Aircraft History
The aircraft's call number '37' was painted on the side of the nose. This P-38 was first assigned to 1st Lt. John Dunbar who named the plane "Dumbo!", his nickname in the squadron. He painted the Disney Character 'Dumbo' on the side of his aircraft, with the pink elephant running, trailing nuts and bolts in a cloud of dust.

Wartime History
This P-38 forced landed by 39th FS pilot Lt. Hamilton Laing on September 2, 1943 at Terapo Airfield with one propeller out, and low on gas.

Wreckage
The wreck was rediscovered in 1980 and reported to Bruce Hoy at the PNG Museum. Two trips were made to the wreck on May 24 and June 7, 1980.

The nose section was recovered by the RAAF on June 13, 1980 for the PNG museum. Later, this nose section was used for the restoration of the PNG Museum's P-38 42-12647.

Later, Bruce Hoy visited John Dunbar in the United States and presented a gun blast tube from the wreck.

The rest of the aircraft was recovered during 2002, by Robert Greinert / HARS. According to Greinert, he recovered it "for use in future restorations".

Export In Australia
Containered at Port Moresby, the wreckage was exported to Sydney and stored in a hanger at Bankstown AIrfield until 2004. Then, moved to Precision Aerospace, where it is stored outdoors. Reportedly, this wreckage is now owned by Gerald Yagen.

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Last Updated
October 20, 2009

P-38


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