The one. The only. P51 Mustang

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The Wyo Air Guard use to fly P-51's back when I was a kid. The pilots must have been WWII vets cuz they could sure fly those things and the loved to buzz along a couple of hundred feet above the ground over our ranch.

I came to love the sight and sound of those beautiful planes.

I can still recognize a Merlin engine when I hear a Mustang come in for the air shows here.
 
When I was a kid our next door neighbor was in the AF. One day about 4 P-51s circled and buzzed our houses. I will never forget that. Think it was about 1952.
I was raised near oshkosh wisconsin. Every last week of july they hold the EAA show there. Also they have a fine muesum.
 
I grew up fascinated by WWII airplanes. Most fascinating to me were the developmental aircraft the Germans built, the ME-262, ME-163 rocket plane, etc., along with others. They actually built two and four engined jet bombers back during the war. I don't think the four-enginged ones flew in combat, but I know they used the two-engine ones.
 
Chuck Yeager wrote of hunting antelope with his Mustang. He was training somewhere in the west and would swoop down and shoot them as they bounded across the landscape then have someone drive out and haul them in. Man, I love that guy!
 
As an impressionable boy of 10 or 12, I lived not far from a little local strip where a guy had one of those old warbirds for a few years. This was in the 60's and being born in the 50's I naturally devoured anything in print about WWII since many of my relatives and neighbors had served and I was fascinated by their stories and the equipment I had seen.

I lived close enough that there was no doubt when he took off who was flying that day even if you couldn't see the plane. He would maneuver and do aerobatics over the area at several thousand feet and I remember one summer instance where all us kids were playing in a large open field and he was flying that day. I watched and listened to that horse of an engine as he climbed steeply, then rolled over and came at a screaming dive - and for the world it looked like he was diving right at us. At that moment, I guess because of the movies seen and stories read and heard, I experienced a bolt of icy fear shoot through the pit of my stomach instinctively that shook me - and I realized I had just had just a small glimpse of what it must have felt like to be on the ground and know that six .50 caliber machine guns were attached to that platform and headed in your direction at 500+ mph.

A formidable weapon, indeed, and an impressive aircraft. In this day of computer driven weaponry and satellite technology I am always humbled and in awe of what these brave men and women accomplished in WWII with what they had available to them at the time. I have sat in the cockpits of a few of those types of planes, and prowled the recesses of a couple of the great war ships and blessed ( or cursed, as it may be) with a vivid imagination I can only marvel at where this equipment went and what it did and the people that operated it. They saved the world in their day.
 
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I remember back in the sixties watching, on many occasions, Mr. R.A. "Bob" Hoover do his magic with the P51. His flying was just an extension of himself.

There will never be another pilot like Bob Hoover.
 
I had a cousin on a carrier in war two. He told of shoveing fighters off the deck if they had so much as a flat tire as planes were circleing to land after air battles.
 
I to love watching the old war birds of WWII. My father a WWII Navy Vet. always told me the story about when he left the navy in 48 that he could have bought a new, still in the crate P-51 for $500. A lot of money in those days but still what a thought to have that in a old garage now.
 
Too bad he didn't stock up - They go for well over $600k now.
 
The airport I work at part time has a private company on the field that owns three of these. He also owns a couple of B-25's, T-6's, T-28's, and some other stuff. It's a virtual walk through aviation history. I've had the pleasure of crawling through those old birds. I haven't quite conjured up a ride in one......yet. :D
 
offer to buy the fuel. that will work a lot of the time,but be prepared to spend some money. feeding those big engines isn't a cheap deal.
 
I hadn't thought of this guy in years, but in the late '50s and '60s there was a Professor of Philosophy at Yale who had his own P-51. He was a brilliant maniac who never got over his youthful sense of immortality. This guy by himself refuted every cliche complaint you ever heard about pointy-headed Ivy League academics. One of my roommates took a semester course from him around 1964 or 1965, said he was an energetic and provocative lecturer. Unfortunately he flew too low once too often and died in a crash somewhere around 1970, give or take a couple of years.

I can't remember his name, darn it.

EDITED TO ADD:

OK, I recovered his name from my brain's cold storage: Norwood Russell Hanson. But when I looked him up I found that I had misremembered the P-51 association. Hanson owned and flew a Grumman Bearcat. He crashed in fog in 1967.
 
