John Burns's Kingfisher

in article snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com, Robert N. Schaub at snipped-for-privacy@pitnet.net wrote on 07/01/03 1:59 PM:
Since the Tang took all the rescued aviators aboard as well as Burns and his crewman and then sank the Kingfisher with gunfire, you might find some information by way of the USS Tang.
MB

Ooooooops ! I didn't know this sad fate of this little bird - how can they do this??? Argh. So nice plane. Anyway, thenks for the clue ! best regards, Mario

Mario:
Burn's Kingfisher! Boy, I had to dig deep in the old filing cabinet to find that one. There was a color profile of this A/C in an old issue of "Flying Review" magazine. Could you handle a .jpg file if I scanned it?
Aircraft is in mid-war 3 tone scheme with very little dark sea blue if any on the fuselage upper surfaces, possibly a maintenance unit re-paint from the earlier non-specular blue-gray scheme. There is a white star with bars insignia on the upper surface or the left wing and the lower surface of the right, standard blue and white. On the sides of the fuselage just behind the cockpit, is a star and bar insignia on each side of the fuselage. This is the one area of contention. One source says this was the earlier style with a red outline, another says just blue outline with white star and bar. Your guess is as good as another here. There is a black 45 degree number 3, about 1 foot high, on the sides of the fuselage beneath the rearmost set of cockpit glass. It is ahead of and a bit below the fuselage insignia. On the float, even with the plane of the propeller, is a white outlined red warning stripe. It isn't the usual straight edged stripe, looks like someone got "artsy" and painted it with a wavy edge. Old Navy pilot I knew once said that Burns was recommended for the Medal of Honor for the job he did that day but the "carrier admirals" wouldn't hear of it for a Battleship pilot. He had to settle for a Navy Cross.
Bill Shuey

i would have pulled the arms and radio and set her free.

That sounds very much like the markings that came with the MPC boxing of the Airfix kit. The fuselage star was outlined in red in the kit. Having stepped downstairs and looked I can say that it was indeed. Apparently I overdid the dark blue, rats!
Bill Banaszak, MFE