Recent content by MiTasol

I had not thought of shadows and you are probably right on that one. The two light panels appear to me to be an RAF requirement that did not get converted from EO to blueprint until long after E-1 production started. The much earlier than blueprint E-1 manual showing the two lights supports...

Obviously the USPS subcontracted the package to AusPost. I recently had an international priority paid package sit for 18 days in Melbourne. Packages from Sydney (1296 km, or 700+ them other things, away) routinely take 14 days. Letters are only delivered three days a week so can take much...

To me that looks like yet another variation - a very narrow painted anti skid strip. My canvas one is about 60cm/2 feet wide. I would photograph it but that means digging deep into a shipping container.

Man you must be ancient. I am 80 and my grand kids are pre teens. Then again I did not get leg irons until 35 (and it was well worth the wait).

Same problem and when we went to Hawaii for a full family xmas last year wife and I got covid. Saw SFA of grand kids while they were there as we were in isolation for almost their whole stay. We gave them their xmas presents in a windy park on Jan 7th and they flew home to the mainland next...

I used similar sort into my late teens or early 20's. If the heating element wire burn out you could replace it with new wire available from most hardware stores. Now we are in a society where nothing is repairable and they wonder why there is so much garbage that needs processing at great...

Thanks Geoffrey. Like you I have never seen Curtiss company documents that explain the Curtiss H87 designations so I have trusted those designations provided to my by the archives reference team at the NASM. AFAIR I have never come across the HK87-A designation and the H87A designations show...

Great photos and these clearly show that the standard was, like the one and two light D/E/F instrument panels, there is no standard that we are currently aware of. As your photos show the anti-skid, if applied, was sometimes applied prior to final assembly and painting so it is probable that...

Yeah - was definably cold in the Wide Bay. Was about 16C according to my car thermometer.

I restored several P-40s in the 70's and never saw a two light panel.

Thanks That is the sort of info that is getting rarer to find by the day. I think Geoffrey Sinclair will also like it

Two things In many cases the wing walk was only applied on the side the pilot entered so all the photos of the right wing may well be of aircraft that only have it on the left. Your picture 74266 shows the wing walk has been either painted over or the non slip material was added to the paint...

It varied by company and factory. Martin on the B-26 painted every section prior to assembly as when swapping noses between two aircraft the camo lined up perfectly. Curtiss at one factory did it after final assy (your photo) and during sub-assembly in the other factory - or later at the same...

I do that with all my posts and I find it dead easy to do but few others follow my lead. The lucky blighters probably have a FAST internet with no download limits. If a PDF I have created I just open the scan of the cover or title page, crop and reduce it as applicable, and reduce it and post...

and here is a different P-40 manual with the Landing gear warning lamp dated five months later than the single lamp panel in an earlier manual. Interestingly the early manual is 25CF-2 for the P-40E and this one 25CJ-2 for the E-1 and appears to be a copy of the RAF AP with the USAAC TO number...