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Got a Spare $4.5 Million?


Subdeacon Joe

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http://www.platinumfighters.com/p-51d-n38227

 

Airframe:        

Original, unrestored, undamaged airframe

Time capsule - barnfind

Last flown 1983

 

                         

Engine:          

Packard Merilin

 V-1650-7 w Rolls Royce 620 Heads and Banks

 

Propeller:    

 Hamilton Standard 24-D50 Paddle Propeller                    

 

Equipment:    

N38227 is in its original condition as purchased from the  Fuerza Aerea Guatemalteca. All armor plating and equipment is still installed.  

 

History:        

 North American P-51D S/n 44-77902 flew in the Guatemalean Air  Force between 1954-1972. In 1972 it was returned to the United States and registered as N38227.  Flown in the U.S. between 1972 1983, N38227 last flew in 1983. N38227 has been stored inside in a dry climate for over 30 years.  

 

This may be the last original unrestored P-51D Mustang in original military configuration. 

 

Location:Texas

SPECIFICATIONS SUBJECT TO VERIFICATION UPON INSPECTION

 

P-51D N38227

 

P-51D N38227

 

P-51D N38227

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(shakes head slowly)

If only I hadn't invested that five million in a shoelace reweaving venture ... if only ...

(kicks self)

(hangs head in shame)

Ah, well.  I'll make it back and not very long either, I'm investing heavily in the new and preferred method of transportation nowadays ...

HANDBASKETS!

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After my move to Louisiana and I collect my bounty on those 6 million Nutria I can afford to purchase the $4.5M P-51D and still have $25.5M left over. :P

       My personal favorite is the F4U Corsair

5a819d83b5fb0_F4UCorsairVintage.jpg-RESIZED.jpg.ec10c511827aec11e98a792530bdf085.jpg

    5a819d8f786a1_F4uCorsair.jpg-RESIZED.jpg.142feb7a193618e703d5e99b5fc92e5d.jpg

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My favorite WWII Aircraft has always been the P-38 Lightning. The Spitfire, Corsair and Mustang running close behind.

 

 

1179015-R1-046-21A.JPG

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1 hour ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

If I had $4.5M I would be typing this from my new little winter house in Arizona...and I'd be retired. :D

 

But what would you do if you had that winter house, were retired, and had $4.5 million in disposable funds to play with?

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4 minutes ago, DocWard said:

 

But what would you do if you had that winter house, were retired, and had $4.5 million in disposable funds to play with?

Probably end up in divorce court after getting in trouble buying toys...or maybe shot with one of my new toys.:lol:

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1 minute ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

Probably end up in divorce court after getting in trouble buying toys...or maybe shot with one of my new toys.:lol:

 

Well, ya big dummy! You're supposed to buy toys for the both of you! 

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2 hours ago, Chantry said:

I'd rather have a PBY Catalina or P-47

 

I just finished a scale model of a P-47 last night. If you're going to have a PBY, you need a "Black Cat," don't you think?

 

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2 minutes ago, DocWard said:

 

I just finished a scale model of a P-47 last night. If you're going to have a PBY, you need a "Black Cat," don't you think?

 

 

I'm thinking flying an all weather aircraft painted flat black isn't the wisest of choices for a civilian pilot.

 

 

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14 minutes ago, Chantry said:

 

I'm thinking flying an all weather aircraft painted flat black isn't the wisest of choices for a civilian pilot.

 

 

 

Just a very cool variant of an amazing plane. Of course, if I were able to afford something a bit more "reasonable," like a Cessna Skymaster, I would be very hard pressed not to paint it up like this one:

Cessna_O-2_Skymaster_08.jpg.552eeea5c7c5620e084aa57212e0358d.jpg

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12 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

Consider it a starter and that you could trade up.  ;)

 

I was never a big fan of the P-51, while it is a very good air frame, it's designers benefited from not being restricted by USAAF pre-war doctrine in designing the plane and if they hadn't mated the air frame to the Packard license built copy of the Merlin engine, the P-51 would have ended up a minor footnote in military aviation history.  And compared to the other American fighters with their air cooled engines, it was more quite a bit more fragile as well.

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1 hour ago, DocWard said:

 

Just a very cool variant of an amazing plane. Of course, if I were able to afford something a bit more "reasonable," like a Cessna Skymaster, I would be very hard pressed not to paint it up like this one:

 

The PBY Catalina doesn't get nearly enough credit for the roles it played in WWII: long range search and reconnaissance, air-sea search and rescue, bomber,  sub hunting,  passenger transport and inserting, retrieving and rescuing people from behind enemy lines.  One of those very few aircraft considered obsolescent at the beginning of WWII, yet still ended in the war in front line service while it's replacements had, in most cases, already been removed from service. 