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In the 1960's, my grandparents lived in a small mayberry-like ohio town which had it's own little airport. The owner was a pilot named Al Oertner. He owned his own P-51D and flew it at shows, including the great little shows he put on himself at his airport.
My Dad used to take us out to the field, and we could climb up on the Mustang and check it out, as well as an A26 he had. He also had a few Flying Boxcars and C47's.
One of my most treasured memories is going for a walk on a warm summer sunday morning...nobody about. I heard a distant growl that rapidly got louder, and looked up in time to see Al zoom by lower than the church steeple in a bank in his Mustang! What a sight!
Al later traded his Mustang for an F4U Corsair...the bent winged bird. Another plane I got to climb on and check out.
Al later got in trouble with the Corsair. He was perfoming at the Cleveland Air Show, and had just finished his act, was still in the air when the famed Bob Hoover was in the air preparing to do his act in his Mustang...An impromptu air race resulted with both pilots going balls out for a couple laps.
The FAA was not amused.
 
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A friend of mine in Denver has a P-51D. He took me up for a ride once for about 40 minutes. One of the fondest memories I have of once in a lifetime experiences. I was the envy of everyone at the terminal building.
 
I know the P-51's great advantage over the Spitfire was its long range. It could also roll better. Probably couldn't turn quite as tightly, but was close. Usually enough, as it'd outturn any but the best Jap fighters, so noted for their manuveribillity (SP? I'm VERY tired...):rolleyes:.

In one case, airmen took off from a base in India (then a British colony) and struck a Jap base in, I think, Siam/Thailand. It set a record for a long distance fighter strike. May be a record for attacking a land target, as I know that some P-38 missions were also quite long.

Does anyone here know where they left from and where they hit, and the distance? I'm sure they used auxilliary fuel tanks and milked the gas supply for all it was worth.

The Commonwealth forces used a lot of Mustangs, too, the P-51D being the Mustang IV to them.

The US and South Africa also used Mustangs extensively in Korea, both nations eventually replacing them with F-86's. This was before the various UN sanctions against South Africa. I think those began in the 1960's, by which time their primary fighter was the Mirage III.

T-Star
 
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TF-51 Mustang

I got my pilots license in 1964 and have been flying almost continually since then. I have wanted to ride in a P-51 ever since I can remember, even before I got my license.

A little over a year ago I became VERY Ill from radiation treatments for Prostate Cancer. During the worse time in my illness, I received the BEST gift that I have ever received from our three Sons that live in Mn, Md, & Tx. My dream of flying 'in' a P-51 was realized in spades when they bought me a one hour orintation flight in both the AT-6 & the P-51 from Stallion 51 Corp. in Kissimme Fl. They have two AT-6's & two TF-51's. (TF-51's are P-51D's modified with two fully functional cockpits) This is actual hands on flying of the P-51, something that I had never thought I would be able to do.

Last month, all of the family was finally able to get together for the events. First I flew the T-6 which is a great airplane in its own rite. Then I flew "Crazy Horse I" the P-51 the day after I flew the T-6. The P-51 Instructor pilot was John Posson who is probably the best instructor that I have ever flown with. He let me do almost all of the flying (with him talking me through of course) including two landings. I would never have thought that they would actualy let me land the P-51, not once,but twice, but I have the inflight tape that they have to record the complete flight. John talked me through both of the landings, but he never touched the controls. It was the closest that I have ever been to heaven, & we were almost at sea level. I got to do Aileron Rolls, Barrell Rolls, Loops, 4 Point Rolls & a 'Torque Roll, amoung other things. Not a day goes by that I don't think of that flight.

Anyone want to "Live The Dream". The Stallion 51 people can make it come true for only $3150.00 per hour. It was worth every cent.


At Oshkosh, I always heard the P-51 pilots say what a sweetheart the P-51 is to fly. Thanks to my three loving & thoughtful Sons, I can now say "Yeah, I know".
 
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DCWilson said:
I hadn't thought of this guy in years, but in the late '50s and '60s there was a Professor of Philosophy at Yale who had his own P-51. He was a brilliant maniac who never got over his youthful sense of immortality. This guy by himself refuted every cliche complaint you ever heard about pointy-headed Ivy League academics. One of my roommates took a semester course from him around 1964 or 1965, said he was an energetic and provocative lecturer. Unfortunately he flew too low once too often and died in a crash somewhere around 1970, give or take a couple of years.

I can't remember his name, darn it.

EDITED TO ADD:

OK, I recovered his name from my brain's cold storage: Norwood Russell Hanson. But when I looked him up I found that I had misremembered the P-51 association. Hanson owned and flew a Grumman Bearcat. He crashed in fog in 1967.
Click to expand...

************************************************************

DC, You brought back many memories of when I was a 'newbie' pilot & "The Bearcat Professor" was a big hero of mine.

I remember an interview he did for "Flying" magizine where he said he kept track of his fuel consumption on the F8F Bearcat while flying airshows. He said that it burned 312 gals. per hour. while doing his routine. I wanted to do the same thing he was, back then. He died too young.
 
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