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There are now three sharkface Zenairs chasing poachers in Africa. Here is #3 on the ground at Zakooma National Park in Chad, which lost 93 elephants and 2 rangers to poachers last year. Other aircraft are in Kenya and Ghana, and more are planned. (The article that follows was written four years ago.)

The Tigers Fly Again

The original Flying Tigers were the men of the American Volunteer Group, whose shark-faced P-40s became an icon of Allied resistance against Japanese aggression in 1941-42. They evolved into the U.S. Army's 23rd Fighter Group, and their colors saw service--on Cobra helicopters and A-10 Warthogs--in Operation Desert Storm.

The Tigers are taking to the air again, this time in a Zenair CH-701 short-takeoff monoplane that flies as slow as 10 knots. (One pilot claims he can "hang it on the prop" with an indicated airspeed of zero.) The target is animal poachers in Africa.

Assembled in the Czech Republic, the Zenair then went to Israel for the installation of tundra tires, Kevlar armor, extra-quiet muffler, and other bush-specific modifications.

The Taiwanese Executive Yuan--lineal descendant of the Chinese Nationalist government that hired the first Flying Tigers--gave the project its blessing and $100,000.

The aircraft (I regret to say that it is named "Bunny Hugger" is to be named on 23 October at 11 a.m. "at a small air field in the coastal dunes about 12 km. south of Tel Aviv." If you attend, you qualify for free lunch and a free ride. His Excellency Chung Chen-Hung from the Republic of China (Taiwan) will be on hand to reactivate the Flying Tigers.

The Zenair's first pilot will be an American doctor, Bill Clark, who expects to take the plane to Kenya for a shakedown with that country's 18-plane wildlife surveillance squadron. After that, he hopes to use it to track an elephant herd in Ethiopia. There was talk of basing it at Takoradi, the former Gold Coast, where the AVG P-40Es were assembled in the spring of 1942 before being flown to China.

The Zenair will sport a 12-pointed sun rather like the one worn by the AVG P-40s in 1941-42. But Flying Tiger buffs may be disappointed with some of its acessories. Instead of a shark's eyes and teeth on the cowling, Dr. Bill plans to paint the plane as a flying giraffe. [In the end, as you can see, he compromised and did both.]

He will also omit the machine guns.