Warbird Information Exchange

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to ID the F-51D with the sharkmouth and the spiral on the spinner. This would make one awesome model, and is what I want to eventually do, you don't see hardly any F-51Ds with the spiral on the spinner. Can anyone help me with the identification process? I'm thinking the Buzz number on the side is either FF-744 or FF-741. I'm not sure what it says above the exhaust stacks at all but it does look like there's a name there. I found this picture online, supposedly it's from the book "Korea- The Air War" I don't have this book so I can't verify this. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
Brady

My best guess on the final number is 4.

I couldn't zoom in enough to read the name on the nose, but it seems to start with D.

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remember the Oogahonk!
old school enthusiast of Civiltary Warbirds and Air Racers

I'm going with 484741 on the tail.

http://www.modelingmadness.com/scott/korean/f51bt.jpg

-Tom

I searched with Google some more for both serial numbers 44-84744 and 44-84741 and found 44-84741 in an accident report. Here's what I've found as far as info on the accident:
02-23-52 CURRAN, ARTHUR R; F-51D 44-84741 LOWRY AFB, CO

So does that mean that the plane in the photo I posted is most likely 44-84744? I've had no luck finding any individual historical information on 44-84744 with Google so I'm not sure what to go with.

Brady

F-51D 44-84741 accident on 02-23-52 was listed as a damage level 2
That means it could have been repaired and returned to service
However, 44-84741 was in CO, a long way from Korea, so 44-84744 is the most likely the one. Did you try researching the squadron? to see if there is an aircraft assigned list?

F-51 at Kimpo AB 1952

I didn't think of searching for an aircraft list. I'd mainly just searched for F-51s of the 12th FBS, 18th FBG. Thanks for the tip there.

Brady

Hello everyone,

I tried searching for an aircraft list of the 12th FBS, 18th FBG but I've had no luck finding such a list.

Brady

Nothing on the Bauer site about it, but these entries straddle both possibilities. (I think the last digit is a 4 as well.)

44-84740 to RAAF as A68-774. Suffered damage at Iwakuni, not repaired, scrapped Aug 30, 1950

44-84745 (MSN 122-44601) to TF-51D. Registered N5439V, cancelled. Registered N851D; named Crazy Horse

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Defending Stearmans on WIX since Jeff started badmouthing them back in 2005.

From the same picture in the Osprey book "KOREA airwar 50-53", the n° seems to be 744, and the name "Darlene"

Hi Joe,

I think we all will agree now that enough eyes have studied the photo that the number was 744 without any argument.

Thanks for the information on the name above the stacks. I haven't gotten my copy of the book Korea: The Air War that this photo was originally referred to me online from. So I'm anxious to get to look at the photo with my own two eyes and not just a scan of it. I'm hoping that the published version may be a little more clear than a scan of it.

Brady

Hello everyone,

I found this photo by searching for F-51 FF-744 with Google.
It doesn't really help much with the identification of the Mustang in my original picture but it is definitely FF-744 and may be the same bird in an earlier paint scheme. It says that this photo was taken in 1950 so I'm guessing it may be possible to be the same Mustang.

http://digital-dev.library.pitt.edu/isl ... 000005.PIC

http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/ ... 000005.pic

Both links are the same picture, just different sizes.

Cheers,
Brady

Hi,

I have the book "Mustangs over Korea" by David Mc Laren, published in 1999. Appendix 3 gives a list of P51s which served in Korea.

We have:

44-84744 18th FBG, transfered to ROKAF 6-12-54
44-84746 35th FIG written off 10-10-51
44-84749 45th TRS

so your plane is almost certainly 44-84744.

Laurent

Hi Laurent,

Thanks for the information and more solidifying evidence on 744.

Brady