Boeing P-12E

HERE’S ONE CLASSIC THAT WAS SAVED FROM AN IGNOMINIOUS END...

- Steve Pace

This beautifully restored Boeing P-12E (serial number 31-559) is on permanent display within the Early Years Gallery of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. It is adorned in the markings of the U.S. Army Air Corps 6th Pursuit Squadron based on Wheeler Field in Hawaii in the 1930s; it was retired from service in 1940. It was later discovered abandoned in a Midwestern barn, its nose protruding out from it. The barn had begun to collapse, with one of the barn doors resting atop the airplane that was actually helping to hold that part of the barn up.