JohnTerrell wrote:
I'm familiar with the bunch of photos of N851D (#1) 44-84658 (today "Friendly Ghost") in the early 60's, prior to it going to Indonesia - that airframe never received the extended tail fin cap.
Okay, here's where things start getting fun.
N851D #1/44-84658 (e.g. the "real" TEMCO TF that Cavalier was using as their in-house trainer) was used to create one of the two Peace Pony I TF-51s for Indonesia (AURI F 160 and F 361) out of convenience in 1971. The two TFs are identifiable (and distinguishable) in that one was painted up in SEA camouflage and the other was delivered in a plain white scheme. Interestingly, and for reasons which I still do not understand (but have been testified to by multiple sources/Cavalier employees), when it was built up for Indonesia it had a "sort of" ID swap with 44-73260 temporarily before leaving to Indonesia in 1971. So, there are photos of the N851D airframe on the ramp in Sarasota, wearing southeast asia camouflage, and with "N451D" painted on the side. None the less, N851D went to Indonesia and did not come back -- it crashed in Indonesia in July 1975 and was destroyed.
"Friendly Ghost", in my opinion based on seeing the evidence, is actually the former N451D/44-73260. This stems from seeing photos of the fuselage in a shipping crate during recovery from Indonesia by Steven Johnson, and the fuselage (and interior pieces, etc) are painted white. As said previously, 84658 was painted camo and 73260 was painted white, and the third Indonesian Cavalier TF-51 (72-1536) was destroyed in Indonesia, crashing in Feb 1979. A simple process of elimination narrows the ID down to one possible airframe. Unfortunately, Johnson, MacGuire, Letcher, etc, were not aware that N451D had been converted into a TF-51 prior to export to Indonesia, and with the "assistance" of some shoddy "research" from the USAF attache to Indonesia, they earnestly believed the airframe to be N851D, and reregistered it with the FAA as such.
JohnTerrell wrote:
Now with 44-84745 N851D #2 (today "Crazy Horse"), it received the TEMCO-style TF extended cockpit modifications by Cavalier in the late 60's, if I understand correctly - I know by the early 70's it had the extended cockpit and tail fin cap.
Long story here, too, but the airplane was just parts in a warehouse until after Cavalier and Field Services shut down business. The Lindsay family wanted to build it up as the "last and best" Cavalier TF-51 in the '81/'82 timeframe, so they picked out the best parts from the leftover ex-company stock. Gordon Plaskett eventually finished the build.
JohnTerrell wrote:
It's interesting if in-fact 44-84655 became Cavalier 67-14866, as there are now two TF-51D's flying today with both of those identities. The Friedkin TF-51D N20TF has had the Cavalier 67-14866 identity (which was FAB 521 from 1968 onward) very clearly all the way back to when it was brought back out of Bolivia in the 1970's, while the Collings TF-51D N551CF claims the 44-84655 identity (which was FAB 510 up until 1967), but as I recall, that aircraft was sort of brought out of the blue only several years back as a mostly new-build project based on parts and paperwork. Curtis Fowles' website states that the hulk of 44-84655, which had been written off, was used by Cavalier as a template in their TEMCO-type extended cockpit modifications.
The story here is that I have a photo of the fuselage of 44-84655 getting paint-stripped and washed on the first day of work on the Peace Condor (Bolivian AF) airplanes. There is no direct link that I have currently that shows which of the two Bolivian TF-51s (67-14866 and 67-22582) this fuselage was used to create. It would follow, though, that as Cavalier was creating their first-ever TF-51s, they would use an actual TEMCO airframe to start with, as a second airframe could (and was) patterned off the TEMCO design. 67-14866 was built in December 1967 and 67-22582 was constructed in 1968...so it is an educated guess that the TEMCO fuselage was used to create 67-14866, since that was the first airplane out the doors (and the handwritten caption on the photo obtained from Cavalier goes out of its way to note that it was the first day of work on the Peace Condor aircraft). I agree that N20TF is this airframe, because there's been a pretty solid tie-up between the Cavalier identity and N20TF since returning from South America.
With respect to N551CF, their claim to provenance with 44-84655 is some cowlings and parts that are verifiably from 84655, which were obtained from Gordon Plaskett (who inherited them from the former Cavalier stock). <shrug> That's probably as good of evidence of provenance of any Mustang restoration these days! I was playing a little fast and loose when I made the tie-up with 14866 in the previous post, because in all reality the "provenance" parts on Tolouse Nuts were probably never actually part of 14866.
It is definitely possible that the 44-84655 TEMCO airframe was used to build 67-22582/FAB 522, which crashed in Bolivia in 1970...which would mean that N20TF isn't a former TEMCO, and N551CF...still has the same claim to provenance based on their ex-Plaskett bolt-on parts.
JohnTerrell wrote:
One on your list, 44-73260, I have never seen any indication of having had the extended cockpit.
As said earlier, it was converted for export in 1971 to Indonesia. I have some photos of it in my research materials at home, but I am out on the road for business and don't have access to them to share right now.
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ellice_island_kid wrote:
I am only in my 20s but someday I will fly it at airshows. I am getting rich really fast writing software and so I can afford to do really stupid things like put all my money into warbirds.