P-40E N1207V (RAF AL152, RCAF 1082, N1207V, N95GB)

P-40E or P-40D?

Well, first to address some peculiarities about a batch of Curtiss production of P-40s for the British, and particularly the one identified by its RAF serial of AL152. One source that I consider definitive for such production is Air Britain’s 2000 title The British Air Commission and Lend Lease compiled by K.J. Meekcoms. That volume has information that AL152 was part of a batch of 560 Kittyhawk Mark 1s (P-40D) ordered by the British Air Commission (BAC) under contract A-1835. This reference shows 72 of this production block, including AL152, as going the RCAF. Another good source for me is U.S. Military Aircraft Designation and Serials since 1909 by John M. Andrade. This source also shows AL152 as being in the block of Kittyhawk Mark 1s and identifies the first nineteen aircraft of the block as having the Curtiss designation as Model 87A-1 (essentially four 0.50 wing mounted guns) and the last part of the production block, including AL152, being Model 87A-2 with six 0.50 wing mounted guns. The Model 87A-2 is identified as being designated P-40D in U.S. Army Air Corps service. The follow-up P-40E was designated as the Curtiss Model 87A-3.

So, based on the above, one would expect AL152 to be essentially a P-40D with six guns installed in the wings. Curiously, however, Frank Tallman took great pains in September 1958 to correctly identify his newly acquired P-40. He provided a letter to the CAA that stated and a CAA inspector verified the manufacturer’s data tag on the aircraft as identifying it as serial number AL152, manufacturer’s number 452 (presumably fuselage number), “Mod. 87A3” (sic), and another number, 18796, which turns out to be the manufacturer’s serial number. Tallman’s letter also states that the manufacturing date is worn off and could not be identified.

So, the conclusion drawn is that AL152 was built as a Kittyhawk Mark 1A (essentially a P-40E) and not a Kittyhawk Mark 1 (P-40D). There were production changes between the P-40D and P-40E that moved faster than the contractual orders. I suspect that my definitive sources stated the orders as they were submitted, but the resulting production differed as the P-40 design quickly evolved. Actual production lists for the Curtiss P-40 seem to be non-existent so efforts to sort out these tiny bits of confusion are stymied. This confusion does not really matter but for those who pay attention to such things, it is a discrepancy and I, possibly unfortunately, pay attention to such things. No sleep to be lost, though; I’m not that far gone.

RCAF Kittyhawk 1A (RCAF 1082)

In any event, this Kittyhawk 1A was ordered by the British in the days prior to the establishment of Lend-Lease, so it did not receive a corresponding U.S. Army serial number. Its delivery date is unknown but presumed to be late 1941. It was part of the 72 Kittyhawk 1As diverted to RCAF where it gained the RCAF serial of 1082. Wartime service with the RCAF has not been established.

In 1946, it was part of a large batch of RCAF surplus aircraft parked at the RCAF station at Patricia Bay (today’s Victoria International Airport) on Vancouver Island, British Colombia. Fred Dyson from Seattle purchased RCAF 1082 and fourteen other surplus RCAF Kittyhawks for $50 each. He had the lot of them barged from Patricia Bay to Boeing Field at Seattle where they were parked at the eastern end of the airport.

P-40E N1207V Surplus Sale for Civil Use

What follows is a summary of the ownership chain from Fred Dyson (1948) to Frank Tallman (1958). The official registration record is supplemented with material uncovered by Jerry Vernon in his excellent multi-part series, Civilian RCAF Kittyhawks published by Air Classics magazine in 1978. Much of the detail and several photos contained here are drawn from Jerry Vernon’s definitive history of the civilian RCAF P-40s.

