Revised and updated May 2023
WARBIRD HOME > AVG > PHOTO PLANE
By Pablo Calcaterra at Modeling Madness website
[There has long been a dispute about which Tomahawk served as the AVG photo plane, most often piloted by Erik Shilling. The following is adapted from Pablo Calcaterra's reconstruction. For more photos and details of the actual build, see his article at Modeling Madness online.]
P-8153 arrived in Rangoon in June 1941. It was initially allocated to the 1st Squadron and received the white ID band along with a fuselage number around September. Between October and November it was transferred to the 2nd squadron and received the light blue ID band without losing the white one....
P-8153 became the photo ship before December and at this point we can see the plane with the 2 ID bands, potentially the Swami [the stylized image of a Hindu mystic, seen near the cockpit in the image above] and for sure a two digit fuselage number that ends with a 0. More about this below.
On December 9 this plane flew the first recco mission. After the 3rd squadron returned to Kunming, China and was replaced with the 2nd squadron that flew to Burma this plane remained in Kunming and thus became part of the 3rd squadron. At this point it is clear to see that the fuselage numbers were overpainted in green. The patch can be seen as a round area coming forward from the area of the ID bands thus modifying the original cammo pattern....
Around mid-March the Disney decals started to arrive. The plane now can be seen with the Swami, apparently 5 stars close to the Swami (recco missions?), the Disney Tiger with the V, the left wing Chinese roundel overpainted and the first digit now becoming apparently a 7. [This] sense as the high numbers belonged to the 3rd squadron and they repainted in red the ID bands of the planes they had inherited.... Did P-8153 get her white/blue bands overpainted in red? There's no photographic evidence but it is highly probable.
It is believed that the recco plane was converted to a standard fighter but as late as July 3rd Charlie Bond tells the story of a scramble against a Japanese raid and him in a P-40E (114) shaking off a Zero from the tail of another P-40. Then a third P-40 formed on him. "It was Bob Raines flying the old P-40 photo ship, which had no guns!" ... Then this plane fades into history. I was not able to find anything more about it after July 4, 1942.
Now onto the mystery of the digits: The 1st Squadron had low numbers [1-33]. When the plane was assigned to it, 10 was Farrell's (Pistole), 30 was Charlie Mott's, and 20 had no known serial number or pilot assigned. As we have seen in the picture in December when pilots gather around P-8153 with the [two] ID bands we can [see] a 0. It is then my conclusion that the first digit is the 2 because it is the only number (20) on the 1st squadron that has no known pilot or serial number. [There was no fuselage number 50 in the 2nd Squadron.]
What about [Shilling's] time with the 3rd squadron? In this case we can see a 7 in the picture taken around March. As a consequence they must have used the second digit of a previously lost plane and thus a number that was available.... Going thru the options we have:
70 but it was P-8118 and it does not have double ID bands, 71 was 8119 and had the area inside the mouth painted in Chinese blue (the recco's was not painted inside), 72 is an option as it was lost in combat before March, 73 has the eye in the wrong position, 74 has black lips, 75 was P-8186 but had brown tongue and inside mouth was painted light grey, 76 we have limited information (a possibility?), 77 was [R T Smith's] so totally discarded, 78 was damaged in combat on Feb 25 1942 and quite useless at that because it was the recco ship according to Charlie Bond and finally 79 was P-8135 and was flown by Hedman and Reed being lost in combat and also can be another option.
In short, the only options of available numbers are 72, 78 and 79 with French author Jean-Louis Couston firmly claiming it was 78....
Note that the 23FG website claims it was P-8147 [fuselage number] 52 but the picture available in their website and elsewhere shows the plane with black lips and a single light (blue?) ID band. As a consequence 52 can't be the recco ship. So as Scott says: there you have it. The recco ship was 20 and then most likely it became 78.
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