P51D 'Tall in the Saddle' - RAF Cosford Airshow 2017
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 ก.ย. 2024
- Peter Teichmann flying his Hangar 11 North American P-51D Mustang, G-SIJJ, ex 'Red Tails'/Tuskegee Airmen, during the RAF Cosford Airshow 2017.
"Tall In The Saddle" is a P-51D-20-NA model, built at North American’s Inglewood facility in California the rugged North American P51 Mustang is arguably the finest allied fighter of WW2. Accepted by the USAAF on December 21st 1944 as 44-72035 she was originally earmarked for service with the Eighth Air Force in England but this was quickly changed to Project Number 91037R, indicating service in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations. 44-72035 began her journey overseas on January 4 1945 with a ferry flight across the mainland USA arriving at Newark, New Jersey, on January 10 where she was prepared for shipment, by boat, overseas and finally left the US on January 24 1945, assigned to "Oham" the codeword for the 15th Air Force based in Italy.
She was assigned to the 332nd fighter group, 99th Fighter Squadron. 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 in early 1945 based at Ramatelli Airfield in Italy, serving 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. Her pilot at the time was 19 year old George Hardy. George undertook many missions in this aircraft and he went on to become one of the most experienced fighter pilots in the US Airforce, later serving in both Korea and Vietnam with great distinction.
After the wars end the four fighter groups of the 15th Air Force remained in Italy until the summer of 1945 and, between July and September 1945, all returned to the USA, where they were all inactivated by November, with newer aircraft retained and returned to the USA for continued service.
Such was the case with 44-72035, which is recorded as having returned to the mainland USA on October 10 1945 to serve with a number of USAF squadrons right through to 1956, when she was prepared for shipment to Korea but was not ultimately sent. Fully overhauled to as new condition, she was struck off the US military register in October 1956 with her military career finally over, 44-72035 was sold at a famous auction in California in 1957 for the relatively large sum of $1,110.00 to Whiteman Enterprises, Pacoima California, and registered as N5411V on September 25 1957.
N5411V remained under the ownership of Whiteman Enterprises for 24 years until December 4 1981, she was sold to Humberto Escobar of Bogota, Colombia. After 8 years in South America, in August 1989 she was exported to France, where she was owned and operated by Jacques Bourret of Aero Retro based at St Rambert. When looking for a colour scheme for the P-51, 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 Jacque E Young of the 3rd Fighter Squadron, 3rd Air Commando Group, a unit that operated in the Philippines.
Over the years in her paint scheme as "Jumpin Jacques" 44-72035 appeared at many air shows throughout Europe and was a regular sight throughout the UK airshow scene.
The fact that she has never had a major rebuild and is almost totally original as built in 1944 makes this a rare and special P-51 Mustang. She still carries evidence of her battle scars with repairs just behind the pilot’s position on both sides of the fuselage, and puncture repairs to the fin.
As an original "Tuskegee" fighter, she is a rare thoroughbred and whilst she wore the colours of "Jumpin Jacques" for many years, it was decided to return her to the original colours and detail that she wore so proudly during WW2 in service with the 332nd Fighter Group, 99th Fighter Squadron. These colours were unveiled on 4th June 2016 and now in her original wartime scheme "Tall In The Saddle", she is one of the most original and historically accurate Mustangs in the world and has formed an important part of the Hangar 11 Collection since 2001.
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I met him yesterday at North Weald and got a picture of him. Sunday was a good day.... ;)
That sounds great. Well done.
I love the sound of the mustang as it pulls up
amazing
Thanks.
A beautiful aircraft, very good footage, loved that landing great sound, skies looking cloudy, expecting to see a p51 for the first time this year in Limerick Foynes air show it better not get canceled over cloudy weather or I'd have to wait till next year which would be such a let down.
Thankyou. She is a beauty. She is due to display at the Royal International Air Tattoo, Fairford this coming weekend. Unfortunately the P-51 Mustang 'Miss Velma', that was scheduled to fly at this years Foynes airshow, was seriously damaged in a landing accident during the Flying Legends Airshow at Duxford last Sunday (I will be uploading footage of that shortly). I'm sure though that another P-51 will be found to take her place at the show. You may get to see 'Tall In The Saddle' there?
Oh wow how about that :) i was going to say i hope it wasn't miss velma that is due at Foynes ((i saw pictures of the one due before but didn't want to double check)) i had a feeling it was, i can't believe it actually was. well they have a spitfire due as well i hope another p51 makes it, they now have 2 proper airshows in Ireland and they are organised over the same weekend which means a years worth of waiting for just one weekend. I reckon ill travel to Duxford for next year.
If you have not been to Duxford before I would recommend that you start with Flying Legends Airshow. If you can go for 3 days, Friday to Sunday, as the Friday is a pretty active 'practice day' that you pay just the museum entrance fee for, rather than for the airshow. If you need ideas about where to stay then let me know as I recommend a very good pub with nice food and accommodation nearby - unfortunately I don't own or have any connection to it though. Dates for next years show have been announced on their Facebook page as 14/15th July here ( facebook.com/FlyingLegendsOfficial/ ) which is unfortunately the same weekend as The Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford.
Thanks for that, i will definitely try my best to get over for flying legends, always wanted to go and it seems well worth it to be honest and it's only a short trip over, i reckon i would have to stay 3-5 days which wouldn't be a problem, although the International Air Tattoo would also be great - trying to see both would involve a lot of buses and patience
If you want to do both shows without your own car to get you around, I would say its almost impossible. Your best bet next year would be to choose one or the other, but in 2019 the shows will not clash and should be a week apart. The only reason that they clash is because Farnborough is on. This leads to a clash every 2 years!