The left side of Pima's B-29 - details with my right side shot ref #697830

Although painted as a US Navy JRC-1 of NAS Alameda in 1943, this UC-78 was delivered to the USAAF as 42-39162 in 1943 and at some stage post-war was sold as N66794. Damaged at Sonoma in August 1975 when it ground looped and hit a parked aircraft. To Pima in 1985

The P-39 was an unusual design when it appeared in 1937. Among its many unorthodox design features are the mounting of the engine behind the pilot, the use of automobile type doors on the sides of the cockpit, and tricycle landing gear. Although performance was good at low altitudes, it was poor higher up but a large nose-mounted cannon made it effective for ground attack. Pima's example is in the marks of 110th TRS, New Guinea, 1944

Entered MASDC storage in 1965 and moved to the nascent Pima County Museum in 1969

Constructed as a F-84F-40-RE by General Motors-Fisher Body at Kansas City and entered MASDC in 1958. Has been displayed for many years in false Thunderbirds colours. Although the USAF's aerobatic team used F-84Fs over the 1955 and 1956 seasons, this was not one of them. When its turn comes for refurbishment, hopefully will be put into authentic markings, its actual service career having encompassed the 7485th ADW, 81st FBW (RAF Bentwaters) and 3600th CCTW

Displayed as flown by the 1402nd MAS, Shaw AFB, SC from 1975 to 1977 and joined Pima in 1986

This Spitfire was with 613 Sqdn (City of Manchester) at Ringway Airport immediately after WWII. Used as a gate guardian at RAF Cosford and then at RAF Freckleton in silver colours before being taken in at the RAF Museum Cosford. Appropriately from 1995 it was displayed in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. Transferred to the RAF Museum Hendon in 2014, then to Pima in 2017. Some years ago coding has been switched from 'AX' to 'XA' but there are several questioning correctness.

Preserved in the markings of 5th Combat Cargo Squadron, Townsville, Australia, 1944

Built at Boeing Wichita as B-29 and assigned to the 330th BG based in Guam in 1945. By the war's end, "Sentimental Journey" had flown 31 missions. Converted to TB-29 in 1951 and renamed "Dopey" in March 1954 when assigned to the 4713th Radar Evaluation Squadron at Griffiss AFB NY, flying radar defence evaluation flights until the late 1950s. First arrived at Davis Monthan in 1959, being placed on 'Celebrity Row' from 1965 as 0-470016. Now exhibited as it operated from Guam in 1945 (with dual naming either side of nose)

Built by North American Aviation, Kansas City, Kansas as a B-25J and delivered to the USAAF in April 1944 and converted to TB-25J in 1947 and TB-25N in 1955, this Mitchell became a gate guard at Davis Monthan in 1958. It is now displayed as operated by 11th Air Force at Elmendorf AAF, AK in 1945

Despite improvements over the P-39, the P-63 was inferior to other fighters and the vast majority of the 3,303 built were supplied to Russia. With its mid-mounted Allison engine exposed by a viewing panel, this Kingcobra dates back to 1943 when it was built for the USAAF, being sold to the Honduran AF in 1948. In 1960 it was repatriated as N9003R and ended up in open storage at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. In the early 1970s, now under the care of the USAF Museum, it was loaned to Pima and was painted in a Soviet scheme, before the restoration that saw it brought inside in the mid-1990s

The US Army made limited use of the Dauntless as the A-24 Banshee. Their combat experience with the plane was not as successful as the Navy's. After mid-1942 it was mainly used as a trainer or in lower risk combat areas of the Pacific. Note that a similarly numbered SBD-6 Dauntless, Bu Aer 54654, is preserved in the USS Midway Museum in San Diego.

The CH-46F is Bu Aer 157682 but oddly was registered to the National United States Armed Forces Museum in Texas in September 2022. To the left in this storage area view is E-1B 148922 and to the right F-4S 155539, the second 'Black Bunny' Phantom to serve with the USN's VX-4 test squadron, repositioned from AMARC storage and being prepared for the Castle Air Museum where it was moved later in 2023

Taken on Charge with the US Army with s/n 51-16608 in 1953, this Retriever was transferred to the Navy in 1958 as 147595. Stored at Litchfield Park, AZ from 1962. Registered N9685Z in 1975. Donated to Pima in 1981, restored in the 1961 colours of HU-1, Atsugi Naval Air Facility, Japan and initially displayed indoors but later moved outside where it deteriorated. Restored again and returned under cover in 2020 - it now looks superb and so much better without the extensive latex glazing protection used outdoors in the unforgiving Arizona sun.

Reconstructed from the parts of several P-40s, this aircraft is now finished in the 1942 colours of the 7th FS, 49th FG, New Guinea. P-40E 41-25163 was built by Curtiss at Buffalo in 1941 and had been intended for the RAAF but was diverted to the USAAF in New Guinea. In December 1942 it suffered a landing accident at 17 Mile Drome near Port Moresby. It is claimed that parts were used for this rebuild, completed by the Historic Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS) at Albion Park Airfield, NSW in 2017

The Tigercat narrowly missed WWII but operated successfully as a night fighter and on night ground interdiction missions during the Korean War. Phased out of Marine service by 1954, several were sold for aerial firefighting. Of the 364 F7Fs built, fewer than 10 remain. This one became N7627C with Cal-Nat in 1962. Damaged when the gear folded in a landing at Grass Valley, CA the same year, it went on to Sis-Q of Santa Rosa in 1969. Now immaculately presented in the marks of VMF(N)-533, MCAS Cherry Point, NC around 1952

Registered in 1959 as N3771A and intended for the Honduran AF, but sale fell through. During static restoration in the late 1970s at Mojave, it is reported that the data plate was inadvertently swapped for that of F4U 97349, leading to it being painted as that aircraft. Displayed at the National Naval Aviation Museum, Pensacola as such from the mid-1980s. Loaned to Pima by 1997 and now displayed with its correct identity.

By 1945 several squadrons of Privateers were conducting operations from the Philippines to the Aleutian Islands. The PB4Y-2 with its distinctive single tail was much better equipped than the earlier PB4Y-1, which was basically just an adapted B-24, and stayed in Navy service after the war for missions such as weather reconnaissance and signals intelligence, before being retired around 1955. Several were then modified as civilian air tankers used in fighting forest fires until 2002. This one was tanker 'C30', registered N3739G, now restored in the colours of VPB-120, Shemya Island, AK in 1945

After a raid on Japanese forces at Wewak in May 1944 this A-20 was damaged by ground fire and forced to land in the Bumbura Swamp near Annamberg in the Ramu Valley of New Guinea. Abandoned on site. The largely intact airframe was lifted out by a Mi-26 helicopter and recovered by the RAAF Museum for use as a parts source for A-20 A28-8 and A-20 42-86786 in 1994. Moved to the RAF Museum, Hendon in 2005 where restoration was begun and passed to Pima in 2018. Now finished in the colours worn prior in 1944 while operating with the 89th BS, 3rd BG, Fifth Air Force, Nadzab, New Guinea.