Warbird Information Exchange

Someone at Oshkosh told me that Dick Thurman sold his P40 and it has been repainted. Purchased by a Mr. Blair who bought Thurmans P51. Anyone know where Mr. Blair keeps his collection and could get a picture of the new paint scheme? Just wanted to see what it looks like now.

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Blue Skies,
Dan
http://www.flytoanothertime.com

Hi Dan,
Blair has indeed repainted it in a Flying Tiger's scheme. Owner's choice to do as he wishes I know... but I sure will miss that Aleitian Tiger's scheme. Glad I was able to see it several times before the repaint... Jim

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Mustangs Rule!

The Aleitian Tiger scheme was very striking. It will be missed.

Eric

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The air resounds from the Rolls-Royce roar!
To an enemy the warning is dire: here only eagles soar,
and the last thing he'll see is a mirrored Spitfire!

I too really liked the Aleutian Tiger scheme. How many times have we thought... "...if it were mine I would..." More power to him... he owns and flies the airplane. As long as it stays flyable I am happy!

So my new favorite P40 since the Aleutian Tiger is gone is...



On a side note... I look forward to seeing more of your pictures in Warbird Digest, Jim!

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Blue Skies,
Dan
http://www.flytoanothertime.com

Hi all--

Harrumph...another AVG Kitty...

This reminds me of a conversation I had with one of the CWHers at a Mt.Hope show in the late 80s. He asked me which P-40 was in attendance; it was Bill Anderson's ex-RCAF Kitty N940AK, but looking sharply different because its previous plain-as-you-please factory OD/grey USAAC scheme had been freshly replaced with AVG Tomahawk green/brown/sky livery. On my telling the CWH chap it was Dr. Bill's bird, his face fell and he moped, "awwww, he ruined it...!" Even at the time it struck me funny...though I couldn't honestly say I wholly disagreed. But it remains true that the AVG scheme is the famous, familiar, iconic livery for an American-flown P-40. And truth told it is pretty striking.

But will someone please paint a Kitty in RCAF finish sometime, since so many of the survivors served up here in The Frozen North...?

S.

I may be wrong here but I'm fairly certain in that, that particular P-40K was recovered from the Aleutians before she finally ended up in New Zealand and was restored to flight for Alpine and then crashed again before going to Thurman. At any rate if she was recovered from the Aleutians, then the chances of that Aleutians paint job being her actual combat squadron paint scheme are fairly good.

Does anyone else know anymore or am I thinking of the Evergreen K model?

Ryan

Yes, this acft came out of alaska. I had several conversations with dick and gave him the history on the how and why it was saved. My father got it out when he was doing work for the atomic energy folks in the 60's and in turn sold it to bob sturgis of columbia airmotive for barge and dock fees. never let him live that one down...

Hmmm
I was looking at that airplane at ISM last fall, its amazing how quickly things change

BTW, Was the Spit that was there owned by Dick T. and was it sold also?

Is ISM Kissimmee by chance?

There was a Spit there at Stallion 51, PL344, and she was formerly owned by Kermit Weeks but is now owned by Tom Blair according to the Registry.

Ryan

Hi all

Col Pay did in fact as has been noted on this site have an Ex canadian P40 which he restored in what I believe was a canadian scheme. This was in the 1980s and unfortuantely it had a forced landing and was subsequently rebuilt and sold to the USA.

Col has another P40 which should fly later this year which he sourced in NZ - I have forgotten it's history but I am sure someone here can fill us in

Here is a photo of his original P40

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Air Vice Marshall
Sunshine State Air Farce

A personal favorite was the paint job carried by Bob Byrne's P-40K "Burma Rascal" (now with Evergreen?) back in the '80's. That 80th FG "Screaming Banshee" nose art really set it apart from the rest of the P-40 pack IMO.

It has shark's teeth now, of course (*sigh*)

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

It's interesting to note that Bob Byrne owned both these airframes (the Evergreen and Blair Ks) back in the '80s, and both were Alaskan recoveries. Both now wear AVG colors. 'Burma Rascal' was the only one of the two restored to fly by Byrne. As mentioned, the other one was restored by the Alpine Fighter Collection. I worked for Byrne back then and remember looking at the future AFC aircraft thinking what a great project it was. Very complete and having very minimal damage.

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Mustangs Rule!