P-38 skin question.

[=FB=VikS]

What is the name on the left engine?

[namhee2]

Carolina?

 

Edited August 20, 2019 by namhee2

[BlackHellHound1]

Tried to find some info on the pilot Capt. Horace Max "Twig" Hartwig of the 392nd fighter Squadron, 367th Fighter Group to see if his background could give more information. But sadly to no avail. Maybe someone else can find something more about him. 

I do think Carolina is very possible though.

 

However, I did find this image. Not sure if you have it already but might help with the other artwork. 

 

Spoiler

 

BlackHellHound1

[Danziger]

The end looks cut off. It definitely looks like Carolina or Caroline.

[LukeFF]

My guess would be Caroline, though who that would refer to is a bit of a mystery, as Hartwig married one Emily J Knobel in 1945:

 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16780738/horace-max-hartwig

[=EXPEND=CG_Justin]

I would guess it's Caroline. Considering the name "Regina" is on the no.2 engine nacelle, my guess is, they "named" the engines after women rather than refer to them as "engine 1 or engine 2" or "port and starboard" (possibly by ground crew?).

 

Just a stab in the dark of course.

 

Of course there is always the possibility that the pilot and ground crew each had their sweetheart's name painted on the ship. Without being able to see the inboard nacelle of the no.1 engine, and outboard nacelle of the no.2, there's no way to know for sure. Perhaps if we knew more about his ground crew it might shed light on this hypothesis.

Edited August 21, 2019 by =BAIT=CG_Justin

[ICDP]

Or are they place names?  In which case Regina and Carolina could be correct.  Though looking at images from other P-38s in the same squadron, it is most likely names and I would go with Caroline.

 

My fix would be to have weathering such as dirt, grease, oil or even chipping on the last letter to keep it ambiguous.

[Raptorattacker]

I'd go with 'Archibald' but then I'm daft!!

'Caroline' is definitely the one most likely, on a slightly more serious note... to be honest, if there's so little info on it then it's probably an 'artistic licence' situation.