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Presentation aircraft - purchased through War Bonds - P-51's

Thu Mar 15, 2007 3:25 am

Hi all

I am in process of gathering as much data and information as possible for a database containing known so-called presentation aircraft (purchased through war-bonds) - my main focus is the P-51 family (of course)

Aircraft were adorned with titles / names at the factories (NAA Inglewood CA and NAA Dallas TX) - and most often, these aircraft saw the serial-number on the tail removed, respectively not yet applied.

I also found out, that in many cases, an aircraft was singled out, and then was used for such publicity / photography purposes, and that the various names were only applied for the photo-shooting, again and again on the very same aircraft - which also (and again) explains the absence of a visible serial-number, in order to make the organisations believe that they in fact had purchased an individual a/c....

in rare cases, aircraft arrived at their theatres of operations with such names still applied... (often seen on P-47's)

I kindly invite you to bring forward any and all information you have on aircraft (P-51's) purchased through war-bonds and thus adorned with names... photographs are highly welcome and appreciated - the fruit of my research will be presented here in due course.

(also PM or e-mail)

Below two examples:

Image

P-51B "Spirit of Richmond, Mich"

Image

early P-51D-5-NA "The Spirit of Tech High - Indianapolis"

Thank you !
Martin

Thu Mar 15, 2007 3:52 am

some know titles:

"The Spirit of Elks, Binghampton N.Y." [port side] / "L.S.B.C. Bobby Buster" [starboard side] - P-51C-5-NT 42-103644

"Spirit of Milwaukee County" - P-51C-5-NT 42-103596 - served with 325th FG 15th AAF

"Setonia" [Seton Hall prep, NJ] - F-6C-5-NT 42-103619 - served with 10th TRG 9th AAF

"Setonia No. 2" [no ID known, but served in the CBI]

"Setonia No. 3" - P-51D-20-NA 44-72336 - served with 479th FG 8th AAF - and later Swiss AF :wink:

"Yahooskin" [starboard side] / "Brandeis AZA No. 533 of B'nai B'rith" [port side] - P-51C-10-NT 43-25107

"Milwaukee Boy Scouts #54" - P-51C-5-NT 42-103751

"Sky-Clipper of City of Packard War Workers" - P-51B-1-NA 43-12484

"Spirit of Universal Studios" - P-51A-1-NA 43-6077

....more to follow

Martin
Last edited by Swiss Mustangs on Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

Thu Mar 15, 2007 11:00 am

Very interesting... I had no idea.

Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:31 pm

VERY nice photo's I had no idea that there was a program that did anything such as this during the War Years,

Paul

Thu Mar 15, 2007 5:22 pm

Neat pics! I knew there were some "presentation" P-47s, but didn't know they also did it with Mustangs. I'm currently working on a model of Gerald Johnson's P-47 "In The Mood." Aside from the neat artwork, I live right next door to Jackson County. The decals are from Meteor Productions' "Pyn Up" series. If anyone has any other photos of this bird, I'd love to see them. I'm still trying to determine if the fuselage codes actually had a black outline.

SN


Image

Re: Presentation aircraft - purchased through War Bonds - P-51's

Thu Jun 16, 2011 1:16 pm

"Spirit of Universal Studios" for P-51A 43-6077 is Wrong. It was purchased outright by Universal Engineering Co. and named "Spirit of Universal Engineering" before being sent to CBI, 530th Ftr Bmr Sq, 311th FBG where James England named it "Jackie" in honor of his wife. Here's a link with a few pictures when it was flown by Lt. William Griffith.
http://www.footnote.com/image/#46953397

Re: Presentation aircraft - purchased through War Bonds - P-51's

Thu Jun 16, 2011 4:19 pm

What about bombers? I've got an interesting narrative regarding a B-17F.

Re: Presentation aircraft - purchased through War Bonds - P-51's

Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:33 pm

Swiss Mustangs wrote:some know titles:..."Spirit of Milwaukee County" - P-51C-5-NT 42-103596 - served with 325th FG 15th AAF...



I'm curious about 42-103596, Martin, as it appears it was the regular mount of Lt. Paul Dowd when first delivered to the 325th FG.

Before the Mustangs arrived, the 325th was flying the P-47. Lt. Dowd's regular mount then was a P-47 that also carried the name "Spirit of Milwaukee County" and nose art. Check the pic in this link:

http://www.mitchellgallery.org/exhibits ... borski.asp

Would this P-47 then also be a presentation aircraft (since it carried the same name)?

Re: Presentation aircraft - purchased through War Bonds - P-

Wed Mar 06, 2019 5:38 pm

Plans are so cool
i want to fly

Re: Presentation aircraft - purchased through War Bonds - P-

Wed Mar 06, 2019 11:43 pm

Hi All,

Other than the zombie nature of the latest post, I noticed that my link to the Mitchell Gallery of Flight pic of Paul Dowd´s P-47 Spirit of Milwaukee County has been modified.

Here´s an alternate link to the original pic:

http://www.usaaf-noseart.co.uk/plane.ph ... ICeaOHYq94

I guess I´m inclined to believe that P-51C 42-103596 was never a presentation aircraft, but it simply received the same name as the replacement to Lt. Dowd´s identically-named Jug. Both he and his crew chief were from southeast Wisconsin.
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