Warbird Information Exchange

On the Princess Elizabeth thread I was "still miffed" at an original Allison
A-36 being converted to "yet another Merlin Mustang". When no-one was
able to reply accurately, I thought about it a bit. I think the basis of this
evolved from an Air Classics short series on the Allison 'Stangs. I traced
it back to a 1980 issue.

I only have a clipping..but it says,"while a civil registered A-36A is in the
hands of a aircraft restorer who wants to rebuild the machine to P-51B/C
configuration."..and goes on to say, "This particular A-36A had a P-51D
cooling system and scoop installed somewhere along the line in place of
the retractable unit that was a feature of the Allison Mustangs. The
rareness of the A-36A makes it a shame to convert such an unusual
Mustang, especially considering the amount of work involved".
Christopher Shores(Britain)..no N#, No Ser.#

I've looked in Mustangsx2 but the A-36A to B/C conversion considering
what is there for info, fails to connect for me. As for other sources.

The upshot of all this...Have I been "wrapped around the axle", about
a conversion that may have never happened????

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

I belive you are focusing on this one:

http://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/su ... 3738.shtml

another paperwork shuffle using an A-36A ID but w/o the related components. Will look where the parts went.


Martin

In the Princess Elizabeth thread the John Paul connection was offered-up
and discounted. Ahhhh.. so the Apache was split up? The Collings A-36
at mustangsx2 was not informative. I am curious! What parts went
where? The "Bee" is a B/C right? So did Collings get the A-36 wings with
dive-brakes etc., and what other stuff? Did the "Bee" evolve from the
A-36 fuse?

Confused in Texas

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Sounds like 'Polar Bear' to me.

Polar Bear is in P-51A config; correct?

"As" still had Allison engines in them from what I recall. And a 3 blad prop.

I do recall reading that they added some D stuff to it to make it safer to fly.

_________________
www.tailhookstudio.com

Didnt know if you saw my post on the other thread so here it is again...



Read the 9th post down on this thread.

Other than maybe some paperwork shuffling and maybe some misidentification of airframes I dont think any A-36/P-51A airframes have been "chopped up" to converted to B/C machines.

With shops building up new parts now there is no need to convert the early models to late models.

_________________
Blue Skies,
Dan
http://www.flytoanothertime.com

My words

the paperwork was retained by Mr. Paul for his B/C model project, while the A-36 components moved on. The open question now only is what happened to Apache hardware ?

Polar Bear indeed is a P-51A and was rebuilt from a crash, retaining the original ID.

Martin

Martin,

Notice JC's post in the linked thread. They kept the paperwork for some reason and the A-36 stuff was sold to the Collings Foundation. The Foundation still owns it and she is in Florida slowly being worked on.

This has been a mystery since I started checking out and posting on the WIX probably 5 years ago now. We could never figure out just what exactly Collings obtained or the ID of the pieces. I asked Rob Collings many moons ago and he wasn't sure at the time either. He might now I'm not sure. It is nice to finally solve the puzzle.

Ryan

I guess it comes down to... what will Mr. Paul register the airplane as? Will the paperwork reflect a serial number from an A-36 or a B/C model?

_________________
Blue Skies,
Dan
http://www.flytoanothertime.com

Are there any pictures of the Collings project or are they keeping it quiet?

Jim

It is listed on the Foundation web page so I can't imagine it being quiet.

I have personally never seen any photos of her but my dad did a few summers ago and he said she is slowly coming along.

Jim Harley might have seen her but I'm not sure. I'll ask Rob about her when I see him next weekend when the bombers come here to Houston.

Ryan

Thanks guys. The Collings website had no photos or data concerning their
A-36 nor did Mustangsx2. As for the John Paul reference, Musx2 reported
that the A-36 stuff was sold to another A-36 project in 1980. But there
was no #'s or details as to who/what. Then of course the 1980 Air Classics
article stirred the pot.

I'm glad the A-36 emerged somewhat complete with Collings. I will be
interested to understand the details of all this when things "flesh-out"!

Thanx a bunch guys!!

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

All: Looking into this... will post once I have some data on our A-36. Thanks.

Ryan Keough
Collings Foundation

John Paul sold the A-36 pieces to the Collings Foundation. So therefore the A-36 pieces would be from the airframe 42-83738 which was also N4607V. The only confusion is that John still owns the paperwork to the A-36.

We know this because it came straight from John's son when he posted here on the WIX last year some time.

Ryan

And has a D-model scoop I believe.