Another Mustang Thread?

[Gnomey]

Good shots!

 

[Tiger11]

Back in the 1970s and 1980s I lived in Northern California, where there was a vibrant Warbirds scene. For years we heard about Art Vance's Mustang project. He had found the hulk of a fuselage, with the crucial center section reasonably intact. He then obtained a wing and landing gear from an Australian airplane, and after spending far more time and far more money than planned, by 1982 or so he had a flying Mustang. For several years the paint was pretty rough -- and the airplane was called "Million Dollar Baby" in honour of the building process...

Art Vance and I were in the same new hire pilot class with The Flying Tiger Line in the 1960s. He had many family responsibilities & not a nickel to his name. After a career as an airline pilot he had the money to follow his dream and did many good things in racing. Great guy!

 

[Sisu]

In 1983 N5441V was painted up as Yeager's Mustang for a movie role -- "The Right Stuff" I think. By September it had again become The Budweiser Lite II

 

[Wurger]

 

[A4K]

Beautiful shots in that last post.

 

[Gnomey]

Good shots!

 

[Sisu]

After this 5441V mostly faded from my consciousness. After 25 years of heavy civilian use -- training, aerobatics, racing, etc etc -- she was tired and started an extended restoration process and 40 years further on is a polished Mustang named "Dolly".

But meanwhile Steve Hinton had been working on a whole new Mustang project. Confusingly it looks just like the other one --- it all gets confusing...

 

[Wurger]

 

[Sisu]

Steve's new Mustang was very much a composite. He accumulated parts for some time -- many from large stashes of Merlin and Mustang parts coming back to America from the Philipines and Indonesia in the 1970s. It was flying by the summer of 1984, and came to Reno like this. It was flown by a young John Maloney, as Steve was busy with the Super Corsair.

I thought it looked really nice in plain bare metal

 

[SaparotRob]

Steve's new Mustang was very much a composite. He accumulated parts for some time -- many from large stashes of Merlin and Mustang parts from the Philipines and Indonesia in the 1970s. It was flying by the summer of 1984, and came to Reno like this. It was flown by a young John Maloney, as Steve was busy with the Super Corsair.

I thought it looked really nice in plain bare metal.bare metal


View attachment 870159



View attachment 870160



View attachment 870158

It does look nice in NMF.

 

[Sisu]

Natural metal looked good out in the field, too.

That pylon is about 45 feet high. Young John was aggressive as a 23 year old -- he got more conservative as he got older and started a family. He was always really good, though.

 

[Sisu]

Steve's new Mustang was a parts bird with no clear identity. In an earlier life Steve had a spectacular career in the legendary "Red Baron" raceplane -- N7715C. Then the RB crashed and almost killed Steve. Steve somehow got the paperwork for the N number

and gave the number to his new Mustang, which was soon painted just like "Spam Can" but called "Wee Willie II". So you have Mustang that looks just like another well known bird, carrying the N number of still another legendary Mustang. Armchair historians will be forever confused...

 

[Wurger]

 

[Tiger11]

Steve's new Mustang was a parts bird with no clear identity. In an earlier life Steve had a spectacular career in the legendary "Red Baron" raceplane -- N7715C. Then the RB crashed and almost killed Steve. Steve somehow got the paperwork for the N number


View attachment 870504

and gave the number to his new Mustang, which was soon painted just like "Spam Can" but called "Wee Willie II". So you have Mustang that looks just like another well known bird, carrying the N number of still another legendary Mustang. Armchair historians will be forever confused...


View attachment 870505

Was the Red Baron contraprop? Looks like in the photo.

 

[Gnomey]

Nice shots!

 

[Sisu]

It was indeed. It was the first of three Griffon Mustangs -- all of which were very different from each other. The props are cut down Shackleton units -- far from ideal but available. I would like to do a thread on the Griffon birds some time. They were very interesting.

This one was the most exotic, though not the fastest. This begins to make one question whether this is even still a Mustang Those were fun and interesting times back then...