I was told about the Catapillar Merlins by Paul McSweeney of Pioneer Aero at Ardmore (the place that rebuilds P-40’s and other warbirds). They got the contract to assemble and test the Mustang when it arrived in NZ. They were intrigued by its yellow engine block and ascertained it was the original engine as fitted when buit. That Mustang had been built for the RAAF and stored for decades, never used. Then a US owner got it and flew it for a brief time before it was sold to the NZ owner. They did some research as they were curious, and Payul said they discovered that Catapillar was subcontracted by Packard to help with production but they decided to make theirs recognisable by using their famous bulldozer colour on the blocks. I do not think it was a wind up, he was quite serious and there were several warbird people with me at the time.

That is a heck of a collection of pilots. Nice to see Bill Wells in there, he was from here in Cambridge, NZ. Are there any photos of the pilots on the ground together before or after the flight?

Just a thought, I wonder if this photo was from the invasion of Southern France in August 1944? I have recently spoken with two Seafire pilots who flew Seafire LIII’s in support of that invasion. Their aircraft would have had the filters as they were flying on and off of North African and Italian strips as well as the carriers. But, did the Seafires in that August 1944 campaign wear invasion stripes? As well as the LIII one of those two pilots also flew an LIIc on some ops.

Probably real Roger, one of the three flyers from New Zealand was sold to Spain so i suspect it is that one.

Couragous and Glorious had them too.

HMS Ameer also had a catapult. My friend Nelson Tolerton launched a few times by this method from Ameer in his No. 896 Squadron Hellcat, icluding during Operation Collie

When do the “world record” figures start from? I’d have thought the world’s largest gathering of B-17’s was probably over Germany in WWII?

Sounds like a great event you’re going to have though.