Curtissaurus

[Leo]

In the early 80's Steve Seghetti was rebuilding a P-40 nicknamed "Curtissaurus Rex" that had been dug up from a farmers field in Canada. The P-40 and his magnificent T-6 were sold to purchase the P-51 that would become "Sparky".
There were pictures in the Vacaville paper of the T-6 being prepared for shipping, nothing on the P-40.
Anyone know what ever happened to these aircraft?
Steve? Brant? You out there?

[T J Johansen]

Re: Curtissaurus

That would be this one if I'm not mistaken!

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p40registry/p40-ak752.html

T J

[Leo]

Re: Curtissaurus

Nice to see it is flying!

[Shawn Aro]

Re: Curtissaurus

I think my dad has a few pictures of the T-6 at Liveremore Shawn

[Unregistered]

Re: Curtissaurus

It was restored by the gentleman in New Zealand that Seghetti sold it to and then crashed twice. He then sold it to Jim Smith in Montana where it is once again restored and a flyer. My Mom and Dad saw it again for the first time in something like 30 years this past year while on a trip to Montana. It's in a large hanger with the rest in Mr. Smiths very large collection. We have 8 x 10 color photo's of my Dad (John Paul) digging it up on display at the Warhawk Air Museum in Nampa, Idaho.

FYI

He named it the curtissauras rex because after digging and digging he finally felt something - the first part of the P-40 to see sun light was the exhaust stacks - it looked the the spine of some prehistoric creature being excavated. He thought, Holy sh..!!! this thing still has the engine on it!!!! he was pretty excited and then it got even better when he discovered it was still on the wing! SCORE!!!!!!!!!!! We have home movies of the whole thing.

[b]**admin note.. REGISTER REGISTER REGISTER! PLEASE!!!???***[b]

[Leo]

Re: Curtissaurus

THANK YOU!
I remember the slow progress Steve was making on it, and the wings sitting on the side yard of his house.
I'm sure he got sick of me always popping up somewhere back then, I always knew where he lived (he moved a few times back then...) when I saw his 2-tone brown truck around. He lived in an apertment a couple doors down from me for awhile and it was a treat as every warbird headed into Nut Tree would circle his house.
I ran into him working on Sparky once in his driveway and got treated to a tour of his house/storage shed where finished mustang parts were stacked everywhere from the living room to the kitchen counters.
Steve was (and is) always nice, easy with a handshake and willing to talk airplanes anytime.