The official CIA history relating to Project JMFURY states: “Both pilot and aircraft were to be reamed, steamed, dry-cleaned, sterilised and sanitised in order to make it appear that a legitimate defection from Castro’s Cuba had occurred”. Note the gun-equipped nose of the B-26B (of which the FAR had few, if any, at that time) and the feathered starboard propeller, supposedly owing to “battle damage”.

The USA's ambassador to the United Nations, Adlai Stevenson, inspects a press photograph of the B-26 at Miami. Kept in the dark regarding how much involvement the Americans had in the Bay of Pigs operations, Stevenson was unaware of Project JMFURY and suffered profound embarrassment as a result.

Customs agents remove the ammunition from the B-26 at Miami. The prerevolution Fuerza Aereas Ejercito de Cuba (Cuban Army Air Force - FAEC) had taken delivery of the first of its 18 Invaders in November 1956. The air arm was renamed the Fuerza Aerea Revolucionaria following Castro’s takeover in 1959.

Douglas B-26 Invader “933" in its Fuerza Aerea Revolucionaria (FAR) markings at Miami on April 15, 1961, following its participation in the CIA’s Project JMFURY. Press photographers were encouraged to take as many photographs as they wanted, with a view to spreading the message that Cuban pilots were attacking their own airfields and defecting to the USA.

The original Cuban B-26 number 933 was a glazed-nose B-26C brought to Miami by a defecting pilot in December 1958, just before the revolution. The fin still bears FAEC rather than FAR titles, and the aircraft is fitted with gun turrets and underwing gun packs. The forward fuselage is adorned with an “Indian’s Head” motif.