This aircraft was delivered to the US Army Air Corps on 5th May 1943 and shipped to Australia under the Lend-Lease programme.
Its first assignment was with the Royal Australian Air Force 75 Squadron based at Turnbull Field in eastern Papua New Guinea where it participated in melees around Milne Bay before moving to Goodenough Island in September 1943. It was later moved to Newton Strip in the Markham Valley, Papua New Guinea.
On 13th March 1944 the aircraft ran into a ditch while taxiing, but was repaired and returned to operations.
In May 1944 it was transferred to 78 Squadron (but retained its 75 Squadron markings) at Tadji, New Guinea where it was damaged during a landing accident and released for salvage on 30th October 1944.
It was recovered from Tadji, New Guinea by Charles Darby in 1974 who transported it back to New Zealand.
In 1997 Garth Hogan entered into a partnership with Charles to restore the aircraft. This was completed by March 2000, and the P-40N made her debut at Warbirds Over Wanaka in April 2000.
In March 2008 this aircraft was fitted with 6 original .50 calibre machine guns and at the Wanaka airshow that month and at the subsequent two Wanaka Air shows it has displayed using blank amunition.
The aircraft is operated from Ardmore airfield in Auckland by it’s owners Frank Parker and Liz Nedham.
Might this P-40N-1 be for sale?
Hi Robert, short answer is everything is for sale but it is not currently on the market.
I remember that this aircraft was rumoured to be fitted with operational guns when it was being restored but that didn’t happen initially due to difficulty complying with NZ gun laws. Is this correct? Do you have more information about the process of having guns on the aircraft that fire blanks? Are they capable of firing live rounds?
Hi Jonathan, The operational guns have been fitted and blanks fired at airshows here, we do not leave the guns in the aircraft for all sorts of reasons. There is a video clip on our facebook page of us testing them in the hangar you may wish to view. If you require anymore information please feel free to contact me at paul@pioneeraero.co.nz
I was lucky enough to get a flight in this with Liz at wings over wairarapa last year. I was wondering if you know where I could get flight training to one day possibly fly the p40? Anywhere you know of that offers training in Harvard’s? Thanks, Clinton