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The North American P-51D Mustang is a single-seat attacker/fighter aircraft. The Mustang was originally
designed by North American Aviation Corp as the Model N.A.73 at the request of the British Air Purchasing
Commission for the Royal Air Force (RAF). The prototype Model N.A.73X, NX19998, flew first in October 26th
1940, only 117 days after the project started. The early NA-73 Mustang fitted with an Allison V-1710 engine,
was an excellent low-altitude reconnaissance fighter, but had low performance above 15000ft. After re-engining
with the Rolls Royce Merlin, the P-51B was one of the best fighters of WWII. The most produced model of the
Mustang was the P-51D-NA that went in production in 1944. The P-51D-NA, was an attack/fighter plane equipped
with a 1695 hp Rolls-Royce (Packard) Merlin V-1650-7 engine. The armament consisted of six fixed 12.7 mm
machine-guns in the wings and some aircraft had rocket pylons added to
the undersides of the wings to carry up to ten rockets per plane. 6502
P-51D-NA planes were manufactured. Total production of all models was 15,576. |
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The private owned North American P-51D Mustang G-HAEC, painted in the U.S.A.A.F. 44-72218 / WZ-I
'Big Beautiful Doll', 78 FG colors was one of the highlights at the Airshow Eelde
2005. The warbird is powered by a Pakard Motor Car Co Merlin V1650-7 engine.
The G-HAEC is an in 1951 in Australia under licence built North American P-51D Mustang.
In fact it is a Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA 18 Mk 22 s/n CACM-192-1517. The Mustang
was delivered in 1951 to the Royal Australian Air Force. After being retired by the R.A.A.F. it was
registered VH-FCB in 1958. In 1969, the Mustang was registered in the Philippines as PI-C651.
After being damaged in a landing accident in 1973 the aircraft was rebuilt and in 1981 it was
registered in Hong Kong as VR-HIU. On 1 May 1985, the aircraft was registered as G-HAEC in the UK
with R.G. Hanna c/o Old Flying Machine Company, Duxford. On 11 May 1993, the G-HAEC was registered with
Classic Aviation Ltd., Basle, Switzerland. On 16 July 1997, the G-HAEC was registered with R.W. Davies, Woodchurch.
This was the last British owner as the North American P-51D Mustang G-HAEC was registered on 18 February 2011 with Air
Fighter Academy GmbH, Rangsdorf, Germany. On 20 June 2011, registration G-HAEC was cancelled and the Mustang was registered as D-FBBD in Germany.
On 11 July 2011, the North American P-51D Mustang D-FBBD was w/o in a crash at Duxford after a mid-air collision with the French Douglas AD-4N Skyraider F-AZDP. |
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