how many types of aircraft carried the sharks teeth on them? i know i can remember the p-40, a-10, f-4, and the f-14. are thier any others?
I realize it isn’t an “airplane”, but the 174th ARA “Sharks” carried Teeth on their UH-1B/C/M’s in Vietnam, after “Flying Tigers” Ret. Gen. Robert Scott gave his blessings to once again carry the Sharks Teeth into combat.
Reference at:
http://www.americal.org/174/174ahc6.htm
Frank
The p38
Theres a book called shark’s teeth live forever about that motif on planes.
It covers WWI to modern day.
For WWII aircraft, I’ve seen profiles of a P-51 and P-39 with them on and I know at least one squadron of US Navy F6F Hellcats had them for a brief time.
I’ve seen US Navy F11 tigers (mid 1950’s) with them.
I think the British actually used them first, on P-40s (their ‘Kitty Hawks’), and the ‘Flying Tigers’ actually borrowed the idea from that.
A3D-2, F9F, A-7, F-8, if you look hard enough you can probably find them on just about anything.
i have a book with a pic of a lancaster with 4 sets of sharkmouths on it. the aussies had some spitfires with teeth too. no5 sqn RAF had an EE Lightning with a sharkmouth on it and the 1/72 hasegawa BAC Jaguar was released with sharkmouth markings
Greg
I once saw a photo of a B-24 with them as well.
Just my opinion. I’ve seen alot of other aircraft with the sharks mouth on them (Mustang, Lightning, Hellcat, Spitfire, Liberator etc…) but they all seem to fall short. The shark’s mouth just seems to be the perfect nose art for the P-40. It just matches the shark profile of the plane so perfectly.
To say that you could find shark mouths on just about any military aircraft is true.
I’ve seen photos of CP-140 Auroras (Canadianized P-3 Orion) with special shark mouths painted on each engine cowling for participation in the Fincastle ASW competitions.
The RAF unit best know for the shark mouths was 112 Squadron, it started with their P-40s, continued into their Vampire and Sabre eras as well.
For a certain period of time, the Phantom of RAF 56 Squadron’s CO had a sharks mouth on it.
Another interesting shark motif was on an SU-27 Flanker, It had a full shark painted down one side of the fuselage.
A memorable one that I saw pictures of was a Handley Page Victor tanker during Desert Storm. The story was that it had a bit of a landing accident and the sharks mouth was painted on to obscure the blemish.
Frank, Nice shot of one of our Sharks! Thanks for the plug and the fact we asked permission. A lot of Units didn’t.
My favorite was a picture of a Russian La-5, what a grin.
In WW1 at least one Roland Waal had a set of sharks teeth on it. RAAF Spitfire Mk VIIIs had Sharks teeth painted on the nose. It may have been only one and carried the name Grey Nurse and was based in Darwin.
Dai
Mel,
[sigh] I only recently learned of Fred’s passing, and recall the first time he and I talked, him telling me the story of how your Birds come to have the big Shark’s Teeth on them. He sent me some pictures of “Ace of Spades” a few years back, when I built a Monogram 1/48 B Model Hog of it for someone.
When I saw this Topic, that’s the first thing I thought about. [:)]
God Bless,
Frank
Mel,
“Ace of Spades”
This is one of the picture Fred sent for building reference.
Frank [;)]
There were a few Bf 110’s that had sharks teeth. I think they were based in the Med.
A lot of them sported the sharkmouth: P-38, P-39, P-40, P-47, P-51, B-25, B-26, B-24,B-17, C-47,Me110,Spitfire,Vampire, F-4, B-52, T-28, A-10, F-8, Ouragan, A-26,F-105,A-7, F-14, Cobra, Huey. There maybe more
Frankly, I don’t think there was a military plane that HASN’T had a shark mouth applied at one time or another. 
I have loaned to me a picture of an L-5 observation plane with a sharks mouth painted on. I know of at least one US pilot in WWI who painted a mouth on his Nieuport 28. [:)]
Regards,
-Drew
Maybe the list would be easier if the question was “What airplane HASN’T had a sharkmouth on it?” I have the P-61 “Borrowed Time” on my shelf with a nice slim sharkmouth on it too.
Eric