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Just now, Chantry said:

The PBY Catalina doesn't get nearly enough credit for the roles it played in WWII: long range search and reconnaissance, air-sea search and rescue, bomber,  sub hunting,  passenger transport and inserting, retrieving and rescuing people from behind enemy lines.  One of those very few aircraft considered obsolescent at the beginning of WWII, yet still ended in the war in front line service while it's replacements had, in most cases, already been removed from service. 

 

Agreed!

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16 minutes ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

 

Go find the rest of those P-38s buried under the ice in Greenland and you can have them for free! :D

 

Yep, only costs what it takes to go, dig them out from from under the ice, transport them to a restoration facility and completely rebuild them. A bargain!

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2 hours ago, Chantry said:

 

I was never a big fan of the P-51, while it is a very good air frame, it's designers benefited from not being restricted by USAAF pre-war doctrine in designing the plane and if they hadn't mated the air frame to the Packard license built copy of the Merlin engine, the P-51 would have ended up a minor footnote in military aviation history.  And compared to the other American fighters with their air cooled engines, it was more quite a bit more fragile as well.

 

 

You could say similar about the Jug.  Without the change from the original propeller to the "paddle" propellers it would have been close to anemic.

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3 hours ago, Chantry said:

 

I was never a big fan of the P-51, while it is a very good air frame, it's designers benefited from not being restricted by USAAF pre-war doctrine in designing the plane and if they hadn't mated the air frame to the Packard license built copy of the Merlin engine, the P-51 would have ended up a minor footnote in military aviation history.  And compared to the other American fighters with their air cooled engines, it was more quite a bit more fragile as well.

 

I'm fond of the P-51, but I strongly believe it has benefitted at the expense of other fine aircraft. A result of post-war propaganda, for lack of a better word. Many claims about it are exaggerated, if not entirely untrue. As I said, my favorite of the time was the P-38, which, while not without faults, was in the fight, beginning to end, in a tremendous variety of roles. I found the following piece some years back, and it has aided in many a discussion on the subject:

http://www.ausairpower.net/P-38-Analysis.html

 

An excerpt:

 

Quote

Combat radius helps to win air wars. This simple observation sums up much of what distinguished the P-38 from its contemporaries, and also why this aircraft must be considered the single most significant fighter in the US inventory in W.W.II. The critical air battles, when Allied strength was still building up and Axis strength was at its peak, were fought by the P-38 force, deep inside hostile airspace against a numerically superior enemy.

All other parameters being equal, it was the radius of the Lightning which allowed the ETO daylight bombing offensive to succeed at a time when losses were high and long term success questionable. By the time Mustang numbers built up in the ETO, the Luftwaffe had already crossed the knee in the Lanchesterian attrition war curve and defeat was inevitable. While the much admired P-51 made a critical contribution, it is worth noting that cumulative deployments of the Merlin powered P-51 matched the P-38 only as late as the end of 1944, which is clearly at odds with the established mythology. With the 8th AF, the long range escort load was shared equally by the P-38 and P-51 throughout the decisive first half of 1944. 

In the Pacific, where land based air grappled with the Japanese, the Lightning was the foremost fighter, destroying more Japanese aircraft than any other Allied fighter. The air battles over New Guinea, the Solomons, the invasion of the Phillipines and later Okinawa were all campaigns where the radius and performance of the P-38 were fundamental advantages over Japanese air assets. 

The perception of the P-38 as a mediocre aircraft is clearly the result of wartime propaganda run unchecked, and lay interpretations of period statements. The historical record clearly indicates that the big twin was there when it really mattered and there can be no greater a compliment for its designers. It was the aircraft which allowed the USAAF to play an offensive strategy almost from the very beginning of combat operations.

 

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3 minutes ago, Sedalia Dave said:

What I am wondering is if those barrels sticking out of the leading edge of the wing are real or fake. :o  They look pretty realistic to me.

 

I'm assuming they are real, since it says it comes with armor plating and equipment intact.

 

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12 minutes ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

 

 

You could say similar about the Jug.  Without the change from the original propeller to the "paddle" propellers it would have been close to anemic.

