Posted on 02/04/2016 7:51:05 AM PST by DFG
A Second World War fighter plane due to take part in a Tuskegee Airmen tribute flight has been badly damaged after crashing in Texas. The P-51 Mustang, used by the U.S. Air Force to escort bombers on sorties over Europe, made a belly landing - without landing gear - at Dallas Executive Airport this morning. While pilot Bill Shepard is believed to have escaped the crash unharmed, the plane sustained 'substantial' damage - including the loss of its propeller.
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That is a crying shame. I hate to lose historical significant objects, whatever they are.
Hate to see any of those beautiful planes damaged. Prolly $250K in damage. Probably about 5x what the plane cost in 1943.
ouch!
I’m sure they’ll get her fixed-up.
A good friend, aviation author Jeff Ethyll (deceased) flew old warbirds often and I flew with him doing aerobatics in an old SNJ (Navy version of AT-6 Texan trainer) - and every hour in these ancient machines is far more dangerous than in a modern plane.
They cost a fortune to maintain, and even with top maintenance, things are so old they just break sometimes. It’s risky flying them.
But oh what fun!!!!
Jeff died flying a P-38 - the plane his father flew all through WWII. Sadly, NTSB finding was it was pilot error due to insufficient training on the P-38’s unique idiosyncracies. All the old warbirds had theirs.
Jeff was a wonderful guy - with the Lord now........
P-51 Mustang Unit Cost in 1945 was $50,945.00.
My favorite World War II fighter.
Pretty damn close $$ estimate for a complete wild guess!!
Mine too; though of course not until married to Merlin.
This is a rarer model too, probably a P-51C. Note the “razorback” canopy configuration vs the more familiar “bubble” canopy of the P-51D and later variants.
what a shame.
Pretty damn close $$ estimate for a complete wild guess!!
Mine too; though of course not until married to Merlin.
After I posted, I thought to myself that I should have congratulated you.. You were right on.
And over 15,000 Mustangs were built.
That comes out to about $7,650.000.00 for them all. Not even enough to purchase one fighter today.
Better the plane than the pilot.
We used to have a yellow P-51 fly over our house when we lived in Redondo Beach. The sound of that super-charged 16 cylinder Allison engine was just as thrilling as the screaming engine of a Formula 1 car...
There are some low fly-bys of P-51s on YouTube that are simply awesome.
“My favorite World War II fighter.”
_________________________________________
Mine too.
Rush has mentioned that his father flew the P-51 during World War II.
That’s really neat.
I interviewed a P-51 Ace, retired here at the Lake of the Ozarks a few months ago.
He had six confirmed kills of ME-109s over Germany while excorting bombers in and out.
He flew the “D” model, with full glass canopy and Rolls Royce V-12.
Rush has mentioned that his father flew the P-51 during World War II.
I never heard Rush mention that. His Dad was a lawyer and didn’t serve in WW II.
The initial news article out of Dallas yesterday stated that the propeller broke loose just after the P-51 lifted off, while the pilot was still over the airfield. The pilot didn't have enough time to get the gear back down, just dead-sticked it onto the grass. Could've been a lot worse.
That and the F4U.
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