P-40N 44-7983

AAF Utilization of P-40N 44-7983

P-40N 44-7983 was delivered from the Curtiss factory at Buffalo on October 16, 1944. Operationally, it was assigned to domestic AAF bases, including Lawson Field (Georgia) and Pope Field (North Carolina). It was active until August 1945 when it was released to the RFC and sent to storage at Stillwater, Oklahoma. It ended up being one of ninety surplus P-40s purchased in February 1946 by Paul Mantz and his partners as part of a group of 475 surplus aircraft located at Stillwater, Oklahoma. Most ended up disassembled and sent for scrapping on the field, but 44-7983 was one of the fortunate few that made it out intact.

 P-40N 44-7983 Purchased By Paul Mantz As Part of a Large Surplus Warplane Purchase

It was kept by Mantz and evidently moved to the west coast possibly in the late 1940s. There is nothing except anecdotal evidence that suggests it was stored at the Hughes Airport in Culver City (along with similar surplus sister ships P-40N 44-7192 and 44-7203). At some point it was most likely disassembled and eventually ended up stored at the Tallmantz facility at Orange County Airport. There is scant direct evidence of any of this. It was not operated by Mantz or Tallmantz, and is included here as it moved from storage in the Tallmantz collection to the warbird world in 1970.

P-40N 44-7983 Sold By Tallmantz Aviation to David Tallichet in 1970

What is known is that David Tallichet and his Military Aircraft Restoration Corp. (MARC) obtained the disassembled parts of, apparently, this P-40N on June 18, 1970 and it was soon moved the short distance to the MARC base at Chino.  The bill of sale showed the aircraft type as “P-40N Components.” The recorded serial number of the aircraft in the sales document shows 2-6-149, a number that does not seem to correspond with anything on the airframe. Tallichet sought to register the aircraft with the FAA and stated in a letter dated June 12, 1973, that the aircraft he identified as “P40N-25-CU, Serial Number 2-6-149, purchased June 18, 1970 from Tallmantz Aviation as component parts, fuselage, wing, and empennage.” Tallichet further states that “Mr. Tallmantz (sic) advised us that there is no known paper work in existence for these components and they were acquired by him as part of a lot sale.” This adds a bit of a confuser to the story as there was, in fact, a paper trail going back to the Mantz purchase in 1946. In any event, and despite the filed FAA paperwork indicating the serial of 2-6-149, Tallichet carried this P-40N in his museum inventory as identified as P-40N-35-CU, serial number 44-7983, and constructor’s number of 33723. Though an application with the reserved civil registration of N9950 was made on April 30, 1973, there is nothing in the current FAA registration file that shows that the aircraft registration was ever issued to MARC, or anyone else for that matter, for this aircraft.

So, the various parts of a disassembled P-40N were sold by Tallmantz to MARC in June 1970. In the subsequent three years, the components were combined with other P-40 parts and reassembled into an airworthy aircraft. An airworthiness certificate was issued by the FAA on August 30, 1973. Photos of the aircraft at the time show a three-tone camouflage paint scheme with U.S. markings and the requisite tigershark markings, the only markings seen on the aircraft other than the insignia.

 

P-40N 44-7983 (N9950) to Doug Arnold in 1989

A bill of sale was executed on January 13, 1989, that sold N9950 to Doug Arnold, Spitfire Hangar, Biggin Hill Airport, Kent, England.  Arnold was the organizer/owner of Warbirds of Great Britain. Reportedly, N9950 was restored again at Chino by Aero Trader and shipped to England in a container.  Doug Arnold passed away in November 1992, but his family was done with the aircraft yet. On May 10, 1992, six months before his death, a bill of sale was executed to World Jet, Inc, of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. The actual involvement of World Jet, owned by the Whittiington brothers, is not known but the aircraft evidently did not move from its storage container in the U.K. Another application for registration was made for N9950 by World Jet on May 10, 1992, but, again, it appears no registration was ever issued. On May 15, 1994, N9950 was sold to Ice Strike Corp., of Dover Kent, Delaware. Another application for registration was made by Ice Strike Corp. on March 15, 1994. Once again, a civil registration was not actually issued. It was sold on July 12, 2006, to Skyfire Corp., of Wilmington, Delaware. The director of Skyfire Corp. is shown as David Arnold, believed to be the son of Doug Arnold. Another application of registration was submitted on July 12, 2006. No record of issuance is in the FAA file. The assigned civil registration of N9950 was cancelled by the FAA on April 6, 2018. The P-40N reportedly remains in storage in the U.K., possibly at Greenham Common, but reports note it was eventually reassembled. Its current status and location in the U.K. is unknown.

A Bit of A Mystery About P-40N 44-7983

Curiously, there is a photo of a P-40N reportedly taken in 1968. The photo below (copy of a copy) was published in a book, title unknown at this point, that identifies this P-40N as 44-7983 and says the photo was shot in September 1968. This photo was clearly shot at The Air Museum facility when it was at the Ontario airport.  If the approximate 1968 date is correct, it cannot be 44-7983 as that aircraft was obtained as disassembled components from Tallmantz by MARC in 1970 at Chino and was never part of the Air Museum collection. In addition, the paint schemes are clearly different on the two aircraft, the one at the Air Museum in 1968 (?) and the later restored 44-7983 in 1973.