P-47 Thunderbolt original nose art/cowling panel

This is the original left side nose cowl from a P-47D Thunderbolt named "Miss Dana" that fought in the south western pacific during the war.

Not much is known about the aircraft except it flew with the 39th or 40th fighter squadron and at one point was lost near Lae in New Guinea and the US air force was seeking information on it as late as 1990.



Miss Dana was obviously a special aircraft, likely flown by a CO or a pilot with a good combat record as most aircraft in this outfit did not have names on them.

Miss Dana has been painted in a gothic style font in white, over a red background that was outlined in white.

The 39th & 40th fought all the way up to the Philippines in their P-47's before changing them out for Mustangs in 1945.




Miss Dana would have been painted in the same way as the aircraft pictured above, overall silver with a black anti glare coating in front of the pilot, with either blue, red or white on the cowling and the red/white bars on the rudder.

Original, untouched WW2 nose art is extremely rare to find these days, even more so in the pacific theater where the climate makes short work of aircraft aluminum.




Asking $10,000 for this original, one-of-a-kind piece of history.