Michigan Crash Site Mystery

[daveT]

Wreckage Found of a plane in a Michigan swamp. The effort to identify it took many hours of research and years but was ultimately successful.
Please read about the long process and the lessons learned.
Everyone likes a good mystery, and this one involves a great plane!

spoiler alert: The mystery plane is a P-51H Mustang!
enjoy
DaveT

 

[GrumpyOldCrewChief]

 

[ODonovan]

I'm reading the .pdf file now. Immediately, when I saw the roundel, I knew it couldn't be from an F-86. They didn't fly until after the red bar was added, in '47. And, they didn't enter service with the Air Force until '49. Unless the story is out of synch with the photos, I'm wondering why they ever considered an F-86. My guess is the photos were inaccurately added to the .pdf too early in the story.



-Irish

 

[daveT]

The F-86 was considered because of the landing gear door as a possible match. The wing fragment was in bad shape. It was all a process that I went through before I found a match