P-40N-5-CU C/N 28748 USAAC tail No 42-104986 of the 49th Fighter Group, 8th Fighter Squadron. This Warbird was produced from a 1942 contract by Curtiss aircraft at Buffalo, New York in mid-1943 and upon delivery to the United States Army Air Corps it was disassembled and shipped overseas and reassembled in Australia and flown north to PNG. At this time the aircraft tail was painted with a white tail section with a black checkerboard pattern of the 49th Fighter Group.