P-47D Project 90240R

[CJE]

On a photograph showing P-47Ds being unladen from a Liberty ship in Casablanca harbour can be read the inscription "Projet 90240R".
Does anyone know what this stands for?
I mean: were these P-47Ds bound to be delivered to a USAAF unit or to another foreign country?

Thanks.

[Alan Clark]

Project 90240R was the 'shipment' id as the aircraft were assigned to any particular unit at that time they were conveyed under a Project number.

I have an example of a B-17 which was lost on its ferry flight to the UK, it was assigned to Project 91116-R.

Earlier in the war such movements by air were assigned to named provisional groups, examples being Knox and Bridges Provisional Groups.

[CJE]

Thanks Alan.
However, as all French P-47s were alloted such Project numbers, I suppose this one also designs an end-user.

Chris

[Alan Clark]

Do you have a date for the shipment, as the Project number I have came from early 1945. Certainly within the number there could be an end user identification but it would more than likely be shipped to a USAAF pool of resources and then allocated more locally.

So far the only common links are the first number a letter which may mean nothing, or may represent European Theatre as the destination.

[CJE]

Unfortunately no, I have no date.
I know that the first "Lend-Lease" P-47Ds were delivered to the French Air Force in Northern Africa under the Project # 90614F (April 1944).
If Project numbers were alloted in chronological order, it means that "my" P-47 should have been shipped much earlier, say late 1943.
However, as the French were the only foreign "customers" for P-47 in Northern Africa, I assume that, as you said, this one was assigned to a US dispatching pool.