P40 Model

You can peer through a nuclear attack submarine’s periscope and gaze around Camp Dodge here, even sighting in on the general’s quarters.

You can push a button to make the machine guns flash on a life-size replica of a P-40 Tomahawk fighter painted with a toothy grin from World War II.

You can salute all of Iowa’s war veterans, including several dozen Medal of Honor recipients as far back as the Civil War, as you walk through the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum. More than 23,000 people did so as they visited the museum in 2011.

“We think we’ll break the 25,000 barrier this year,” says Col. Greg Hapgood, director of public affairs and strategic communications for the Iowa National Guard. “We keep getting 1,000 or 2,000 more each year.”
The museum has grown from a handful of displays in the room of a chapel in 1985 to about 38,000 square feet of exhibit and storage space. It has 328 small arms of all persuasions, from American and German to Spanish and Chinese, in the gun room; more than 6,000 books about war in the research library; and about 140,000 donated items neatly stored on hangers and shelves in the behind-the-scenes storage area.

Always a work in progress — the museum nearly doubled in size with an addition in 2009 — the latest major exhibit pays tribute to four Iowa pilots of the famed “Flying Tigers,” a volunteer group that flew from Burma to defend China in the early days of World War II.

A replica of the P-40 Tomahawk suspended from the ceiling last month is painted in the color scheme of the plane flown by Bill Reed, a Marion pilot who recorded nine aerial kills with the “Flying Tigers” and later, the Army Air Force. He was killed on Dec. 19, 1944, while bailing out of his disabled aircraft over China.

Since Reed was both a hero and a victim of the war, his plane serves as a perfect symbol for the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum, says curator Michael Vogt.

Beginning in World War I, families would display a blue star at their homes to signify a member in the service. A gold star meant the family had lost someone in the service.

While Vogt, 44, didn’t serve in the military, his father was in the Air Force. Vogt graduated from high school in Gladbrook and has, among photos on his office wall, one from when he was 7 sitting in a replica red, white and blue biplane made by his father for the town’s annual Corn Carnival in 1976.

Vogt earned a master’s degree at UNI with a thesis about Iowa in the Spanish-American War, then worked for the Historical Society of Marshall County before coming to this museum in 1999.

As the only federally recognized repository for military artifacts in the state, The Iowa Gold Star Military Museum is supported by the state (state employees and state-owned building), the military because it’s at Camp Dodge and through donations to the non-profit Iowa National Guard Memorial Association.

Iowans have generously donated items through the years, each of which Vogt considers before accepting.
“I make a decision on everything that comes through the door,” he says. “If it fits a niche in our collection. If it tells a good story about an Iowa veteran.”

Vogt says he is amazed at the variety as he walks past hundreds of uniforms, equipment and other artifacts in the storage area.

“We get things donated to the collection that beg me to ask, ‘How did this survive?’ We have toilet paper with Kaiser Wilhelm’s (WWI) caricature on it,” Vogt says.

A collection of Reed’s memorabilia, including the suitcase he carried off to war, were donated by his nephew, Ed Reed of Omaha, Neb. They’re displayed behind glass to add authenticity to the P-40 Tomahawk overhead.

The life-size replica joins genuine machinery, from a Word War I German artillery piece and a World War II M3 Half-Track armored troop carrier to helicopters from the Vietnam and Desert Storm war e

Showcase Models has a huge selection of aviation collectibles like the P-40 model airplane for you to choose from. The largest selection of wooden airplane models and desk model airplanes are authentically detailed according to the original blueprints of the aircraft.

Source: http://thegazette.com

The Cavanaugh Flight Museum (CFM) will fly many of its treasured WWII, Korean and Vietnam-era airplanes, including: the P-51 Mustang,FM2 Wildcat, T-28B Trojan, OV1D Mohawk and “FiFi” the world’s only flyable Boeing B-29 Superfortress.

Along with these great warbirds is the P-40 Warhawk. The Cavanaugh Flight Museum’s P-40N (serial number 44-7369) was constructed at the Curtiss-Wright plant in Buffalo, New York and was delivered to the Army Air Force (AAF.) On May 26,1944. The plane was sent in June 1944 to Peterson Army Air Field, Colorado Springs, Colorado and served with the 268th AAF Base Unit (Combat Crew Training Station-Fighter, Second Air Force).

In March 1945, the P40 aircraft was transferred to the 232nd AAF Base Unit (2nd A.F.), stationed at the Dalhart Army Air Field (Texas). In June 1945, the plane was disposed as surplus.

The P-40N was purchased by the museum in 1995 from Joseph Mabee, who had owned the aircraft since 1978. Today, the aircraft is painted in the scheme of Major General Charles R. Bond, Jr.’s No. 5 and is representative of P-40Bs and P-40Es flown by the Flying Tigers in the early days of World War II. The aircraft often appears at air shows across the country.

Source: prlog.org, cavanaughflightmuseum.com

As a youngster growing up in Taiwan, Nick Gargano was a natural fan of the 1st American Volunteer Group of the Chinese Air Force in the early 1940s, more popularly known as the Flying Tigers. The pilots wore jackets with the Nationalist Chinese flag-now flown by Taiwan-giving them special meaning to the Taipei-born Gargano.

Eventually motorcycles became a focus of Gargano’s life, and two-strokes the object of his devotion. An ingenious amalgamation of parts, his P40 Flying Tiger is powered by a Yamaha RZR350R two-stroke motor rebuilt by Jay Mendoza, featuring a Pro Design Cool Head and custom stainless steel Jim Lomas expansion chambers with one-off titanium mufflers. RG500.com was the source of many custom parts, including an aluminum radiator, billet clutch housing and aluminum boost bottle, while RGV Steve’s Motorcycles supplied custom rear sets, headlight and aluminum kickstand.

To modernize the chassis, a late-model Yamaha YZF-R6 front end was grafted to the bike and a Honda NSR250 single-sided swingarm with a Penske shock was installed. Kunihide Okamoto sourced exotic Japanese parts, including the gauges and solo seat cowl.

But, the centerpiece of the bike is its graphic treatment. “The flashing shark’s teeth of the Curtis-Wright P-40s and trademark as Flying Tigers are world famous. I have seen many different versions of the Flying Tiger paint theme on cars and motorcycles,” Gargano explains, “so to honor the AVG, I decided to build my version of the famous paint theme featuring the shark mouth. I used Illustrator to design the over-theme of the bike and decal placement, and RG500.com had the bike painted to my design.” Having accomplished his goal, Gargano is selling the motorcycle and moving on to a Suzuki RG500-based project.

The result is a stunning tribute to the brave men who rallied to protect an American ally from aggression in the days preceding our country’s official involvement in World War II.

-ultimatemotorcycling.com

Flying Tigers was the popular name of the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Air Force in 1941-1942. They were mostly former United States Army (USAAF), Navy (USN), and Marine Corps (USMC) pilots and ground crew, recruited under Presidential sanction and commanded by Claire Lee Chennault. The group consisted of three fighter squadrons with about 20 aircraft each.

Many US volunteer pilots flew on behalf of Britain, the Soviet Union and China before the United States entered the war. A group of them, equipped with P-40s, went to help the Chinese in their struggle against the Japanese in 1942, where they became known as the ‘Flying Tigers’ because of their uniquely painted aircraft. This group later became part of the USAAF proper, and P-40s were thereafter used widely in the Pacific.