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History

This exact Mustang left the North American plant in Dallas, Texas in 1945 and was delivered to the United States Army Air Force as 45-11540 where it was immediately put in storage. The Mustang was then transferred to the United States Air Force but remained in storage until it was redesignated as F-51D and sold into private hands.

It was eventually sold to James W. Steverson where it received a civil registration N5162V. On the 17th of February 1966, whilst departing out of the Municipal Airport in Columbia, Missouri during unfavourable wind conditions, the Mustang stalled and crashed injuring the pilot and destroying the airframe.

The aircraft was restored back to airworthy condition in 1974 and sold to Dennis Schoenfelder in 1978. The Mustang was sold again in 1983 and received a new civilian registration N151W. In 1993 the Mustang was sold to James A. Michaels where it received a new colour scheme and the name “Queen B”. The new owner used it as a racer between 1993 and 1997 before selling it in 1998 to James M. Read who named it “Excalibur”. Excalibur remained in the US until 2011 flying as N151W and NL151W before being bought by Peter Turek in August 2011 and exported to the Czech Republic where it once again became N151W.

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The Aircraft

North American F-51D Mustang

The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in April 1940 by a design team headed by James Kindelberger of North American Aviation (NAA) in response to a requirement of the British Purchasing Commission. The Purchasing Commission approached North American Aviation to build Curtiss P-40 fighters under license for the Royal Air Force (RAF). Rather than build an old design from another company, North American Aviation proposed the design and production of a more modern fighter. The prototype NA-73X airframe was rolled out on 9 September 1940, 102 days after the contract was signed, and first flew on 26 October.

The Mustang was designed to use the Allison V-1710 engine, which had limited high-altitude performance in its earlier variants. The aircraft was first flown operationally by the RAF as a tactical-reconnaissance aircraft and fighter-bomber (Mustang Mk I). Replacing the Allison with a Rolls-Royce Merlin resulted in the P-51B/C (Mustang Mk III) model, and transformed the aircraft's performance at altitudes above 15,000 ft (4,600 m) (without sacrificing range), allowing it to compete with the Luftwaffe's fighters. The definitive version, the P-51D, was powered by the Packard V-1650-7, a license-built version of the two-speed, two-stage-supercharged Merlin 66, and was armed with six .50 calibre (12.7 mm) AN/M2 Browning machine guns.

From late 1943, P-51Bs and P-51Cs (supplemented by P-51Ds from mid-1944) were used by the USAAF's Eighth Air Force to escort bombers in raids over Germany, while the RAF's Second Tactical Air Force and the USAAF's Ninth Air Force used the Merlin-powered Mustangs as fighter-bombers, roles in which the Mustang helped ensure Allied air superiority in 1944. The P-51 was also used by Allied air forces in the North African, Mediterranean, Italian, and Pacific theatres. During World War II, Mustang pilots claimed to have destroyed 4,950 enemy aircraft.

At the start of the Korean War, the Mustang, by then redesignated F-51, was the main fighter of the United States until jet fighters, including North American's F-86, took over this role; the Mustang then became a specialized fighter-bomber. Despite the advent of jet fighters, the Mustang remained in service with some air forces until the early 1980s. After the Korean War, Mustangs became popular civilian warbirds and air racing aircraft.

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