Warbird Information Exchange

Does anyone know the serial number for the P-51 Bill Barnes was piloting when he crashed back in 1980 out near Edwards AFB?

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Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

I think it's the one that Robs Lamplough arranged to have flown to the UK in 1977 for Duxford airshow - the first flying Mustang I ever saw.

If memory serves me correctly, it re-surfaced after the Barnes crash, only to fly into the side of a Swiss mountain as 'Temptation' a few years back, sadly killing the pilot and his son.

Edited to add........

http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/su ... 3027.shtml

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51regis ... 73027.html

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Is this the same Bill Barnes that wrote an article published in Air Progress in the late 60's about his first solo flight in a P-51 at Salem, Oregon? There were no photos, just a large cartoon type sketch, and I think it was titled Hero Types.

I'll try to dig that issue out this evening.

Is that the son of PANCHO BARNES, I believe he was killed in a P-51, doign aerobatics at an airshow?

Mark H

Lowell,
No, that's a different Bill Barnes.
Bill was a friend of mine out here in Salem. He was a regular at the
airport and flew a black Decathelon. He had a strip in Aumsville that
a friend with a Stearman now owns. Bill's story was great and told
about their adventures with Bob Morrow's 1st P-51. I liked Bill very much
(he was a gunner on SBDs and SB2Cs in the Marines). I called
him the man in black because that's about all he wore like Johnny Cash.
Maybe it was his way of expressing his troubled side no one saw has he
killed himself about 15 years ago. Sorta sad that all my airport friends
of my youth are gone now and I'm the old guy I don't even have a picture of him
....bummer

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Don't touch my junk!!

Jack,

Did Bill own any cropdusters in the mid-late 60's? I thought my dad had flown one he had. It might have been a Callair A-9, N7240V around April 1967.

I know my dad really liked Bill, and I probably met him several times back in the day but don't recall him now.

I must have read his P-51 first flight story a hundred times as a teenage kid but can't remember which Air Progress issue it was in now.

Thanks for the clarification.

Bill did a bunch of dusting!

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Don't touch my junk!!

The Bill Barnes associated with the MPC (Mustang Pilot's Club) Mustang was the son of Pancho Barnes. He used to have a service facility at Fox Field. The accident happened as he was flying in formation with Bob Guilford in the Blue Max, headed to an airshow. Barnes peeled away and never responded to radio calls. The speculation is that Bill was physically incapacitated. Later, we found out that Bill had a recent stay in the hospital for heart related ailments. Bill's lead mechanic was in the back seat. Bad deal.

Tony Ostermeier was the one that flew the bird over to England and Germany in '77. Tony was quizzed by Hinton when Steve was preparing for Bolero II.

From what Tony tells me, there wasn't much left of the airplane. They just dug a hole and shoved the bits and pieces in. The Swiss Mustang must have used the data plate.

BTW, Tony used to build beautiful Mercedes Gullwing replicas, both roadsters and coupes that still sell for over 100K today.

I took flight instruction from Bill and was a flight instructor for him once upon a time at Fox Field. I heard from one of his associates that they found glycol on the headsets. If a line had burst and there was a glycol mist in the cockpit, that would have made keeping it right side up pretty hard. That he crashed because of a mechanical failure would be ironic, because he took extremely good care of his aircraft and knew them inside and out.

The Mustang Pilots Club did not have much luck with their 51s. Both went down in fatal accidents. Bill Barnes also had an F4U-4 which his widow Shou Ling later sold to Erickson Air Crane. Unfortunately that one was lost when the pilot (Art Vance???) bailed out (in Oregon???).

T J

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