There are are a ton of mass-produced well known aircraft (B-17, P-51, ME-109) and then their are your prototypes and specialty use aircraft, but I was thinking today about aircraft that fell into obscurity despite being produced in fairly large numbers.

My vote is for the P-63 Kingcobra, direct successor to the mostly-maligned and shipped to the Soviets Bell P-39, there were 3,303 P-63s built. Which is a fairly significant number for a plane that is unknown to non-enthusiasts.

It was the crews second mission to the target area that day. MACR 6454 1st Lt. Murry B. Wiginton,Jr. - Pilot (KIA) 2nd Lt. William E. Wigginton - CoPilot (KIA) PFC Norford G. Meador - Togglier (KIA) Sgt. Ernest D. Casey - Engineer/Gunner (KIA) S/Sgt. Wesley B. Hoffman - Radio Operator/Gunner (KIA) S/Sgt. Philip A. Iannotta - Tail Gunner (KIA)

In 1942 one G.50bis was converted to a special configuration intended to fullfil armed reconnaisance roles for the air group of the aircraft carrier Aquila, then under construction. The Re.2001 was the designated fighter. For this role, the G.50 was given larger fuel tanks, 4 machine guns and a landing hook. As the carrier was not finished before the armistice, the project was dropped. The Aquila stayed under german control until the end of the war and was later scrapped.

Info on this bird is scarce, sorry if it's not accurate.

“Yippee” was the 5,000th P-38 Lightning

We made a video about the Me262 which features a Jumo004 in our museum and the flying replica of the FlugMuseum Messerschmitt. Video in comments.

While the DPAA makes good progress on the Lindell crew lost on Dec 26th 1944 (with recent reburial of Myron Yaw, and upcoming ceremony for Avery Gilliland), there are more airmen who died over Blechhammer and are still unaccounted for.

On October 13th, 1944, 2nd Lt Meyer’s crew of 455th BG was shot down, and the wreck fell into the forest between Blechhammer North and Blechhammer South. There were only two survivors, and 8 men died. Four were recovered and identified after the war, but the burial sites of 2nd Lt. Meyer, F/O Fajans, F/O Bray, Cpl. Bartholow were never found. They are still unaccounted for.

The local Blechhammer 44 Association remembers the crew in their museum. Here is their post published earlier this week, on the anniversary of this tragedy.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1Gydq3aN5v/?mibextid=wwXIfr

You will find more stories of American airmen over Poland in WWII on my Substack:

https://open.substack.com/pub/sserwatka

Looking for any information on this "tank"? I can only find these tear dropped shaped tanks on models, was this something they really did or where do I need to go to research these? I appreciate any advice, thanks in advance!

https://collections.rafmuseum.org.uk/collection/object/object-1810/

Happy Anniversary to the veterans and families involved in the Second Schweinfurt Mission by the 8th Air Force, October 14, 1943. My father was copilot of TS (Big Moose) of the 384th Bomb Group. They were shot down that day; my father bailed out and ended up in Stalag Luft III. Above is a watercolor painting from my father’s scrapbook he made during his internment depicting part of that battle.