T ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE 840

[Pages:1]There is nothing like the sound of an Allison V-1710 bursting into life. As much as I love the racket created by the Rolls-Royce/Packard V-1650 Merlin, the Allison is really something great -- especially since it is an American designed and built powerplant. I was in our Baron camera plane at Chino Airport on 27 April when Matt Nightingale, parked alongside in a Curtiss P-40M, gave a thumbs up for engine start. With just a few puffs of smoke, the Allison came alive with its characteristic deep growl and we were soon taxiing to the active for the start of a photo mission that would take us back in history. The following is the story of that P-40 and its long history.

ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE 840

On 29 January 1943, Curtiss P-40M-10-CU USAAF 43-5802 was taken on strength by the Royal Canadian Air Force as Kittyhawk Mk. III RCAF 840. The fighter was then assigned to Western Air Command and placed with the Fighter Affiliation Flight of No. 5 Operational Training Unit.

Many of the RCAF Kittyhawks had been struck off strength on 23 August 1946 and RCAF 840 was one of them. This meant that the aircraft were available for civilian purchase. On 27 September 1947, Vance B. Roberts of Seattle, Washington, purchased a surplus RCAF 840 from Canada's War Assets Administration with invoice VAN No. 30609, which also included RCAF 729 and 845. The price was $50 per aircraft and RCAF 840 received the US civil registration N1233N.

By 1954, a CAA register shows that the Kittyhawk was owned by one Art J. Bell of Bell Air Services located at Boeing Field in Seattle.

During the 1970s, Canadian aviation historian Jerry

AN HISTORIC CURTISS P-40M RETURNS TO THE USA FOR NEW OWNERS DIANE AND STEVE MAIER

BY MICHAEL O'LEARY

Vernon interviewed Vance Roberts and learned how Bell became the owner of RCAF 840. "I was in Arizona or California, picking up a Curtiss C-46," recalled Roberts. "While I was gone, Art Bell talked the airport manager into auctioning off my P-40s for tie-down. I was only about $150 to $200 behind on tie-down and I didn't even know about it until I got back to Seattle and they said it was too late. I think he got two of them."

Things get a bit confusing after this because it seems that by 1951, the P-40M -- or Kittyhawk Mk. III, depending on preference -- was with Oregon State University for use as an instructional airframe.

In Troutdale, Oregon, Bob Sturges was scouring various locations for surplus military aircraft. Schools proved to be a good source since many had received surplus airframes but by the 1950s they were looking to get rid of these "eyesores." At the time, Bob, who had been a Boeing B-17 field service representative overseas during the war, was searching for B-17s in particular. However, this was a case of "waste not, want not."

Jerry interviewed Bob who commented, "I won the aircraft [P-40] on a bid from Oregon State University and they simply gave me a piece of paper not properly identi-

fying the aircraft and which was not acceptable as a bill of sale by the FAA. So, in order to get a correct title, I had to register the plane as a P-40N [Bob did this by using the identity of a scrapped P-40N -- N1009N USAAF 43-23484/RCAF 877]. From the date of acquisition in 1954 until 1961, I used the P-40M as a roadside billboard to identify our operation on the Troutdale Airport. At that time, we dismantled the aircraft for restoration. It was in very good condition."

Of course, as with most of these aircraft there was more to the story. "In 1951, the Israeli government was out buying P-51 Mustangs," continued Bob. "Oregon State College -- now Oregon State University -- had a P-51 donated by the government [see photograph page 33]. They could not sell the plane under the government contract, but they could trade it. They said `We're only interested in getting an airplane with retractable landing gear and hydraulics, so if you want to trade us an airplane so equipped -- and some cash to boot -- then we will trade.' Whoever was acting as agent for the Israelis got N1233M plus $1000 and gave it to the school for the Mustang. In 1954, the school decided to get rid of the P-40."

Oregon State College had to auction the P-40M with at least three bidders. The school had learned this the hard way when they sold Bob Sturges a B-17G in a straightforward sales deal and had then been fined by the US government. The school convinced Sturges that he owed them a favor and he bid on the P-40M. "Actually, I had been keeping an eye on the P-40 for some time. Fred Dyson originally ferried

the aircraft from Patricia Bay to Seattle and it was sold out of the group of fighters that he bought. Vance Roberts and Art Bell then started fighting over ownership and the P-40 ended up parked at Harrisburg, Oregon. Hardly anyone, except people like me, had any interest in ex-RCAF P-40s," recalled Sturges. As successful bidder, he got the aircraft, but the bill of sale merely identified the plane as "one F-40 [sic] airplane" with no serials or registration. By this time, Sturges had become the "king" of B-17 parts and he did not have a tremendous amount of time for the P-40. Sturges noted, "I kept watching what was happening with surplus aircraft as the years went by -- especially what was happening price-wise with these damn things. I told my son, `You'd better take it apart and you'd better get it out of the

weather and start doing something about restoration.' So, we dis-

30 AIR CLASSICS/July 2018

Few American WWII aircraft define the word "classic" better than the Curtiss P-40 series. Matt Nightingale displays P-40M N40P near Chino Airport on 27 April.

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