these guys restored a P 40 to fully functional, full guns blazing capability, and it's likely the only P 40 that has working guns, and uses them.

https://vintageaviationnews.com/warbirds-news/soaring-by-the-sea-foundation-brings-a-curtiss-p-40n-warhawks-firepower-back-to-life-in-new-documentary.html

Meet Paige. she worked with the Soaring by the Sea Foundation, where she helped build and install Browning M2 .50-caliber machine guns on a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1467189712116175&set=pcb.1467193878782425

I love that Flying Tigers sharks tooth grin

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=157742383601304&set=pb.100080966302726.-2207520000

in the 1950s, a drive in theater in Fort Lauderdale had a B 25, a P 40, and a PBY on the playground in front of the screen for kids to play on

https://vintageaviationnews.com/warbird-articles/a-stroke-of-marketing-genius-local-businesses-vintage-aircraft-and-their-unusual-association.html

someone found a P 40 that had been buried on a South Pacific island during WW2, restored it about 1/3rd of the way, and now it's up for sale

It's easy to get the idea that it couldn't fly, and they got a replacement plane, and needed the junk one removed from the area - so burial was the simplest easiest way to get rid of it. 

https://silodrome.com/curtiss-p-40-warhawk-project-plane/
During its active life in the war this Curtiss was piloted by Lt. H. W. Harris and Lt. J. J. O’Neil who shot down three or more enemy aircraft in the Spring of 1944. This plane was known as White 17 with the nose art “Spooky” and “Dolores” when it served with the 7th Fighter Squadron of the 49th Fighter Group USAAF.

After 50 years buried underground the aircraft was rediscovered and carefully excavated, it’s new owner decided to have it returned to flying condition, no mean feat given its condition, and the restoration process began in 1999.

During the long rebuild the fuselage has been returned to almost complete condition as well as the internal equipment. It’s now being sold as-is with the substantial original wreckage including original wings confirming identity and provenance of this historic airframe.

The aircraft is being sold through Platinum Fighter Sales out of Melbourne, Australia with an asking price of $695,000 USD.

https://www.platinumfighters.com/inventory/1942-curtiss-wright-p40n-5-project-1044 

A 300 page auction catalog of vintage Hollywood stuff is a must for me to flip through, and the stuff that the wealthy can obtain this way, is just amazing

https://profilesinhistory.com/flipbooks/A120Icons3/mobile/index.html

the Texas Longhorn had nose art that looked like a cartoon character from Warner Brothers, it was a P-40E Warhawk from the 49th fighter group flown by John Landers on Port Moresby, New Guinea in Dec 1942

it looks like the lettering and painting is freshly applied, the guide lines are still visible

https://www.ww2online.org/image/nose-art-texas-longhorn-curtiss-p-40e-warhawk-49th-fighter-group-flown-john-landers-port

wow, a gas station with a fighter plane on top, and sponsoring a little league team! (Norman Rockwell should have painted this!)

http://www.stationwagonforums.com/forums/threads/vintage-gas-station-pictures.22844/page-15#post-428836

the P 40 shark mouth, real WW2 paint versions, and comical

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3518690/all/New_P_40_model_walk_around.html
https://www.deviantart.com/alan-the-leopard/art/Curtiss-P-40-personal-nose-arts-1-270730529

Piana delle Orme Museum, a private collection that is an astonishingly large WW2 diorama focused setting. It's said to be the Smithsonian of Italy.

The above amphibious DD Sherman tank was pulled out of the Tyrrhenian Sea near Naples. The structure around the top of the tank was so the tank could be launched from ships and not be swamped by waves. Notice the propeller.

The Sherman was found two miles from the coast at 24 meters deep, and brought to the surface in May 2002, thanks to the great willingness to recover the wreck, and cost him 20 thousand euro.

This museum wasn't the first to attempt recovery of the tank, Ft Knox and the US Navy tried, but it got away from them once surfaced, and went back to the bottom again. http://museo.pianadelleorme.com/?page_id=758

P-40 pulled out of the Tyrrhenian Sea near Rome, around 1995. The pilot has been to the museum to see it.