The performance of the P-47 with the original propeller was not anemic, it was fast and handled well at high altitude and the P-47's did pretty good against the Germans in Europe despite the inexperienced pilots and the original propeller.   They just couldn't climb with the German planes. The biggest change after the paddle bladed propellers was the significant increase in the rate of climb.  The prototype reached 412 mph at 28,500 feet.  Range limitations were due to USAAF doctrine, not design flaws

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10 minutes ago, DocWard said:

 

I'm fond of the P-51, but I strongly believe it has benefitted from post-war propaganda, for lack of a better word. Many claims about it are exaggerated, if not entirely untrue. As I said, my favorite of the time was the P-38, which, while not without faults, was in the fight, beginning to end, in a tremendous variety of roles. I found the following piece some years back, and it has aided in many a discussion on the subject:

http://www.ausairpower.net/P-38-Analysis.html

 

An excerpt:

 

 

I tend to agree, but my favorite will always be the P-47.  Almost every fighter has it strengths and weakness and if you play to your plane's strengths and hopefully the enemies weaknesses, you'll usually come out ahead.  As an example, the P-47's strengths were it's heavy firepower, very good roll rate and the ability to dive away from any other propeller plane in the war.  Robert Johnson used the roll rate to compensate for the superior turning ability of the German by flipping his P-47 into a roll into the opposite direction of the turn and then sliding back behind the German planes.   Fighting a Zero, a pilot would need to keep his speed up and rely on the superior firepower and the ability to break away by going into a dive.

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20 minutes ago, Chantry said:

I tend to agree, but my favorite will always be the P-47.  Almost every fighter has it strengths and weakness and if you play to your plane's strengths and hopefully the enemies weaknesses, you'll usually come out ahead.  As an example, the P-47's strengths were it's heavy firepower, very good roll rate and the ability to dive away from any other propeller plane in the war.  Robert Johnson used the roll rate to compensate for the superior turning ability of the German by flipping his P-47 into a roll into the opposite direction of the turn and then sliding back behind the German planes.   Fighting a Zero, a pilot would need to keep his speed up and rely on the superior firepower and the ability to break away by going into a dive.

 

You're not alone! I've mentioned this before, but my old boss' father flew P-47s in the CBI during the war. My boss had a photo of his dad leaning against his plane in his office. He loved the plane, and credited it with keeping him alive. One story in particular I remember him telling was of doing a dive bomb mission with a new C.O. who had transitioned from P-51s. As I recall, being used to the P-51, his C.O. went far too deep into the dive for the P-47 and his dad was sure he was going to crash. When they landed, the bottom of his C.O's plane was damaged, and the C.O. said he didn't remember taking any ground fire. Evidently my boss' dad couldn't restrain himself and started cussing, telling him the damage was by his own [expletive deleted] bombs, along with some other colorful comments.

 

I should mention one of the reasons I love the P-38 dates back to my childhood, when two flew by at low level on their way to an air show. I was in the backyard and heard the whistling sound and looked up, and WOW! 

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3 hours ago, Chantry said:

 

I was never a big fan of the P-51, while it is a very good air frame, it's designers benefited from not being restricted by USAAF pre-war doctrine in designing the plane and if they hadn't mated the air frame to the Packard license built copy of the Merlin engine, the P-51 would have ended up a minor footnote in military aviation history.  And compared to the other American fighters with their air cooled engines, it was more quite a bit more fragile as well.

My Mother was a WASP pilot in WW2, and filed a few thousand hrs in the P-51 as a pilot and instructor pilot for the P-51. 

She flew everything the military had, and loved the 51 the most! 

She also said the P-51 would kill you faster, than any other aircraft the USA had.

Mom survived two crashes as a WASP. One was in a P-51, the other was a P-38.

Miss you Mom-:(

OLG

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2 hours ago, The Original Lumpy Gritz said:

She also said the P-51 would kill you faster, than any other aircraft the USA had.

 

I thought that dubious distinction belonged to the Corsair. The early models were impossible to see out of and had very bouncy landing gear, plus they had a nasty tendency to stall and drop a wing during landing. The Marines loved it and called it the "Bent-Winged Bird". The Japanese hated it the called it "Whistling Death". And new pilots feared it and called it the "Ensign Eliminator".

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6 hours ago, Sixgun Sheridan said:

 

I thought that dubious distinction belonged to the Corsair. The early models were impossible to see out of and had very bouncy landing gear, plus they had a nasty tendency to stall and drop a wing during landing. The Marines loved it and called it the "Bent-Winged Bird". The Japanese hated it the called it "Whistling Death". And new pilots feared it and called it the "Ensign Eliminator".

We had young, fairly inexperienced pilots flying high performance aircraft and there were any number of aircraft that would kill you if you made a mistake.  You've already mentioned the Corsair.  The B-26 landing characteristics killed a bunch of pilots in the beginning.  The P-47, P-38 & P-51 (and probably the Corsair) would kill you if you didn't pull out of a dive before the controls became ineffective.

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