Warbird Information Exchange

Anyone heard or seen it around. I helped take it off the post at PGH Inter Airport PA NAT Guard gate.

I remember seeing a flying NACA-schemed H in an issue of Aeroplane Monthly a few years back, but I'm afraid I can't offer much more than that.

EDIT: my mistake! It's not an H, but a D with a tall tail. Googling "NACA Mustang" gave me the one I was thinking of: http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/su ... l/44-84900

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Zac in NZ
#avgeek, modelbuilder, photographer, writer. Callsign: "HANDBAG".
https://linktr.ee/zacyates

"It's his plane, he spent the money to restore it, he can do with it what he wants. I will never understand what's hard to comprehend about this." - kalamazookid, 20/08/2013
"The more time you spend around warbirds the sooner you learn nothing, is simple." - JohnB, 24/02/22

She is still flying.

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Chris Henry
EAA Aviation Museum Manager

The Whittington owned P-51H was a NACA bird originally


NACA 130at the Ames Laboratory at Moffett Field in May 1957.

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remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

The NACA P-51 that is the subject of this thread is still owned by Bill Allmon and has been displayed at Reno a few times in recent years. It also tends to show-up in Idaho Falls from time to time, where its original restorer, Pacific Fighters, is located, and also flown from time to time by the Muszala's.

Here are some rather recent detail photos of the aircraft (2013), via Pacific Fighters:

https://www.facebook.com/18169662184560 ... =3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/18169662184560 ... =3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/18169662184560 ... =3&theater

Cockpit:
https://www.facebook.com/18169662184560 ... =3&theater
https://www.facebook.com/18169662184560 ... =3&theater


Mike Coutches' P-51D and the Lindsay Cavalier P-51D are also both former NACA examples, with both still retaining the NACA extended/taller tail cap as well (later adopted in the Cavalier conversions).

Boy those guys do good work a. Was a big deal when they moved from Chino. Was a guy in the hanger who made claim to being a warbird expert claimed that airplane had a tail hook installed and made carrier landing. If it did that they did without the hook. There was no trace of a tail hook on that airplane and I looked for it in there. Thanks

Now you've gone it, that pix with start the gear door color thing all over again

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Yeah, there seems to be some confusion/myth surrounding that. Post-war, the NACA P-51D's were re-named as "ETF-51D", for "Extended Tail F-51D". At some point, however, the P-51D that the Navy borrowed during WWII and modified to use a tail hook (which conducted 15 successful takeoffs and landings aboard the USS Shangri-La) started to be written about as having been re-named "ETF-51D" when operated by the Navy. This isn't true, and the aircraft didn't even get a Bureau Number, let alone a re-designation - which, had it been re-designated by the Navy, it would not have been "ETF-51D", as that wouldn't have followed the Navy's protocol for aircraft designations - had it been re-designated, it would have been F1J, or perhaps the first FJ-1. Still, both the NACA examples (correctly) and the Navy-modified example (incorrectly) have been referred to as "ETF-51D" numerous times. Furthermore, to add to it all, there seems to be photographic evidence to show that the Navy-modified P-51D did end up going to the NACA, after the Navy was done with it, but it was operated as NACA 102 (Bill Allmon's was NACA 127). In this high-resolution photo of NACA 102, one can see the same and very unique cutout in the base of the rudder that matches exactly with the original Navy-modified example (one notch cutout for tailhook clearance, and another smaller cutout, closer to the root of the tail, where the tie-down ring/lasso was positioned that was used with the catapult system): http://s7.photobucket.com/user/Bomber_1 ... 2.jpg.html. Furthermore, the Navy-modified P-51D was a P-51D-5-NA (built at Inglewood in early-mid 1944), while Bill Allmon's NACA Mustang is a P-51D-25-NT (built at Dallas in mid-late 1945). There were also other modifications to the Navy P-51D than just the tail hook, such as catapult hooks and tie-down. Still, with both aircraft operating with the NACA, there may have been a tail swap at some point, and Bill Allmons' Mustang could have had the tail of the Navy-modified P-51D, with the hook itself of course long gone.

In late D-model production - mid to late 1945 (in which Bill Allmon's NACA P-51D belongs) - there are instances where the aluminum landing gear clam-shell doors were finished in yellow zinc chromate (steel rub plates bare) - this however really being a production exception rather than the norm for the majority of P-51 manufacture, as the clam-shell doors, being a largley spot-welded assembly, were left bare-metal throughout most all production (same as the other gear door assemblies on the P-51, which are also filled with spot welds - usually always left bare metal during wartime production, but were sometimes primered in late production).

In that period didn't the "E" prefix mean "Exempt", when the aircraft had been modified from stock, thus exempt from standard specifications; and the "T" just meant "trainer" as usual?

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All right, Mister Dorfmann, start pullin'!
Pilot: "Flap switch works hard in down position."
Mechanic: "Flap switch checked OK. Pilot needs more P.T." - Flight report, TB-17G 42-102875 (Hobbs AAF)