Strana 43
15.000th Curtiss aircraft delivered to customers worldwide, Buffalo, NY, USA, November 1944
Capt. Philip E. Colman, 26th FS, 5th FG, Ankang, China, 1944
The Curtiss company celebrated its 15,000
th
fighter aircraft delivered to its customers
worldwide by special commemorative livery
with all the national insignias of the countries
of its customers placed all around the aircraft
surface. The serial number of the plane which
was used for this commemorative livery is not
known.
Philipp Eddy Colman enlisted in the USAAC in
1941 after graduation from Jefferson Senior High
School and was accepted for flight training.
He graduated as Flying Sergeant at Spence Field
and his first assignment was towing targets for
the gunnery school at Eglin Field, Florida. Later
he served as a test pilot, flying not only US types,
but also captured German Bf 109 or Japanese
Oscar fighters. He survived the sinking of HMT
Rohna which was sailing him to his first combat
assignment. The hit by a German guided flying
bomb killed 1,149 out of 2,000 on board. Colman’s
next combat assignment was as a pilot with
the Chinese-American Composite Wing where
he flew 86 combat missions in the P-40 and
shot down five Japanese Zero fighters with two
probable victories and five damaged enemy
planes. After the war he joined the 158
th
Fighter
Squadron, 116
th
Fighter Group of the Georgia Air
National Guard. He was assigned to the 335
th
FIS in 1952 and added four MiG-15s to his fighter
tally during the Korean War. In 1983, he retired
as a lieutenant colonel. As there are no known
photos of his P-40N, the paint scheme reflects
the aircraft displayed in the Museum of Flight,
Seattle, Washington.
KITS 10/2026
INFO Eduard
43
October 2026