re: #73 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Jack Woolams [US Test Pilot during World War 2] was known as a bit of a practical joker. While flying the still unknown experimental P-59 jet airplane, he would join formation with unsuspecting pilots flying propeller-driven fighters and to their surprise, wave at them while wearing a gorilla mask, bowler hat, and cigar, and then fly away leaving them behind.

en.wikipedia.org

Note: the P-59 was being secretly tested in the 1941-1943 period

The Bell P-59 Airacomet was the first American jet-powered airplane in the United States. It was a top secret project that wasn’t announced to the general public until 1943 and only after it had completed one-hundred flights. However, even before the Airacomet made it onto the drawing board, Europe already had its own jet programs well underway. Germany’s Messerschmitt Me 262, Arado Ar 234, and England’s Gloster Meteor would all become operational during the war. In the Pacific, the Japanese also flew the Nakajima Kikka at least once, powered by an Ishikawajima Ne-20, Japan’s first turbojet engine.

aviation-history.com