Hi, y’all. I need some help. I got a Toko P-63 kit so I can recreate an aircraft that crashed just outside of Hernando, MS in October, 1944. It was from Strother airfield in Kansas on tdy at Dyersburg, TN, working with B-17 gunnery crews as they trained. I know the serial (42-69442), paint scheme, even the pilot’s name, but I can find no reference for the nose number. A sister a/c bellied in at Dyersburg two days later (42-69449, nose number B62), there’s a pic of three others from google/bing searches with the same paint scheme and similar nose numbers, 42-69066 (B3), 42-69105 (B13), and 42-69450 (B60). I initially wanted to use B61, or maybe 63, but if anyone has a better place to look or has an opinion, I’m open. Thanks, guys!
Hi, Mississippivol
When I saw your post I thought that you might be able to extrapolate an answer by making a chart of the nose numbers in relation to the tail number but quickly realized that the second crashed plane dashes that. I’m assuming that the other numbers that you got off the pictures were from a unit or base history? If you could find a delivery history, that might give you some clue. I was able to find an Air Force inventory form listing of aircraft deliveries for 1968 to find out some of the history of the OV-10 my uncle flew in Vietnam. Maybe you could find one for those birds.
Sorry I couldn’t offer any real help. Good Luck
Yeah, that oddball plane threw me off. The pics I found were from third party sources, with very little context. Thanks for your input!
The only thing I could suggest is asking the DeSoto Times-Tribune if they have any articles on microfilm.
One of my best friends grew up in Como, retired a while back from Fed Ex.
They aren’t too far down the road, I’d forgotten about that, thanks, G!
Any Luck? I was just curious.
Naw, not much. Been dealing with inventory at work, so I haven’t been at it except googling with varied search terms. Found a pic on Flickr of another bird, last four of the serial that I could make out was 8948. Had the “B” code on the nose, but the panel with the number had been pulled…rats! Thanks for checking up.
Found the accident report online, ordered it, but…no number. [:^)]
That bites. So you have the accident report already and no number? No pictures in the report to try and see a number?
The report had only one picture, which was of one of the damaged B-17s. What’s hilarious is that I now know the serial numbers of the engine, prop hub, and each propeller blade[:P]