American Airpower Museum

The American Airpower Museum's P-40N, The Jackie C was originally built at the Curtiss factory in Buffalo, New York in 1943 and designated the Curtiss P40N-10-CU with serial number 43-5795. It operated with number 133 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force from February 5, 1943 until August 23, 1946 as AK 845. It was sold to Fred Dyson, along with several others, in 1947 and barged to Boeing Field in Seattle.

It was purchased by W. Keith Larkin on June 12, 1956 to be used for his Weather Modification Company in San Jose, California as a cloud seeder and registered as N1232N. It was later sold in 1961 and moved to Sonoma ,California until being purchased by legendary collector of world-class antique cars and aircraft, Bill Harrah of Harrah's Casino in Reno Nevada on December 8, 1964 .

After Harrah's death the collection was sold andthe P-40 was obtained by Tiger Destephani in 1982. He brought it back to his base at Minter Field in Shafter, California where it underwent a complete restoration until making its next flight in 1983. That began N1232N's life as an air show star performer, first being flown throughout the country by Tiger and Fred Sebby and later as part of the Lone Star Flight Museum in 1991.

It was purchased by Jeff Clyman, founder of the American Airpower Museum at Republic Airport on Long Island, which was chartered in October 20, 1998 by Governor George Pataki. The aircraft, originally adorned in British markings, roundels and green-gray camouflage paint scheme, was repainted in an AVG green and brown scheme with the USAAC white star on blue background where the British roundels once were. A Walt Disney Studio-designed Flying Tiger insignia adorns the fuselage and the numbers "00" appear on the tail. The aircraft is named The Jackie C after Jeff's wife and her name appears on the cowling above the sharks-toothed mouth. This aircraft is no stranger to the Geneseo Airshows and has been flown during this event in recent years by Dan Dameo.

By Frank Schaufler and Seth Goltzer