Fagen Fighters P-51B project

[marine air]

Pete Reginas “ Shangi La” looked really nice in person. It would be a great choice.
“Kidd” Hofer was a problem child and major headache to his squadron mates and CO. His reckless approach got himself killed. He scored a lot of victories and was a hero even though he wasn’t liked by his peers.
“ Excalibur III” flown by Charles Blair over the North zPole is a great choice, He was an ace, set several world records, and was married to actress Maureen O’Hara, possibly the prettiest redhead of all times. They also owned an airline, “Antilles Air Boats.” The original “Excalibur III” is in the Smithsonian and it, and Charles Blair are a fascinating story.
Last, every aircraft collector has a trusted mechanic . Someone that advises him on every purchase and gives praise or condemnation. And every collector buys at least one aircraft or project without first consulting his expert mechanic. This appears to be one of those projects. It is rough. However, we all know it will emerge as an incredible and beautiful airplane.

[glider90]

This thread reminded me to dig through dad's slides for some shots of N51PR fro Oshkosh in the 80's.
_DSC0002 by hangar28, on Flickr

[Decamara]

Saw Pete Regina and his brother fly their Stangs many times at Madera

Pete also had given Edgar Schmued his first Mustang ride in that B Model

Edgar was the original designer of the Mustang for NA

I believe Petes bird didn’t have the correct wing?

But was later corrected by Stephen Grey (?)
When it was acquired by him in England

Beautiful airplane

[C VEICH]

I believe Petes bird didn’t have the correct wing?

But was later corrected by Stephen Grey (?)
When it was acquired by him in England

Beautiful airplane

If memory serves the whole projected started when Regina stumbled across a B model wing while in Israel. I am pretty sure it is the fuselage that contains/contained many D model parts but the wing was a stock B unit.

[Decamara]

http://www.crazyhorseap.be/Mustangs/Mus ... N487FS.htm


Yep
I forget what article mentioned the specific wing references
But this details a few things with the bird before Freidken acquired it

[Decamara]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... 7_(NL487FS)_(13965519528).jpg

[Archer]

The link as you posted it doesn't work. Try this one.

The text with this image states that it was a P-51C that was recovered from Israel, restored with a modified P-51D wing. I thought it was the other way around. Anyhow, it wasn't until Stephen Grey had it restored again between 1998 and 2004 that the remaining P-51D bits were modified back to P-51B/C configuration, as explained in the article two posts back.

[marine air]

A cache of Mustang parts were imported into the US from Israel. The idea of building up a P-51B was found with all the D items. No doubt they scrounged for B and C parts, but of course it had D parts on it. For the most part, in the 1970’s and 1980’s people were still scrounging for usable parts, putting ads in Trade A Plane and making phone calls. They weren’t making new wings, fuselages, etc. at that time.

[marine air]

A P-51B Wing was found.

[lucky52]

How do you get into the rear seat in that P-51 B model? It looks like you have to climb over the front seat.Thanks.

[martin_sam_2000]

How do you get into the rear seat in that P-51 B model? It looks like you have to climb over the front seat.Thanks.

If it is like the P-40 I flew in, the pilots seat is hinged so it swings forward and you can climb in...sorta like 2 door sports cars with back seats...

Sean

[JohnTerrell]

"Princess Elizabeth", since the restoration completed in 2005, doesn't have a rear seat, but did prior. On most all of the stock-fuselage P-51D's and stock-B/C's with rear seats in them, the front seat will be specially mounted so that it can be tilted forward, hinged at the base of the floor and with a cross bar at the top, usually secured with quick-release pins on each side of the upper cockpit wall plates or longerons (requiring specially-made brackets).

On "Princess Elizabeth", even after its most recent restoration, the fuselage remains very D-model from the upper longerons down, most notable by the straight up and down vertical panel line at sta.146, just behind the cockpit (rather than the canted line there is on a true B/C fuselage), the D-model type doghouse and the slightly out of position (for a B/C) flare gun port, though internal details provide a very close appearance to a relatively stock B/C cockpit. I've read articles which state that the highback upper fuselage (above the upper longerons) and B/C type fillets/fairings were made from patterns that Pete Regina took from Paul Mantz's P-51C (now owned by Kermit Weeks). In addition to the B/C wing, canopy and early tail, another major find for Pete Regina when he was building up that aircraft was an original lower center P-51B/C engine cowling too, which is completely different than the P-51D/K cowling panels. It, along with a couple other recent new-build restorations ("Impatient Virgin" and "Berlin Express"), lacks the characteristic P-51B/C "hump" that you see in original P-51B/C's over the transition between the forward windscreen cowling, firewall and upper engine cowlings, which I believe points to using the ever so slightly shorter D/K firewall (the prototype P-51D 43-12102 even had the B/C style "hump", before production changes smoothed out the line).

[lucky52]

Thanks.

[Dan Jones]

How is it that a B or C model Mustang would have found it's way to Israel in the first place? I know that Israel purchased some P-51's from Sweden and I know that Sweden had at least one (see pic). Has anybody got a picture of the airplane in Israel?

Attachments

sweden2.jpg (54.17 KiB) Viewed 983 times

[JohnTerrell]

It's described in the 2012 summer issue of "Mustangs International", that according to Pete Regina the P-51B wing came from a parts dealer in El Monte, California (who also had a complete P-38 and P-47 at the time). The wing was gutted and missing the landing gear, clam shell doors and outer extensions. He was able to acquire items like an early wing tip and early clam shell door and then re-manufacture another of each in reverse. The tail section is based on/restored from what survived of the tail section from P-51B N68738. The central section of the fuselage was restored from a P-51D fuselage recovered out of Israel. The windscreen was also found in a parts warehouse.

Speaking of Israel though, they would have done all they could to find and acquire Mustangs anywhere they could. The P-51D 44-72028 "Marge/Vivian", a Pacific Theatre combat-vet currently under restoration, served with the Israeli AF, as did the Pacific Theatre combat-vet P-51K "Fragile but Agile" (if you believe the evidence). I've heard that both, and I've seen evidence supporting it with 44-72028, made it back to the US after the end of WWII, having been serving in Japan in the immediate post-war years before being transported to Sacramento, CA in 1948, and would have been among those acquired by Israeli agents within the United States in 1948 after being put up for disposal the same year.

Last edited by JohnTerrell on Fri Jun 05, 2020 5:05 pm, edited 2 times in total.