On my bucket list: The P-51 Mustang

Stephanie B said:
Have you been up next to a Spad? They're enormous beasts, something like a 13 ton max takeoff weight.
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Every time I walk past Butch O'Hare's Wildcat in O'Hare Airport I am shocked at how small it is.

By Spad do you mean the AD-1? Surely you don't mean the WWI Spad?
 
zzzippper said:
Every time I walk past Butch O'Hare's Wildcat in O'Hare Airport I am shocked at how small it is.

By Spad do you mean the AD-1? Surely you don't mean the WWI Spad?
Click to expand...

Yep, the AD. I think the one in WWI would be a "SPAD", since that was an acronym for Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés, the company which produced the SPAD. But then again, everything that they made was a "SPAD". :)
 
I am not a pilot but I love these fighter aircraft discussions. Between 2 threads I've read about the P-51, P-47, P-40, P-38, F4U Corsair and F4, F14, 15, 16, 18 and F22.
LOVE this stuff! :)
 
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Stephanie B said:
Yep, the AD. I think the one in WWI would be a "SPAD", since that was an acronym for Société Pour L'Aviation et ses Dérivés, the company which produced the SPAD. But then again, everything that they made was a "SPAD". :)
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Makes sense. But then, the Spad was nicknamed after the SPAD so I guess it might be a chicken or the egg thing.
 
The P-51 is a good choice. But I think I would have to go with Fokker DrI Triplane, Me-262, and F-15. Maybe a Spitfire.
 
Last year my wife and I were walking toward the boardwalk in Bethany Beach, DE and I heard an unmistakable sound of a Merlin V12 engine. I said "Hold it, that's a Mustang." She said "How do you know?" I replied "Nothing else sounds like that." And then the P51 flashed across the town and beach like a silver streak with the top profile shown. I don't know where it was going or coming from, one quick flash.

Fantastic.
 
Always loved the Mustangs, and most all WW2 planes. Saw one at a Blue Angels show once. What a great sound. I have had a CD for years that features an ME 109 from start up thru taxi, run up all the way to landing and taxi back. It was the only operational Bf109 in the world at the time. Might still be. Also on the CD are P-38s,P-47s, Spits, P-40s, and P51s.
It's called Checkflight Gustav, I first heard it on G.Gordon Liddy's radio show. I love the flywheel windup of the ME, and engine kickover.
If you like hearing the sounds, look for it. It was put out by Aircraft Records.
 
Stephanie B said:
Have you been up next to a Spad? They're enormous beasts, something like a 13 ton max takeoff weight.
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Do you mean the original WW I Spad or the wry nickname for the Skyraider? I can see the latter being that heavy, especially with full ordnance installed. It was a wonderful close support aircraft in Vietnam. I think I read that one even shot down a MiG in Korea, as did a Royal Navy Sea Fury.

ADDED: Oops: I see that this question was answered above. I should have read more before posting. Can someone post a photo of the AD-1 Skyraider "Spad"? I'd prefer one in USAF colors, although the Navy used it well, too.
 
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I had the privilege of flying a Boeing Stearman while in my early pilot days.

The owner always brought a tag-a-long to operate that insane inertial starter!! That starter was pure evil I tell 'ya, pure evil!

But it was worth every strained back, every bulged artery cranking that inertial starter to hear the wires sing diving down gaining energy for another barrel roll.

When he started checking me out in his SNJ (he was WWII Navy, F4U Corsairs) I thought it was pure luxury, a real Cadillac!!
 
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rwsmith said:
Gabby Grabeski wrote the book 'Thunderbolt' and for his purposes, air fighting and ground attack, he had no qualms at all about its performance, especially when they added the 'paddle' bladed propeller. The Thunderbolt was a hellation ground attack plane. I saw a documentary one time that was almost comical they way they'd say, "That farmhouse looks suspicious." and blast away. But it was no joke because nearly everything they hit was hiding something that exploded big time. Another feature that Gabby liked was the typical American ability to perform a zoom climb and the Thunderbolt could dive like a rock and pull up into a climb so nobody could catch them from behind.