Command car and landing craft

Lockheed Starfighter

http://www.euro-t-guide.com/See_Coun/Italy/S/I_See_Piana_delle_Orme_1-1.htm
http://www.stripes.com/travel/latina-piana-delle-orme-museum-is-three-educational-excursions-in-one-1.35682
http://museo.pianadelleorme.com/?page_id=796

the 15,000 th Curtiss fighter plane. It wasn't enough to keep Curtiss from going out of business right after WW2 though.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/133697406@N05/18809642986/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/133697406@N05/18809502966/in/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/133697406@N05/18839275121/

Taking off from the parking lot to deliver P 40s from the Curtis factory to the airport

 Apparently, due to wartime production Curtiss quickly outgrew its Kenmore Avenue plant, and had to think of creative ways to eliminate bottlenecks in its overtaxed production process, and limited space for storing completed airplanes. Its previous method of transporting the planes by truck couldn't keep up with wartime increased production.

 http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2016/04/fantastic-how-disassembled-it-for.html

 Instead of train or truck, Curtiss test pilots simply flew newly minted aircraft right off the assembly line, using the parking lot of the factory as a makeshift runway, and used this opportunity as a test flight when transiting to the Buffalo Airport for final checkout and delivery.

Thanks Steve!

fantastic how they disassembled this plane for transporting, why they didn't fly it there is odd. Maybe this was for a convention or some indoor show

https://www.flickr.com/photos/133697406@N05/21616679251/

This image shows a P-40 B/C loaded on a flatbed trailer at the Buffalo Airport. Likely taken sometime during the winter of 1940–41, this image isn't from the Life Magazine collection.* I included it to show the earlier method that Curtiss used to transport finished aircraft to the airport for final testing, checkout, and delivery to the Army. Before the crush of production orders hit in 1940, loading the aircraft on train or truck (as shown here) was efficient enough. But after production increased, Curtiss quickly outgrew its Kenmore Avenue plant, and had to think of creative ways to eliminate bottlenecks in its overtaxed production process. Instead of train or truck, Curtiss test pilots simply flew newly minted aircraft right off the assembly line, using the parking lot of the factory as a makeshift runway.

Thanks Steve!

Here's a museum I've got to see, the Glenn Curtiss ... they have bikes, motorbikes, planes, and cars... and are restoring a P 40

In 1908 he made the first public flights in the United States, and in 1909 he established the first flying school there.

the museum acquired 3 wrecked P 40s to get the parts to restore one, and two came from Florida, 2 40s mid-air crashed into each other, and then into the everglades, and one on St Simon Island in southern Georgia

Curtiss pioneered making airplanes, seaplanes, motorcycles, and camping trailers

http://curtissway.com/museum.html
http://www.glennhcurtissmuseum.org/
http://www.webring.org/l/rd?ring=avihistory;id=9;url=http%3A%2F%2Ffitz%2Eawiggins%2Ecom%2F
https://www.facebook.com/Glenn-H-Curtiss-Museum-148448098510348/timeline/
http://www.supercub.org/forum/showthread.php?35985-Glenn-Curtiss-Museum-Hammondsport-NY

All stop, all engines stop, hold everything, nobody move til you see this... a WW2 P40 was just found in the Sahara desert. So intact the bullets are still in the wing guns, it crashed in 1942

Park of the Royal Air Force of England, it's a Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk

Not much story, just that no human remains were with the plane, the parachute was deployed next to the plane, so you can guess that the pilot landed well enough to use it for shade, then tried to walk out of the desert.



Full gallery (but I sure didn't leave much you didn't see here) at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/05/pictures/120524-world-war-ii-plane-egypt-desert-science-p-40-lost/#/lost-ww2-fighter-plane-found-desert-egypt-propellor_53834_600x450.jpg via a photo posted at http://remove-before-flight.tumblr.com