"Bruce Hoy raises the possibility that the fuselage of 41-36166 went to the Land of the Long White Cloud (New Zealand). However, I do not believe that it ever came to NZ - if it did, it arrived in great secrecy and soon departed.
Near the end of the 1974 Tallichet recovery operations, I visited Hula with Monty Armstrong to plan its recovery. That appeared to be an easy task as the aircraft was in good condition, close to a road, and on flat grassland, hence I decided to go looking for a B-26 in the Northern District and left Monty to recover the P-40. I never saw it again, and I returned to New Zealand soon thereafter.
Its prop and spinner later turned up in NZ in the shipment that contained my P-40N 42-104730 plus the makings of several Boomerangs and Spitfires that David had given to us. That consignment also contained a P-39Q 42-19993, Beaufort A9-13, and another P-40N 42-105915. Although these latter three aircraft had been recovered from Tadji, I had nothing to do with their shipment to New Zealand and they were taken by Armstrong (along with the Hula powerplant and large quantities of spare parts) when he moved to Australia soon thereafter. I am certain that the fuselage of 41-36166 was not in that shipment to Auckland, as I was present on the wharf when each container was first opened and took part in the immediate on-site unloading and steam-cleaning of all of their contents.
A couple of years ago I asked Bill Chapman if he recalled the fate of the Hula fuselage. He said that he had discovered at an early stage that it had not, in fact, been delivered to Tallichet but he never knew where it had actually gone.
As of now, it is my understanding that the fuselage was indeed sent to the USA although not to David Tallichet. Instead, it appears to have turned up on charge to the USAF Museum and was displayed for many years at Warner Robins AFB in Georgia. It may now be masquerading as “42-105702” (refer Paul Coggan’s 2004 list of surviving P-40s). However, the real P-40N 42-105702 became P-40N A29-526 with RAAF 84 Squadron and 86 Squadron and was sold for scrap post-war from RAAF Oakey. I am not aware that any part of it has survived. The confusion of identities apparently results from miscalculation of the P-40N sequence number 1273 as relating to 42-105702 when that number actually relates to ‘701 as well as to 41-36166."
