"Jumpin Jacques" is a P-51D-20-NA model, built at North American?s Inglewood facility in California. Accepted by the USAAF on December 21, 1944 as 44-72035, she was assigned to the 332nd fighter group in the Mediterranean Theatre of operations. The 332nd became very famous as the first all Afro American manned group known as "The Tuskegee Airmen" although references to them at the time refer to them as "The Red Tails". She entered combat with the 15th Air force around March 1945, serving out the last few months of the war on escort and ground attack sweeps over Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. She still carries the battle scars to this day, with bullet repairs in several places on the fuselage. After the war, she was repatriated to the US and served with several ANG units. She was released from active duty in 1953 and in 1956 sold to Whitman Enterprises, CA, who registered her as N5411V. She remained in the Us until 1981, when she was sold to Colombia. In 1989, she was bought by Jacques Bourret of Aero Retro, based in St.Rambert, France, with the registration F-AZMU. When looking for a colour scheme for the P-5, Jacques came upon the photo of a Mustang named "Jumpin? Jacques" and could not resist adopting this as the new scheme. The original "Jumpin? Jacques" was flown by Lt Jacques E Young of the 3rd Fighter Squadron, 3rd Air Commando Group, a unit that operated out of the Philippines. At present, she is with the Hangar11 group of North Weald, UK, flying with the registration G-SIJJ. She has been repainted completely in early 2007, and it is this paintscheme that is depicted with this repaint. Repaint for the Shockwave WWII Fighters P-51D Mustang by Jan Kees Blom, based on the paintkit by John Terrell.
by jankees (2008-01-28 12:59:30)
by jankees (2008-01-28 12:59:30)
