North American P-51D Mustang Airplane - Auction

[John]

Here is a neat auction to attend [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/biggthumpup.gif[/img]

P-51D Mustang auction

....there is also Packard Rolls Royce V150-9 Engine

in the auction [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

[earntaz]

WOW!! Hello -- Jack Rousch ... pair em' up!

[SS427]

Wow! Barn find! There are not many P51's left in civilian paint schemes. Looking at this one I would say it was likely painted back in the 60's in this color scheme. I need to check the registry.

[watk69]

what is really neat about the P-51 and any aircraft of the &quot;can do&quot; era is these went from drafting board to full production in a very short period of time. We got stuff done back then!

[427TJ]

The -9 Merlin was the version used in the postwar P-51H. Air racers in the '60s and '70s, including hydroplane teams, preferred the -9 over the standard -7. I think today they build &quot;hybrid&quot; race Merlins using transport con rods and other mix-match parts to ensure longevity.

That spare Merlin looks to be on the original wooden shipping dolly that Packard mounted it to in the late '40s.

Also, the N54xxV series of FAA registration numbers was assigned to a few dozen P-51Ds in the very early 1960s. I believe an aircraft broker in Minnesota reserved that series of N-numbers for the Mustangs he bought surplus at McClellan AFB's famous auctions of 1957-58. Rows of flyable P-51Ds up for auction and not one of them more than 2,000 bucks. Those were the days.

N5416V: http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51...erial/44-84896

[SS427]

Amazing how UGLY the H model is when compared to the D model. Very hard to look at, at least to me.

[SS427]

Here is an old shot of a P51H still in it's civilian color scheme.

[Fast67VelleN2O]

Any guesses as to what it will sell for?

-Matt

[427TJ]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: SS427</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Here is an old shot of a P51H still in it's civilian color scheme. </div></div>

That airplane later went to the Whittingtons. I think it was Bill who was flying it at Reno '78 when he had, I think, a propeller governor failure during the diving start to the Saturday heat race for stockers. He swung wide to land west on runway two-six but was very 'hot' on approach. Got the gear down and flaps but floated almost all the way down the runway before pushing it down onto the main wheels. It came right at us, bumping along on the dirt road that was the west extension of two-six, and about 200 feet from the barbed-wire fance he ground-looped it to stop it from hitting the motor home parked on the other side of the fence--that had people on its roof watching the show. I remember the sound it made as it bounced along the dirt road at 80+ mph, tail still high and fuselage level with the ground (fast enough to keep the nose down to see the road). Big cloud of dirt, canopy slides open, pilot tosses helmet out front of the left wing in disgust. Original H-prop, a paddle-blade Aeroproducts unit unique to the H, was ruined. The Whittingtons got it flying again a few years later with a strange Rotol five-blade prop. That British scheme was bad enough on the H and the five-blade makes it even tougher to look at now. Oh, and the people on the motor home panicked and started jumping off the top as the Mustang came down the road right at them. One older lady compound-fractured her leg and I think a couple others suffered leg injuries.

I took these with my Polariod camera that you had to pull the photo out, wait 60 seconds, and then peel the paper back to see the picture.

Maybe ten minutes after the fire truck got there and sprayed foam on the airplane.


Sunday morning waiting for someone to come hoist it onto a truck.

[427TJ]

Plus, that ground-loop occurred after a fatal midair collision of two AT-6/SNJs on the first lap of their Saturday heat race. They collided right in front of us on the west turn and metal pieces flickered through the air as the one T-6 got chewed up by the prop of the black one. Awful sound. Two dull thuds as they hit the gound and then silence as the other racers climbed off of the course to the east. Then just the sound of the Army medical Huey's blades as they got airborne and went over to the site.

About an hour later they ran the Unlimited Silver heat race where Whittington had his mishap mentioned above. That was unique too as Bob Hoover, the pace pilot, called a no-start the first time they came down the chute from the south. &quot;GENTELEMEN, YOU DO NOT HAVE A RACE, YOU DO NOT HAVE A RACE.&quot; It was mayhem as they all pulled up and basically didn't know just what to do. It took maybe ten minutes for Hoover to marshal them all back into the start formation and try it again with Hoover admonishing the pilots to get it right this time. The second attempt was when Whittington came in and bent the H-model.

It was a hell of a day at Reno.

The following photos came out of Sport Flying magazine.