an "Aladdin's Cave" of historic planes

[Subdeacon Joe]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/121990112/treasure-trove-of-hidden-historic-planes-including-rare-wwii-mosquito-to-see-the-light?fbclid=IwAR0Cc4kNC0pchDAckMnAxN9iKdn4NzVVYNHPVuNwQo_XI9LNZmcc-HwcD1s

 

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For more than 60 years an "Aladdin's Cave" of historic planes, including one of only 30 Mosquito combat aircraft left in the world, has remained largely out of sight on a rural Nelson property.

But now the rare planes are on a journey that will see some displayed in Marlborough's Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre museum, and one, a P-51D Mustang fighter, potentially being restored to fly again.

The World War II and other historic planes belonged to John Smith, from Mapua, west of Nelson, who began his private collection as a young man in the 1950s.

In a lifetime of hunting out and saving old aircraft he amassed a collection which also included a Tiger Moth biplane, Vampire jet airframes, two Curtiss P40 Kittyhawk fighters as well as a huge amount of parts from all over the country.

 

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

OH MY LEFT HANDED GOODNESS NOW THAT'S A TREASURE!!!!!
(typed while salivating heavily imagining all these goodies ... a Mustang, restorable ... please tell me it's got the Rolls Royce Merlin engine!)

[Utah Bob #35998]

12 minutes ago, Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 said:

OH MY LEFT HANDED GOODNESS NOW THAT'S A TREASURE!!!!!
(typed while salivating heavily imagining all these goodies ... a Mustang, restorable ... please tell me it's got the Rolls Royce Merlin engine!)

I can’t tell from the pic. But it looks like it’s a D or K, and seeing as how it’s in New Zealand it was probably an Aussie or Kiwi Flown plane, I would think a Merlin would be probable.

 

[DocWard]

51 minutes ago, Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 said:

OH MY LEFT HANDED GOODNESS NOW THAT'S A TREASURE!!!!!
(typed while salivating heavily imagining all these goodies ... a Mustang, restorable ... please tell me it's got the Rolls Royce Merlin engine!)

 

34 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

I can’t tell from the pic. But it looks like it’s a D or K, and seeing as how it’s in New Zealand it was probably an Aussie or Kiwi Flown plane, I would think a Merlin would be probable.

 

 

A Packard built Merlin would be the engine in it. Everything B/C model and later had them, and yes, it does appear to be sitting there in the nose.

[Utah Bob #35998]

1 hour ago, DocWard said:

 

 

A Packard built Merlin would be the engine in it. Everything B/C model and later had them, and yes, it does appear to be sitting there in the nose.

There were some Bs with Allison’s that were retrofitted to Merlins.

https://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/variants

[DocWard]

2 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

There were some Bs with Allison’s that were retrofitted to Merlins.

https://www.mustangsmustangs.net/p-51/variants

As I understand it, the retrofit is what made the "B" variant.

http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_fighters/p51_8.html

 

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The first XP-51B was flown by Bob Chilton on November 30, 1942. It was initially flown without armament. The performance improvement was nothing short of astounding. The XP-51B achieved a level speed of 441 mph at 29,800 feet, over 100 mph faster than the Allison-engined P-51 at that altitude. At all heights, the rate of climb was approximately doubled.