Thank you very much for the information Shaef1944! One way to get information on optional equipment is from aircraft manuals (available as .pdf files from various sources such as ****'s). I have a copy of an early Kitty Hawk manual, and an early A-20 Havoc/Boston. The section which shows the cockpit switches gives a pretty good idea of what equipment was installed, and no IFF lights were to be found in those versions, which led me to wonder why.
Now I know which P-40s had them. All I need to do is find a picture of one so that I can see if they were on the wing or fuselage. The
A-20 Havoc and
Boston continues to be a mystery since there aren't too many clear, well-lit photographs of its underbelly available. I'm really surprised that the A-20 did not have them - they seem to have been used on all later WWII aircraft, even on the Dakotas and the Bell P-70 Jet Prototypes, and on the Boeing C-97 prototypes.
By the way, if I'm not mistaken, the
British Type recognition lights were one white light on top and one AMBER(?) light on the bottom? I saw a picture of a Spitfire with what appeared to be a single amber light under the wing, in the center, but it was a restored bird and I'm not sure if it's accurate.
Thanks again for the information - I'll keep an eye out for more pictures or manuals.
ORIGINAL: SHAEF1944
Hello Lou. Does not appear to be much info on this question available easily. I did find the following on an Aussie website dealing with Lend-Lease planes :
"P40E-1 aircraft had the provisions for identification lights. The first 800 P40E-1s, 41-24776 to 41-36353 (ET100-999) had the British type recognition lights. This consisted of one upper and one lower light and Formation lights, forward of the cockpit, on the fuselage sides. The remainder, 41-36354 to 41-36953 (EV100-699) had USAAF type recognition lights of one upper and three lower lights.
USAAF P40Es 40-358, 40-382 to 41-13599 had no lights, as didn’t the first 400 P40N-1s."
Looks like a lot of the "Brit" P-40's had them, and not many USAAF did.