Tag Archives: P-51

Air Superiority, 1945 meets 2017

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Official caption: To celebrate 70 years of air dominance, the United States Air Force showcased an array of aircraft at the 2017 Royal International Air Tattoo, July 16, 2017, at RAF Fairford, United Kingdom!

(U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Brian Kimball)

(U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Brian Kimball)

This shot is great, showing a Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor keeping pace with a North American P-51 Mustang, the Cadillac of the sky.

The P-51 is made up to match Inglewood-made P-51D-5-NA, #44-13318, “Frenesi” flown by USAAF ace Lt. Col. Thomas L. Hayes, Jr. of the 357th Fighter Group, and is complete with 84 bomb marks, each indicating a completed ground attack mission rather than a bomb strike, as well as two Japanese kill marks and nine German ones.

In actuality, she is a late-production Dallas-made P-51/F-51K (P-51D with a different propeller, widely exported postwar) SN 44-12852, FAA N357FG, a former air racer and Dominican Air Force fighter recently very nicely restored by Dan Friedkin and the crew at Midwest Aero Restorations, Danville IL. She is one of only 1,500 or so Mustang-Ks made.

The F-22A is a late-model Block 35 bird, SN 09-4180, delivered in 2009, and active with the 27th FS/1st Fighter Wing, Langley AFB, and has no mission marks as of yet. She is one of only 195 made, though production only halted on her line in 2012.

Barn find P-51 in circa 1972 Fuerza Aérea Guatemalteca condition

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From Platinum Fighters.

We recently pulled P-51D N38227 out of the hangar for the first time in 30 years. This airplane is in the same condition it was when it flew with the Guatemalan Air Force over 45 years ago. Sold with the worlds largest private inventory of Merlin engines and P-51 airframe parts – many New Old Stock.

For more information see here

Somewhere over Southeast Kassel, Germany, 73 years ago today

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Combat encounter report with German Me 109 completed and signed by pilot Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager dated 4 March 1944:

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Combat ENCOUNTER REPORT with German Me 109 completed and signed by pilot Charles E. Yeager dated 4 March 1944

Got some scratch for a ‘barn find’ P-51?

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You can always sit in it and make machine gun sounds...

You can always sit in it and make engine and machine gun sounds…

Last flown in 1983, Platinum Fighter Sales has an original and unrestored multi-owner P-51D Mustang up for grabs.

Known as the “Cadillac of the Sky” in World War II, the P-51 Mustang fighter was the mount of choice for several U.S. Army Air Force aces including Chuck Yeager.

The aircraft at hand, S/N 44-77902-N38227, was built in 1944 and carries the famed Packard Merlin V-1650-7 piston engine with Rolls-Royce 620 Heads and a few truckloads of spare parts including what look to be several spare canopies, blocks, wing segments and the like.

“This may be the last original unrestored P-51D Mustang in original military configuration,” notes Platinum, advising even the armor plating is still installed.

The plane flew with the Guatemalan Air Force between 1954-1972 and was returned to the States afterward, but has been in storage since the Reagan Administration.

If it surprises you that the Guatemalans flew the P-51 for so long, keep in mind that the last piston-engine dog fights, that of the Soccer War between fellow Central American military powerhouses Honduras and El Salvador in 1969 involved Mustangs and Corsairs.

Price?  $4.5 mill. But hey, it’s a P-51. All you need are a half-dozen M2 Brownings for the wings are you are set.

Last days of the ‘Cadillac of the Sky’

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wwiiafterwwii has a great and very detailed article about the P-51 Mustang and its use after VJ-Day. Whereas the Navy shed their F6F Hellcats and the Army Air Corps scrapped their P-38, 39, 40, 47 and 61 fleets wholesale, the National Guard and (after 1947) the Air National Guard kept the Mustang around for a generation.

And it is filled with excellent photos of piston-engined fighter bombers in an age of F-86s.

A 1947 recruitment ad for the Army National Guard featuring the P-51 Mustang

A 1947 recruitment ad for the Army National Guard featuring the P-51 Mustang

F-51D Mustangs of the Utah, California, and Nevada ANGs in 1948-- all part of the 144th FG

F-51D Mustangs of the Utah, California, and Nevada ANGs in 1948– all part of the 144th FG

P-51 mustang pilot of the North Dakota ANG in 1953, wearing Korean War-era helmet and flight suit 119th Fighterwing, North Dakota, 1953

P-51 mustang pilot of the North Dakota ANG in 1953, wearing Korean War-era helmet and flight suit 119th Fighterwing, North Dakota, 1953

Minnesota ANG F-51D Mustang, 1953

Minnesota ANG F-51D Mustang, 1953

Some of which were kept in service due to local limitations on jets.

From the article:

One of the factors that gave the Mustang a long life in West Virginia was that, as late as the mid-1950s, Kanawha Airport lacked the ability to land jets. In December 1955 the 167th moved to newly-expanded ANG Base Martinsburg, but continued flying F-51s while it’s jet successor was selected by the Pentagon. In 1957 the squadron (the final American unit still operating the WWII Mustang) converted to the F-86 Sabre.

More here