By Tom Sappington
Frank,Here's something different you might be interested in. These shots are of a North American P-51D "Mustang" fighter plane of WW II vintage. They were taken at the airport in Levelland, Texas about 1957. At that time, one could buy a Mustang as surplus for around $1500--a comparable example today would fetch upwards of $1 million.
Total Mustang production in all its models was 16,766; of those, over 8100 were the D model shown in these pictures. Today, there are 154 Mustangs in flying condition. While the earliest models had an Allison engine, it was the mating of the North American airframe with the Packard-produced version of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine which made the legendary Mustang arguably the best all-around fighter aircraft of WW II.
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1 comment:
Once I spoke to a guy who was a pilot in WWII. He was stationed in Northern Italy. When the war ended he was told to take a plane and fly home. P-51, P-47, P-38. He chose the '47 since it had longer range, flew it back to America and left it where he landed it.
Sad but true.
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