• September 13, 1947: from War Assets Corporation of Canada to Fred Dyson, Seattle , WA, as N1207V (registration issued as per a Certification and Recordation Work Sheet)
• February 6, 1948: to Charles Wenzel, Flushing, NY
• June 14, 1950: to Bradley J. Hurd, Akron, CO
• (Vernon: aircraft never went to Colorado; remained parked at Scranton, PA, between 1950 and 1954)
• July 6, 1950: to The Washington County Crop Protective Association, Akron, CO
• (Vernon: sold to Burt Mushkin, Moosic, CT; not recorded)
• (Vernon: sold to Dr. Gordon Clouser, Norman, OK; not recorded)
• (Vernon: March 25, 1953, sold to K.C. Benbow, American Aviation Services, Greenville, NC; not recorded)
• September 13, 1954: to Walter H. Erickson, Jr., Minneapolis, MN
• January 31, 1958: Frank G. Tallman III, Glenview, IL

As per the Vernon history, Walter Erickson trucked the airplane from Wilkes-Barre at Scranton, PA, back to Minneapolis. It was put back into flying condition and flown a bit by Erickson, but then Frank Tallman wanted to trade his ex-RCAF P-40, RCAF 1068, to Erickson so he could get a flying P-40 for movie work. Vernon notes that Ray Reinert of the Victory Air Museum at Mudelein, IL, was involved in bringing Erickson and Tallman together for the trade. Tallman reportedly paid Erickson $2,000 on top of RCAF 1068 to get his flying P-40. There is quite a bit more to the story with Erickson and Tallman’s original P-40 that is covered on the page devoted to RCAF 1068.

Frank Tallman Buys N1207V in January 1958

Tallman thus obtained the airplane in January 1958. He had an ADF antenna installed aft of the cockpit shortly after he purchased the P-40, that large teardrop antenna spoiling the lines of the P-40 and making this particular Kittyhawk instantly recognizable during the period. In October 1958, Tallman made the point of correcting the identity of N1207V to the Curtiss serial of 18796. The first application to the CAA for an Airworthiness Certificate was made in November 1958 with the corrected serial number noted. The airframe and engine records filed with the CAA showed a total of ten flight hours on the airframe and engine.

Tallman at that time was based at Glenview, IL, but Earl Reinert, owner of the Victory Air Museum, recalled that Tallman brought the airplane from Minneapolis to the Palwaukee Airport at Chicago in 1959 and it remained parked there until Tallman moved west to the Flabob airport at Riverside, California, in 1960. For all the talk about Tallman pushing to get N1207V for movie work, there is no record of it being used by Tallman for any film or TV project until after he had merged into Tallmantz Aviation, and even then movie work for the P-40 proved sparse. Either the project that spurred Tallman to get a flying P-40 in 1958 never materialized or it has remained unrecorded in the available records. His main competitor, Paul Mantz, also purchased a flyable P-40N, N923, in November 1958 but there is also no known film or TV project it was initially utilized for. Perhaps some 1958-1959 project surfaced that required P-40s but it never reached production?

Tallman Aviation to California in 1960

Frank Tallman moved his company, Tallman Aviation, from Glenview, IL, to Flabob Airport in 1960 and brought his small but significant aircraft collection with him. The photo below suggests N1207V came to California prior to 1960 but, soon enough, N1207V was parked at Flabob. Photos from the period shows it overall drab green with the requisite Flying Tigers teeth and the civil registration number prominent on the each side of the fuselage in white.

P-40E N1207V to Tallmantz Aviation

In November 1961, Tallman and Mantz merged operations, forming Tallmantz Aviation at Orange County Airport. Tallman moved his collection over the Santa Ana mountains to their new home. Ownership of N1207V did not move to Tallmantz Aviation, however. Tallman retained ownership of the P-40 in his own name until the airplane was sold in 1966.

At some point, probably in 1962, N1207V was repainted, or at least had very light grey paint added over the drab green and the large propeller spinner was painted red. The civil registration number was seen variously in large figures on the fuselage or, alternately, across the vertical stabilizer and rudder. No national markings were evident. The P-40 retained the same tigershark markings on the nose as it carried forth from Tallman. In today’s quest for exactly authentic paint and markings, the 1962 scheme can politely be called “imaginative.” In September 1962, Tallmantz brought N1207V as well as several other aircraft from its collection north to the Oakland Metropolitan Airport for an appearance at the grand re-opening of the airport. In the photo below, taken around that time, the lighter shade appears almost white, possibly either a function of the film or perhaps it was that light in color.

