Posted on 02/03/2016 10:11:18 AM PST by UNGN
The pilot of a World War II-era P-51C Mustang is OK after making an emergency belly landing at Dallas Executive Airport Wednesday morning.
Dallas-Fire Rescue confirms the plane landed at about 10:30 a.m. with its gears retracted. The fighter plane's prop detached as it left the runway and came to rest in a grassy area off a taxiway.
The plane is a single-seat aircraft with room only for a pilot. No injuries were reported, though the vintage aircraft suffered extensive damage, officials said.
Lynn Lunsford, with the Federal Aviation Administration, said the aircraft belongs to a local flying museum. FAA records indicate the aircraft was built in 1942 and that the owner is the American Air Power Heritage Flying Museum.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcdfw.com ...
Rare bird looks wrecked, but repairable
“That’ll buff right out.”
Such a great piece of history and national pride.
It’s just a flesh wound!..................
I’ll bet in 1944, the Tuskegee airmen would have been expected to have it flying again in a week.
I’m going to guess it will take a year, today.
It was rebuilt after a much worse wreck some years ago.
Very few Cs are still around. Maybe it’s time to restore this one and give it a home in a museum.
A week? I would think in wartime, the expectations would have been a couple of days.
mustangs are not horribly “rare”, although an early model, such as this “C”, might be a little less common.
“D” model redesigned the cockpit to the familiar “bubble” that most mustang pictures show.
Merlin engines had already replaced the underpowered Allison on the “B” version.
Most plane jockeys will say that the “D” version, with the better visibility cockpit glass and the supercharged Merlin power plant, was the epitome of the Mustang design, for performance and range
many a B-17 pilot would wholeheartedly agree, also.
“Such a great piece of history and national pride”.
Yes, it is.
The P-51 is my favorite WW II fighter.
One of my Dad’s WW II buddies was a P-51 pilot in Europe. I met him but was too young to appreciate it.
The P-51 is my favorite WW II fighter.
Yep, that and the “jug”.
Though there is also a place in my heart for the Corsair.(grin)
In wartime it would have been cannibalized and written off.
P-51’s and their pilots saved the world.
There are several flying P-51B/C in the US.
The P-51C was the designation for a P-51B built at the North American plant in Dallas.
The real rare bird is the P-51H, a lightweight high performance variant that only shares about 10% of the components to the much more common P-51D.
Only a couple still flying.
You may be right, particularly if the rework is done here”
http://www.calpacificairmotive.com
These people own the Type Certificate for the P-51 and they have a TEN YEAR BACKLOG rebuilding P-51’s and converting some to two-seaters. They have the means to make every part of the P-51. We asked them if they had ever built a complete a/c. They said that they could, but they haven’t yet! Just an amazing place to visit. Their work is impeccable!
“One of my Dad’s WW II buddies was a P-51 pilot in Europe.”
Yes, many flew in the European campaigns. I had an uncle that was a bombardier on the B-17s and B-24s. The P-51s saved many of their lives. One of the “skunk works” greatest creations.
Yes, the Corsair was/is a thing of beauty, too.
Yes, the bomber crews loved the P-51’s and their pilots.
Mustang was designed and built by North American. Same company that designed and built the F86 and F-100 Saber and super sabre, respectively
Skunk works was lockheed.
the P-38 was designed by kelly johnson at skunkworks, but I dont believe the mustang was.
I did see a “B” at Osh kosh a few years ago, on the static line.
yeager and anderson were there that day, flying, but they were flying “D”s
not sure I have seen anything other than a “D” in flight, but then again, I dont get out much. :)
B’s and C’s are actually are “horribly rare”. I would guess there are less than 5 flying, with a couple in museums and the rest shredded.
B’s and C’s were also faster than the D’s due to better aerodynamics.
The problem in combat was they looked like an ME-109 to B-17 gunners.
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