing skin panel are using what called a gang stamp.This machine could stamp muliple rivets in one shot vastly speeding up the assy process.The machine was designed and built by a Curtiss employee who worked on the line and was tired of hitting one rivet at a time.This was employed on both the wings and fuselage assy. Alot more to that story.

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Hang The Expense

Keep your eyes on this thread boys. I picked up a suprise for all you P-40 lovers and I will post a bit tonight.

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

oh boy..!!!!!!!!!

Nate the P-40 nut!

what's with the blue & yellow paint schemes??

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

just havent been painted yet.

oh boy..!!!!!!!!!

Dan the P-40 nut!

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

Well as I have posted before, we had a family member that was a tech rep for Curtiss during ww2. Fortunate for us he was a SMART man and a pack rat!!! He saved EVERYTHING!!! We have company documents from him to the factory about ALL of his trips with the company. So down to the nitty gritty!!! Within all of this stuff we have documents and corrections and blueprints to many changes on the many CURTISS aircraft!!! Some of the CURTISS books are more than your ARMY issue manuals. Paul has inserted factory pics/parts lists and Change data as the production found issues to correct. I have not taken the books apart at the binders so I just took pics. I may some winter as a project and scan it all. One I wont touch is the A-75 book. Sad but moisture had gotten to it and mold had set in at the back of the book. I am going to try and save whats left somehow before it completely gets consumed. So on this thread, I will stick with the Kitty Hawk info since these pics are PRICELESS!! THanks LIFE magazine!!

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

When I had seen this pic and the number, I had remember seeing it inside one of his books. This made me go get them and do some posting on wix!!!!!


You cant make out the curtiss cover very well but here is the inside!!


Written by him inside that page

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005

The blue, Tom is "layout ink" which makes your scribe and punch marks in the aluminum standout. Note photo #11
and the chalk mark notes which contrast as well.

The yellow is zinc chromate primer...

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He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

airnutz, that answers my question, thanks!

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Thanks for sharing the Curtiss info Jeff. That sounds like an amazing collection of documents.

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Share your story: Rutgers Oral History Archive http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/

Here are most of the remaining pictures from the Google Life image file.The first set of black and white images came from a different file and mentions the top and bottom halves of the P-40 being assembled.Sorry if I've included a lot of duplicates,but I'm starting to go a bit cross-eyed with getting these pictures oriented correctly









Back to the color file,including some shots of workers on break























Itried to lighten the last picture with Photo Shop but it doesn't do much good





























And then there's this guy

Looking at the stuff, what I will do is this week I will stop and pic up some 3 ring binders and take the book apart and put it in the binders if the holes are standard for the new 3 Ring, it looks like they are. Then that way I can scan it as I go. I will also scan some notes that are good reading. This should give you P-40 guys a good fix until summer.

_________________
Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005