P-40E N1207V Makes a Brief Appearance in the 1967 film Tobruk

The only known film use made by Tallmantz Aviation of P-40E N1207V was a brief appearance in the 1967 film Tobruk. The P-40E appears as an RAF Kittyhawk mistakenly strafing a British column as part of the film plot. The Chinese Nationalist markings were replaced by the RAF markings but the paint scheme appears to be otherwise unchanged.

Sketchy information suggests this sequence was filmed probably in January 1966 somewhere in the Imperial Sand Dunes area of southeastern California. Details are elusive as to who actually flew the P-40 for the scene. Frank Tallman was still recovering from having his leg amputated so it was most likely another Tallmantz pilot, possibly Jim Appleby, who flew the scene. It had to be a bit weird for the Tallmantz crew involved as the location was near where Paul Mantz had been killed during the filming of Flight of the Phoenix just a few months earlier.

P-40E N1207V Is Sold to Rosen-Novak

Shortly after its filming use for Tobruk, N1207V and a large portion of the Tallmantz collection was sold to the Rosen-Novak Auto Company of Omaha, Nebraska. Date of the sale was February 18, 1966. As detailed elsewhere on this site, the sale of the collection was reluctantly made by Frank Tallman in order to set the company’s financial house right. Lawsuits were filed against Tallmantz Aviation, including one  by the Paul Mantz estate, after the July 1965 accident that took Mantz’s life. These and other requirements to settle the Mantz ownership of the company necessitated the sale. The collection remained on display at the Movieland of the Air facility, however, for the subsequent two years.

P-40E N1207V sold in May 1968 during the Tallmantz Auction

Rosen-Novak had hoped to sell the Tallmantz collection intact to another museum or collector, but after that did not materialize, individual aircraft were offered for sale. Sales were slow, however, and in May 1968, Rosen-Novak hired Sotheby’s to conduct an auction of the remaining part of the collection. That auction was held on May 29. 1968, and P-40E N1207V was sold to A.R. Woodson of San Mateo, California, for $7,000. The P-40E was subsequently flown to the Livermore, California, airport where it became based. According to Jerry Vernon’s excellent multi-part article on RCAF Kittyhawks carried in 1978 editions of Air Classics magazine, Dick Woodson was a United Airlines flight engineer. The P-40E was not in the best shape when it was sold by auction, and it remained in marginal condition. 

P-40E N1207V Appears in the 1970 Film Tora Tora Tora

The following year, though, in early 1969, it was leased by a film studio for use in the filming of Tora Tora Tora to take place in Hawaii in the spring. According to Jerry Vernon, N1207V was probably used as the mold for the fiberglass P-40 reproductions made for the air raid scenes in the film. It was one of three real P-40s hired for use in the film, though only two actually appeared, the other being P-40E AK979, N5672N, then owned by Gil Macy. Both P-40s gained standard period Air Corps camouflage paint scheme and markings and were used for several operational and combat scenes in the film. It might be noted that those scenes were filmed by a helicopter while the P-40s were flown against modified T-6 aircraft.

P-40E N1207V Subsequent History

After the Tora Tora Tora filming was completed, the airplane was returned to its Livermore base. It retained its Tora Tora Tora paint scheme for many years and made appearances at various west coast airshows.

On December 20, 1977, P-40E N1207V was sold to Eric Mingledorff of Monroe, Louisiana. It was disassembled and trucked to its new home for a rebuild.

On September 20, 1983, it was sold to Banner, Inc., of Lubbock Texas, but leased back  to Eric Mingledorff so, presumably, the airplane remained at Monroe  and in his possession.

On August 17, 1985, N1207V was sold to John MacGuire of Santa Teresa, New Mexico. MacGuire was the creator of the War Eagles Air Museum based at Santa Teresa. The civil registration was changed from N1207V to N95JB on June 25, 1987.

John MacGuired passed away in 2001 at the age of 80. The ownership of P-40E N95JB was transferred from his estate  to the War Eagles Air Museum on May 20, 2003. Though the P-40E is maintained in near-airworthy condition, it has not been flown for many years. It remains on display at the museum.