I’ve played with the picture in Photoshop and the code letters have to be adjusted individually in order to get them to stand out. In other words, the settings required to bring out the first letter are not the best settings to bring out the second or third letter, etc. Having said that, it does appear to me to be ZN-G and I reached that conclusion before I read others opinions on here. There may also be a “G” on the tail, but it’s too faint to tell for sure.

What puzzles me is that there appears to be another “Z” (and possibly other characters) to the left of the squadron code “Z”. I don’t think it is a photo or scanning artifact, but you’d have to look at the original photo to be sure. The “Z” I am seeing appears to be a smaller and thinner font than the squadron code Z. It is also sharper, clearer and more distinct than the other letters.

Would the squadron codes be red letters with yellow outlines? No outline?

Tangmere you are quite correct regarding throttle position, etc. It’s simple chain of evidence. People who don’t anything about the provenance of the pictures are actually factoring in throttle position and canopy position in their theories regarding just how “real” this aircraft is. That’s pretty embarrassing really, just clueless.

A true investigator could probably find some witness marks on the dial faces inside of various instruments on the panel that would still yield clues, remaining panel light bulbs might tell whether the bulb was lit at the moment of impact, etc. It looks like the control column grip took out the turn & bank indicator when it stopped. Most of the remaining clues will be forensic in nature, metallurgy alone will tell a great deal. But all this requires being there to inspect it. We don’t know where that is or how long ago these pictures were taken. This aircraft may be stripped to the bone by now, maybe it’s buried, or maybe it’s gone. We know that it has been visited at least once since it came to rest, probably several times. Humans don’t travel alone in these parts of the desert so it’s probably been seen by several groups of petrol explorers over the years, and if the RAF know about it as the OP mentions in his post, then they’ve almost certainly visited this site at some point. Some of these remote desert sites have been used as waypoints and drop zones for the SAS on training missions, and we don’t know the fate of the pilot. That could be a big factor in whether the RAF ever made a trip to inspect the site, and when.

Regarding the throttle lever directions, I’ve never noticed anything in the Kittyhawk manual to indicate that the levers work in reverse to the U.S. versions but I’ll check again. All the P-40 variations I’ve ever seen were cutoff position to the rear and full throttle was forward. Hence the term “balls to the wall.”

This aircraft apparently hadn’t seen much recent use. Owned by an OB/GYN Dr., it made a trip from Slidell to Little Rock, AR. just prior to Christmas 2011 and returned to Slidell on Dec. 26th, 2011. The next flight listed is this one to Sarasota, FL. on April 19th, 2012. Possibly the first flight of the year.

Troubling comments on one of the links provided through Flightaware, unsubstantiated but easy enough for the authorities to confirm. Very sad either way.

Thanks for that, I think I may have a hernia now! They can’t take that down, it’s been up for 2 months and is driving business.

“10,476 of 10,524 people found the following review helpful”. Ha!

Firebird,

Thanks very much, that is great news. I’ll go catch up on the story.

DC

UPDATE:

I’ve made a mistake somewhere, it appears Lefty’s P-39L is in fact P-38L-5-LO #44-53254, and is a Lockheed built example. I know that in the 1970s there were 2 wrecks that were Vultee Nashville examples. One of those was “Scatterbrain Kid” N38LL which was destroyed in a fatal crash in October of 1974. (This aircraft was painted as “Yippee” in the mid 1960s, some of that time with a camera nose.) Further study required.

Enhanced front view photo and it shows the remains of the engine in situ.
Ian

AMAZING what those modelers can do these days, isn’t it?
:confused::eek::rolleyes::p;):diablo::dev2:

Some pictures that may be of use.

1 – A P-40E Shot down at Darwin, crash landed, cowling still intact. (Note to the WWW – “intact” is indeed ONE word, not two!) I have dozens of examples of belly landed P-40s with cowls still in place.

2 – P-40E diagram of engine installation & locations. – So you can tell what you’re looking at. (Play with the brightness, saturation, exposure, etc., of the existing pictures if you want to see more while we wait for more pics.)

3 – Low res screen cap of a P-40 walk around that shows the relative position of the hatch while the aircraft is sitting on the tarmac. Note that on the back side of the panel door is a box that would hold all the aircraft documents. I’ll bet it’s empty and I’ll bet the RAF has the documents. (Though they’ve probably been lost in the system by now.)