Another Mustang Thread?

[Sisu]

Before she was "The Jacky C.", this airfame had this sort of postwar paint scheme. "Miss Fit" was a stock airframe with spray bars and a -9, and was good for 380 mph or so on the race course. She was notable for being the mount of Erin Rheinschild, the first ever female unlimited class air racer.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Sisu]

Erin did not succeed in her first attempt to qualify as a race pilot. She is an athlete and airline pilot (retired a few years ago as a senior 767 Captain) but not military trained, so had limited experience with aerobatics and formation work, She went home and practiced extensively, flew a lot of formation, and passed easily in her next attempt. In the first shot here she is being debriefed after her successful test by the Unlimited check pilot, the legendary Neil Anderson. Neil is ex- military and a long time test and demonstration pilot for General Dynamics. He is famous for his F-16 demos at places like the Paris Air Show back in the day. He also won Reno in Dreadnought in 1983.

Erin first raced at an event outside of Denver, Colorado in the summer of 1990.. Saturday went fine and she looked good (second photo). On Sunday things went sour, with a massive engine failure (broken connecting rod putting a hole in the crankcase) in a bad position on the course -- going away from the only usable runway. She made the runway just fine -- a little hot and far down the runway. Erin handled it all perfectly -- heavy braking without dinging the prop -- and got it stopped in a pool of oil by the end of the runway.

Check out the windshield in the last (post engine failure) photo here. She did not have much visibility at all through that oil coated windscreen. After Denver 1990 there were no more questions about Erin as a race pilot.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Sisu]

Erin did good at Reno that fall. She finished first in the Bronze race, at a remarkable 387mph.

 

[Sisu]

What a marvel of packaging! There is a lot of stuff under that hood.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Sisu]

I really like Mustangs in green. Considering how many actual WWII P-51s were O .D. there seem to have been surprisingly few postwar green warbird Mustangs.

 

[Sisu]

Dan Vance's airplane certainly looks good in green...

 

[Sisu]

Looks good in bad weather, too.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Good shots!

 

[Sisu]

This is another green 357th Fighter Group scheme that I fell in love with 40 something years ago. This was at the Unlimited Air Race held at Homestead, Florida in 1979. The shot in the air is not the greatest quality, but I was a beginner. "Passion Wagon" was lost with pilot a decade later, in New England.

This is a really great paint scheme, and a great name for a P-51. I'm surprised noone has done it since Mr. Enhorning.

 

[Sisu]

Of course "razorback" P-51s belong in green. They never really look right to me any other way. Olive drab makes a P-51B look lethal, rather than just decorated...

 

[Wurger]

 

[Sisu]

P-51B in good company at Reno 1982.

 

[Sisu]

A good looking airplane...

 

[Wurger]

 

[Peter Gunn]

A good looking airplane...

Don Gentile's Shangri La, my favorite, I built several models of it as a kid, one of my hero's growing up.

Not sure how I missed this thread, and, as the forums (un)official Mustang fanboi extraordinaire I TOTALLY approve of this thread.

And I agree, there is no angle where the Mustang looks bad.

 

[Sisu]

I'm glad you find the thread worthwhile. I've been wondering what people here thought about it. Just a few are commenting or liking, etc. but the thread seems to have over 2000 views so I guess somebody is watching. I'm enjoying it -- it's good to revisit some of these images from the past...

And yes, this is one of the really great Mustang paint schemes.