P-51 Question

[NathanT24]

In the late 80s and 90s at Wings Over Houston there was a P-51 named "Whats up Doc" which was camoflauged, what ever happend to this plane? I found an old pic that I will scan when I can.

[Warbirdnerd]

It is this one:
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51regis ... 22581.html

[Tulio]

Nathan:

Former Bolivian AF Cavalier Mustangs, were returned to Canada and one of them, C-GMUS is the airplane you saw at WOH.

I have these two shots, plus several others (some from Airsho' 81 in Harlingen). If you are interested, please PM me with an e-mail address.

There are two s/n reported for C-GMUS, the first one (
67-14866) I believe to be the right one, while the second one (67-22581), is the one for "American Beauty."

Photos (C) Tulio Soto




Saludos!


Tulio

[Randy Haskin]

Serial: Canadian Reg

67-22581 C-GMUS Ex-"What's Up Doc", now "American Beauty"

67-14866 C-GXUR TF-51, N20TF

[Tulio]

Hi, Randy!

I have a question.

Was "American Beauty" a modified Cavalier? Was the tail modified back to F-51D shape and size?

The pictures I have of What's Up Doc, show the typical Cavalier tall tail.

Even in the WIX registry pictures, you can see that the tails on the two airplanes, are different.

Or is this a simple case of the wrong i.d. on What's Up Doc?

Thank you, and saludos!

Tulio

[Randy Haskin]

Yes, when Max Chapman purchased the airplane in 1997 it was "restored" back into standard P-51 configuration with the D-moel tail, although it retains several of the Cavalier mods up in the cockpit, as well as the fuselage baggage door and some other things.

It's the same airplane.

Other Cavalier F-51Ds (such as Chuck Hall's 67-22580 "Six Shooter") have gone back to the stock tail, too.

[Tulio]

Thanks, Randy.

This makes it all clear now, y'hear.

Saludos,


Tulio

Last edited by Tulio on Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Django]

I had no idea about the Cavalier models until this month of Warbird Digest. Very interesting!

[Randy Haskin]

I had no idea about the Cavalier models until this month of Warbird Digest. Very interesting!

The WD article only covered a very small sliver of the story.

My book, which I'm hoping to have out next year, will detail all the different models.

In the mean time, here's the Wiki article that I wrote on the Cavalier Mustangs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavalier_Mustang

[marine air]

Question for Randy, or whomever; Are there any "real" Temco TF-51D's out there on the civilian registry? IIRC, in the 70's there were three or four original Temco TF-51's on the registry, that had served in the USAF in the 1950's. They weren't popular, were considered ugly and were not as valuable as a standard D model back then. I think I remember one of them belonged to a flying club in California and was involved in many accidents. Another one was involved in a stall-spin accident. Here in Nashville, we had two in the Air Guard unit in the 1950's, one of which was lost in a training accident. All the ones I have seen lately have been built up from kits available after the end of the PA-48 Enforcer program or are Cavalier conversion sent out to South American countries under the MAPS program and (???) never actually served in the post WWII USAF inventory and training command. ANy real TF's remaining?
Thanks