// P-40F Kittyhawk Restored
By SGT Warren Amos (Air Force Museum of New Zealand)
The P-40F Kittyhawk, 1996
The baton has been passed between many hands in the 13 years it has taken to reach the final leg of restoring the Air Force Museum’s P-40F Kittyhawk.
The long, arduous journey for this World War II workhorse began in 1941 when it was manufactured in Buffalo, New York. Assigned the serial number 41-14205, it was the 606th of the 699, Rolls Royce Merlin powered, short fuselage, P-40Fs built.
On 23 December 1942 this particular aircraft was part of a four aircraft gunnery training exercise, flying out of Efate airfield in the New Hebridies (now Vanuatu). The flight became disoriented (another term for being lost) during the exercise and all four aircraft force-landed on nearby Erromanga Island after they ran out of fuel. The 14205 was badly damaged and the pilot Second Lieutenant George ‘Ed’ Talbot was injured in the crash. Shortly after, the 14205 was stripped of usable parts and was abandoned.
It was recovered from the Vanuatu jungle in 1989 by Australian enthusiasts and later efforts to restore the Kittyhawk commenced in Australia. Some progress was made but the real work began in 1996, when the Air Force Museum acquired the 14205 in exchange for a F4U-5N Corsair. At that time it was decided to restore the 14205 as a P-40E, to represent the 299 aircraft of this type that the RNZAF operated during the war, in New Zealand and in the Pacific Theatre of operations.
The P-40F Kittyhawk, 2009
The Air Force Museum began its restoration in 1997. Much of the original structure of the aircraft required replacing, as 48 years in the tropical climate and damage caused by the actual crash had taken its toll on the aluminium airframe. To date, a total of 12,500 man-hours have been spent by a succession of museum staff, volunteers, and others seconded from throughout the Air Force to restore the 14205 to its current state.
A huge milestone was reached in August 2009, when the fuselage was married to the completed wings. Now—nearly 13 years later—the old girl is looking a lot more like her old self.