Another great P-51 restoration

Yep, that's the one I helped restore in 2007. However, unless Cavenaugh has more than one P-51, then this one wasn't moved from our Hangar until early 2008 (April/May timeframe). It was my understanding it first went to Breckenridge but was ultimately restored by someone else. I lost contact with it after it left us.

So it wasn't a 4 year restoration, more like 2 1/2 actually, unless they're counting in the time we had it as well. Beautiful airplane though. I notice they changed the markings on it too.
 
Ed, I do believe they are referring to the entire amount of work that went into it, by all of the companies that were involved, including yours as well, whether it is mentioned or not.

The markings are really unique, in that they are the same markings the actual aircraft carried durring WWII, being one of only a few surviving Mustangs that saw combat service during WWII, and one of still fewer that are actually now flying in the same markings they originally carried.
 
Bomber_12th said:
. . . . . . . . .The markings are really unique, in that they are the same markings the actual aircraft carried durring WWII, being one of only a few surviving Mustangs that saw combat service during WWII, and one of still fewer that are actually now flying in the same markings they originally carried.
Click to expand...
That's interesting John because the markings we put on the restoration we did were the ones on it when it was flown into the airport to begin the restoration. Those markings were also shown in a WWII photo of that airplane flying in formation.
 
The aircraft's actual serial number, 44-72339, was already known to have been sent overseas during the war, to England, but nothing was ever known about what, if any service, it had been involved in while it was there (several Mustangs flying today can claim they were sent to England during the war, but in all likelihood, they simply sat parked at a depot, arriving too late in the war to be needed, and later being sent back to the US at war's end). Amazingly, while the aircraft was under restoration, within the past couple of years, a son (I believe), of the pilot that flew it during the war, Lt. Hjalmar Johnsen, was going through the original logbook of his dad's, and was tracing down the various serial numbers that were recorded, and came upon a match with the surviving 44-72339, and contacted the Cavanaugh Flight Museum. There is only one photo of the aircraft surviving from its time during the war, and it doesn't show the nose art, so right now the nose art on it is a vinyl made from the nose art on the pilot's P-38 that he had beforehand, also named "The Brat" (in which there is a great photo showing the nose art on it). When everyone's happy with the way the nose art looks, it will be painted on - better to wait till then, because the metal has to be 'etched' first, where the painted name will be placed. Since the initial photos were taken, a bigger version of the nose art was created, to more correctly match up with what it likely looked like.

The aircraft served with the 9th Air Force, 370th Fighter Group, 401st Fighter Squadron. The markings that the aircraft was painted in before restoration, was that of Col. Don Blakeslee's famous 4th FG mount, though it sported the aircraft's actual serial number while in those markings, and not that of the original Blakeslee WD-C.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top