03/31/2008. Remarks by Doug Duncan: "One day, as I was walking the ramp of the Oxnard Airport taking pictures, I was stunned to find this beautiful Bell P-39 Airacobra sitting near the taxiway. I was approached by a man who identified himself as Ted Janzarek, the photo editor of Sport Flying magazine. He said his photographer would not be able to make the photo shoot and asked me if I would mind shooting some photos for him. Of course, I said 'Yes'.

I had been walking around the plane taking photos when he came over to say that was enough static photos and now he wanted some flight photos, pointing to the Beech Baron sitting nearby. We flew up and down the coast for about an hour or so taking formation shots, and then motioned to the pilot of the P-39, veteran race pilot Mira Slovak, to peel away. As he did so, I took the photo shown above which ended up being used in the magazine's two-page spread.

This aircraft was produced as a RP-39Q-22-BE two-seat trainer for the USAAF in 1944, s/n 44-3908. After 1944 it was redesignated TP-39Q and in April 1946 it was sold and registered as NX4829N (later the X was dropped from the registration) and listed as Racer number "25". In 1954 the aircraft was registered N40A and from 1957 to 1971 it was stored.

Mr. Slovak bought the aircraft in 1971 and raced it for four years, initially as number "21", later as number "39". From 1975 to 1981 it was part of the Confederate AF, San Antonio, Texas. Thereafter it was obtained by the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum, Kalamazoo, Michigan, where is is preserved in flying condition, painted as an USAAC P-400."