The P-51 was about the apex of single engine planes, though, and it's not coincidental that they were so sought after to convert into air racers. Anyway, like Chuck Y. said, "It's not the plane, it's the man behind the controls.'
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Col. Gabreski didn't write, "Thunderbolt", which I've read. It was by the second highest scoring US pilot in the Euro theater, who had 28 kills in the P-47. Robert S. Johnson... he said that the poor climb rate was altered when they got the wider prop. He was then able to outclimb a Spitfire MK IX flown by a friend in the RAF. But he took awhile to get up the speed to do that. My guess is that the Spit was better for quick bursts of power in a climb.

BTW, Gabreski was shot down and became a POW. The Germans said they had been eager to meet him.
 
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How times change. A good condition Mustang sells for over one million dollars according to a friend in the aviation world. A close friend ran the Boulder Airport in the 1950's and said you could buy a brand new Mustang still in the crate for $1050.00. He couldn't even image what you do with such a thing.
 
Cowden Ward out of Burnet, Tx came up to Warbirds and Legends Airshow in Topeka, KS last year in his P-51, Pecos Bill. I took my dad to the show, an 88 year old WWII and Korea vet. As we were admiring his plane, a member of his group asked me if my father was a vet. I told her yes, and they had me fill out dates of service and branch, then told him he had a free ride coming. They took him up in the P-51 for a fairly long ride. On landing he decided he'd joined the wrong branch of service (infantry). Couldn't stop grinning for a week.

These great folks then told us to head over to a C-47, Skyking, a plane that actually was involved in every airborne drop in the ETO. They then took my 13 year old son, father and me up for fantastic flight, again free. A really great group of folks. I understand they do this at all the airshows they attend.
 
SteveA said:
Cowden Ward out of Burnet, Tx came up to Warbirds and Legends Airshow in Topeka, KS last year in his P-51, Pecos Bill. I took my dad to the show, an 88 year old WWII and Korea vet. As we were admiring his plane, a member of his group asked me if my father was a vet. I told her yes, and they had me fill out dates of service and branch, then told him he had a free ride coming. They took him up in the P-51 for a fairly long ride. On landing he decided he'd joined the wrong branch of service (infantry). Couldn't stop grinning for a week.

These great folks then told us to head over to a C-47, Skyking, a plane that actually was involved in every airborne drop in the ETO. They then took my 13 year old son, father and me up for fantastic flight, again free. A really great group of folks. I understand they do this at all the airshows they attend.
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My very first flight was in a C-47. In 1957, high school senior cadet ROTC officers in Phoenix were offered at trip in C-47s to Fort Ord in California to view basic training there. At the time, I was the cadet regimental operations officer for all the Phoenix area JROTC battalions, so I was particularly interested to see what was being done in with respect to training in the Army. The C-47 was equipped primarily for jump operations, with sling seats arrayed along each side of the interior. It enabled me to visualize what the inside of the aircraft must have looked like for the D-Day jumps. That trip was fun - with our uniforms, which closely resembled the Army officers' uniforms at that time, we were getting salutes from yardbirds, which we of course returned - !!!

John
 
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Rick_A said:
One of my favorite photos involves a P51.
IMG_2588.jpg


The Corsair is none too shabby. ..
IMG_2613.jpg


As much as I like them, small planes are a bit too excitable to enjoy as a passenger. I'd love to get a flight aboard a a big radial engined bomber or transport myself.
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Cool pic.

I could dig busting some tanks in a Warthog with that 30mm.
 
When I worked at Lockheed I knew a engineer that had flown them during the war. He told me he was used to the P-38 but the first time he flew the P-51 he almost broke his arm in the first turn! It was that much more responsive. It took him by surprise.
 
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