Wideawake was built by the US as a staging post. The remote island airstrip was out of range of German air attack. The presence of P-39s discouraged any attempt to capture Ascension Island. Photo from: National Archives at College Park, Maryland

Reported as both 42-4949 and 42-19027 both of which were recovered by David Tallichet in the early 70s. The 5th Air Force assigned this Airacobra to New Guinea in June 1943. The aircraft was abandoned at Tadji Airfield and remained there for thirty years until recovered in 1974. Pictured on static display at the Planes of Fame Museum, it was sold to Fred Johnson of the Museum Aeronautica in Tacoma WA in 1987 with the intention of making it airworthy. With wartime names "Small Fry" on the right and "Little Sir Echo" on the left, it returned to the Planes of Fame Museum in 2002 where it remains on display.

In the autumn of 1945, this P-39 was found complete (and presumably still crated) on a stray railway wagon near Radom. It was still it its USAAF markings so, presumably, a lend lease airframe that had been transported to the front, but as the war had progressed the plane had become surplus to requirements. The Airacobra was puchased by the Wawelberg & Rotwand Technical School in Warsaw and used for instructional teaching. It then passed to the Mechanical Faculty of the Warsaw University of Technology, however, in all the intervening years the fuselage, the serial and other parts have become lost.

ex USAAF 42-19597

The Civil Aeronautics Authority at war. 42-71464 and 41-19502, on the right, are two of the three XP-39E aircraft, which had supercharged Allison V-1710 engines. Allison is reported to have tested these two airframes at its Indianapolis plant. Information that 41-19502 was written off on 8 February 1943 is apparently wrong. 43-6012 is a P-51A Mustang. Photo from: Federal Aviation Administration

The caption says this photo was taken at Touconnerie but I cannot find that place? I have assumed the model and the photo date (it was taken in WW2) by my father Algernon Spurr. Also the serial may have one digit obscured, any info appreciated.

ex USAAF 42-19597

Showing the "car door" cockpit access.

The RAF ordered 676 Airacobras in April 1940 but performance was far below expectations. No 601 Sqn flew one operational mission, on 9 October 1941, before most of these aircraft were diverted to the Soviet Union. AH621 however went to the RCAF. It crashed on 26 November 1941 near RCAF Rockcliffe, only two weeks after the reported date this photo was taken near the Bell factory in Niagara Falls. Photo by: Rudy Arnold / Smithsonian Institution

Reported as both 42-4949 and 42-19027 both of which were recovered by David Tallichet in the early 70s. Previous displayed with fake serial (42-19027)

As it approaches for landing this aircraft shows off the phenomenal nose wheel leg. The air intake is very evident as these aircraft had the engine fitted behind the pilot, with the propellor drive shaft between the pilot's legs.

This aircraft was a wreck salvaged in Papua New Guinea that travelled to New Zealand and Australia where it was restored to static display by Drage's Air World. In 1989 was sold in the US and eventually displayed at the Museum of Flying with the registration N139DP reserved. From 1996 to 2004 it was restored to airworthy at Chino, flying June 2004 as N739QG. Soon after shipped to the UK to become G-CEJU.

Cancelled as sold in the USA in January 2010 where it became N139RL

Cancelled as sold in the USA in January 2010 where it became N139RL

[Nikon D750 + Tamron SP 24-70mm/2,8G VC]

Recovered from Weipa, Queensland, where it force landed on May 1, 1942. Museum closed in 2016