Warbird Information Exchange

The Corsair in the background is the Tallmantz FG-1D (BuNo.92433) which definitely makes this pre-1972 Orange County Airport.

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

August:

In regards to your question that appeared on the WIX forum, for your information, the USAF T.O. ordering the tail wheels to be locked in the down position came about because of two reasons: (1) Normal operational wear and tear was causing the tail wheel installation to frequently fail. (2) The stock military North American P-51 Mustang did not have a Gear Warning Light system. To the best of my knowledge, a warning system was not formally installed in the Mustang until David Lindsay of the Trans Florida/Cavalier Aircraft Corporation designed a new instrument panel arrangement for his company's "Executive Mustang" and later his "Cavalier" series of aircraft. Therefore, until the creation of the Trans Florida Aviation Corporation, most Mustang owners of EX Air National Guard Aircraft were forced to make do with the awkward fixed tail wheel installation or scrounge around for the components to make the system active again. Of course, sometimes this was not economically feasible. I hope that this helps.

John L. Dienst
Personal E-mail Address: Dienst@hotmail.com

The doors on the tailwheel unit became problematic. By the 1950's the P-51 was not an air superiority fighter, but used for photo recon(Tenn. ANG) as a ground attack "platform" in Korea. The speed penalty was no big deal compared to the increase in reliabilty. The tailwheel unit was taking a beating in Korea where they used a lot of PCP Planking for taxiways and runways over the otherwise muddy conditions. The Mustang had the highest loss rate of all allied aircraft when used in Koreafor air support. In the air support role, when called upon, they would have been extremely busy doing many sorties per day and this was probably done as a easy fix to keep squadron strength up and ready.