This aircraft belonged to the 93rd Fighter Squadron, 81st Fighter Group, USAAF. On 22nd November 1942 the aircraft suffered engine failure during a cross-country navigation exercise, the pilot kept control of the aircraft and managed to glide the aircraft before baling out in the Settle area but sadly he was too low for his parachute to work and was killed. The aircraft crashed nearby into a sink hole at Scaleber Force in the limestone burying much of the front end of the aircraft. Here it lay for many years until two groups of aircraft historians dug the site and recovered much of what remained in the ground for preservation. First to dig the site was the group "PART" in the 1980s and more recently "LAIT" dug the site and recovered a number of cockpit items. Nick Wotherspoon's LAIT website shows photographs of these finds.
Pilot - 2nd Lt Cecil Iden Rhodes USAAF (O-726682), aged 23, of Paoli, Orange County, Indiana, USA. Buried IOOF Cemetery, Paoli, Orange County, Indiana, USA.
Cecil Rhodes was born on 29th September 1919 at Paoli, Orange County, Indiana, USA and was the son of Andrew J and Allie M (nee Lindley) Rhodes. He is remembered on Settle War Memorial located in the church.
This specific aircraft was built by the Bell Aircraft Corporation, at Elwood, USA and was purchased by the B.P.C. under contract A-1476. It was delivered by sea to the UK, arriving at Liverpool Docks on an unknown date. From there it would have been taken by road to No. 1 A.A.U. at Speke for assembly and testing. On completion of the acceptance tests it was was transferred to the USAAF though no details or the date of transfer are yet known.