The shark-faced nose of the Flying Tigers is the most recognizable image of any individual combat aircraft or combat unit of World War II. [Photo by Xu Jingxing/China Daily]

The shark-faced nose art of the Flying Tigers remains among the most recognizable image of any individual combat aircraft or combat unit of World War II.

On 4 July 1942 the AVG was disbanded. It was replaced by the 23rd Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Forces, which was the main fighting unit of China Air Task Force.

It was later absorbed into the US Fourteenth Air Force on March 5, 1943 with General Chennault as commander. Its dramatic insignia featured a tiger with wings and lightning bolts.

Members of the China Air Task Force and the Fourteenth Air Force are often also referred to as "Flying Tigers" in English.

The main equipment of the Flying Tigers was the Hawk-81A2 (P-40c) fighter aircraft from a Curtiss assembly line.

The Chinese air force was severely depleted and the Soviet Union had withdrawn its aircrews, so the AVG represented China's only real aerial resistance to the Japanese.