"P-40F Lee's hope" jacket

The P-40F “Lee's Hope,” equipped with Merlin engines, is one of only two aircraft in the world still airworthy. It was manufactured at the Curtiss plant in Buffalo, New York, in the fall of 1942 and was assigned the registration number 41-19841. It was transported by land to the Stockton In-Transit Depot in California, from where it was subsequently sent to the 13th Air Force in the Southwest Pacific on Christmas Eve 1942. Unfortunately, its military career remains a mystery, but the only P-40Fs to have seen combat in the Pacific theater were flown by the 44th and 68th Fighter Squadrons of the 347th Fighter Group in the Solomon Islands from November 1942 to October 1943.

This Warhawk was abandoned in November 1943 on Espiritu Santo, the largest of the Vanuatu islands; it was recovered from that same location in 1970, acquired by The Fighter Collection a few years later, and stored in Australia until restoration began in Wangaratta, Victoria. The extensive restoration was completed in early 2011, and the aircraft made its first flight in 68 years in April of that year.

Due to a lack of information on its service history, this P-40F bears the superb “Lee’s Hope” scheme of the 85th Fighter Squadron, 79th Fighter Group, which was flown by Lt. Robert J. Duffield from the Capodichino airfield in southern Italy in early 1944.