KITTYHAWK JUNGLE RESCUE P-40 GETS A NEW LEASE ON LIFE
Harvey watched the first P-40 in the landing pattern sequence touch and immediately flip. Apprehensive, but with no other choice since every aircraft’s low-fuel-pressure light flickered red after an exhausting positioning flight, he lowered the “alighting gear.” Concentrating on landing shorter and slower, his 30-inch tires and oleo-pneumatic shock struts locked into place under the 37-foot, 3.5-inch wings. At contact, he, too, went upside down in a flurry of lacerated leaves, shredded bark and surprised ants.
Bomb craters created by previous softening-up attacks had disturbed the water table and turned the ground engineers’ handiwork into gigantic mud pies. A desperate construction commander ordered Harvey’s P-40 pushed aside before the concussed pilot could extricate himself. The remaining squadron aircraft managed to find compact spots and finished their flights correct side up. As for Harvey’s favored airplane, A-29-141 (USAAF 42-10487), became a grub-infested, creeper-covered, insect tenement.
Recovery & restoration
Decades later, warbird enthusiasts began searching the world for restorable Curtiss P-40s. In 2001, Australian restoration expert Robert Greinert discovered Harvey’s relatively intact A-29-141. After dragging his find into daylight, he passed the remains to New Zealand’s Pioneer Aero Restorations in Ardmore. Founded in the early 1990s, the organization knew fighter airplanes well after
