pjpahs wrote:
Looking at the webcams from MAM, the P63 and Dauntless, (A24), are still there. Waiting for aviators? Dauntless in Army Hanger and P63 in Navy Hanger?, should switch hangers.
Just for the record, the CAF aircraft, through more recent research, has been found to be a true, original, built for the Navy, SBD-5 Dauntless, with the original Navy BuNo of 54532. A number of photos actually exist of the very aircraft, in its original factory three-tone Navy paint scheme, shortly after it was manufactured (at El Segundo, California), as it was involved in a taxiing accident with a P-51B at the Los Angeles Municipal Airport on March 17, 1944 - both aircraft had just recently been completed at the time and were undergoing initial testing prior to acceptance/delivery. After the accident, the Dauntless was repaired and was kept State-side for the rest of the war, primarily used during this time as a hack by USN officers. After the war it was of course sold surplus and went to Mexico in 1951, then later to Tallmantz and Ed Maloney before it was sold to the CAF. For many years the aircraft has been reported to be USAAF serial number 42-54532 (originally manufactured in Tulsa, Oklahoma/September 1943), but that is wrong - that particular aircraft was an A-24 that fought in the Pacific and was reportedly lost in combat. The screw-up of course was made many, many years ago, likely when it was sold back into the US from Mexico, when the BuNo of "54532" was assumed to be the USAAF serial of "42-54532".
This was all brought forth/dots connected by CAF pilot Col. Keith Wood and researchers/historians/writers Dan Hagedorn, John Davis, and Randy Brinks.
The Lone Star Flight Museum example has also been in a similar situation - for many years it was/has been called an A-24 ("would-be" 1943 manufacture, military combat service, etc.) - after WWII it too was sold into and came out of Mexico with the USAAF serial number 42-54682 assigned. Joe Baugher, as one example, has the aircraft now listed/corrected as SBD-6 BuNo 54682, which makes a lot more sense. So lately, now it seems as though there are three flying original Navy SBD's (CAF, LSFM, POF), one flying original USAAF A-24 (Erickson), with another original Navy SBD (Slattery) to fly very soon.
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