Ztex wrote:We had a conversation about this one a while back...confusion about the ID#
The airplane has a very checkered history, having crashed and been rebuilt several times.
44-74558 may indeed be the "core" identity of the airplane. 44-74558 is suspected to have been illegally sold/flown to El Salvador for the 1969 war. It is
suspected to have been a parts donor used to construct an ad-hoc TF-51 after El Salvador's Cavalier TF-51 crashed and was largely destroyed (the dual-control cockpit survived the crash). So, 44-74558's nose, wing, empennage, and horizontal stabs were used to build up the new airplane.
Anyway, the airplane is noted as being 'wreckage' when acquired by Flaherty in '74 with all the other Salvadoran Mustangs. Its history since then is relatively well known. With all that crashing and rebuilding, and the core TF-51 fuselage probably being sourced from an anonymous Cavalier TF-51, I don't know that it's possible to pin-on any identity aside from "possibly" being 44-74558.
If anyone has further photos (especially during/after recovery from El Sal or when it was rebuilt) or information, I'd be interested in hearing it.