Recent content by Spitlead

The P-51B Mustang, "Impatient Virgin?". This specific Mustang was delivered in early 1944 to the 376th Fighter Squadron, 361st Fighter Group based in Bottisham, England. Among its 700 hours of combat flying were four sorties on D-Day. On September 27, 1944, it provided fighter support for the...

Okay, I know this is a REAL long shot but here goes. I found this Sperry Elevation Gyroscope in the personal effects of a B-17 pilot. There are no markings to what aircraft it might have belonged to. The part number and serial number are very clear in the photo. I have searched the internet...

http://warbirdregistry.org/p40registry/p40-435795.html Originally delivered to the RCAF. This photo was taken by me in the mid-1980s in southern California. The registry identifies it as an 'M' model. Most 'M' models were supplied to Allied countries (mainly UK and USSR), while some others...

If I'm not mistaken there were 13 YP-37s and 1 XP-37. So total of 14 aircraft of the P-37 prototypes. The XP-37 was a one off having a different Allison engine than the YP-37s. The design looks like Curtiss , in an attempt for speed, took design queues from air racers of the day. Big...

I hadn't ruled out the Betty, understanding there were variants, but I wasn't able to find a photo of a Betty with the MG swivel to confirm it. I was also looking at the Ki-49 as a possibility. Thanks for the confirmation.

Upon closer inspection, I don't think that's from a Betty although that is a really good guess. The Betty had a frame that wrapped all the way around between the plexiglass nose piece and where it attached to the fuselage (see image below). The nose cone in the original post only has a partial...

You should try looking into the 379th History, drawn from the records of the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force, Savannah, Georgia. They might have something.

I too checked the position and script of the name "Problem" in both pics and I agree with you. They are the same. The only exception is that the W W aircraft in the second pic is much dirtier and been flown hard and likely deserves its war weary status. If the Missing Air Crew Report (MACR)...

Catch-22, I did a search for "P-51B 339th fighter group 106700" and below is my search result. You can see the photo is called out as serial #700 at the American Air Museum in Britain. Museums have 1000s of digitized photos that are in their archive that do not appear on their website. There...

Lt. Boden was shot down in mid-June 1944 so IF he was flying "Problem" that aircraft was a loss and would not be in later photos. I could argue that a fair percentage of the time their 'personal' aircraft was unavailable due to maintenance and the aircraft that he got shot down in was a...

Hi Junkman, This is a bit of a conundrum. May I ask how it was determined that the left hand side photo you showed is indeed #644? There are some notable differences in our two photos. First, the photo I pulled from the American Air Museum in Britain does NOT show the W W classification as...

It would help if you had an aircraft serial number or aircraft plane number of the side of the fuselage. Do you have his pilot log books from the war? If so, there might be some valuable information on the specific aircraft. Unless there is a photo out there of his plane with his name on the...

I realize this thread is old but thought I would provide some small info. The Little Friends site , 339th Fighter Group – Little Friends – US 8th Army Air Force Fighter Command appears to show the same aircraft was also attached to the 505th Fighter Squadron at some point. It was most likely in...

I retired a year and a half ago from the aviation industry. Spent time in Defense, Space and Commercial including 33 years with Boeing. I am very familiar with the 737MAX having spent the last 20 years of my career in regional marketing. I had to sell the MAX to customers. Let me know if...

Here you go. He uses archival documents from test flight reports and shows more charts than you want to see.