War Eagles Air Museum, many thanks to Old Chuck.

[hercules130]

Stopped in to the War Eagles Air Museum today,(http://www.war-eagles-air-museum.com) amazing collection and the hospitality is 2nd to none.
I highly recommended PLANNING a trip to check out this great museum.

Would also like to say thanks a million to Chuck who "gave me the whole nine yards" of the grounds and looked after my family during our extended visit.

Hope to see you again soon,

Gary

[Clifford Bossie]

Chuck gave you what he calls the "ten dollar tour", huh? He is most definitely an asset to the museum.

War Eagles can be a fun place to spend time and I imagine I will spend most of next week there.

[Ken]

I thought I was fairly savvy on the various air museums out there, but the pilot I was flying with yesterday pointed out this runway as we passed overhead and described the collection. Wow.

I guess this is where Clifford's F-84 restoration calls home?

I'm not familiar with the P-51 pictured, but it looks quite authentic/complete. I need to check this out!

[JohnTerrell]

For Ken, and anyone else who might be interested, here are some great "behind the scenes" photo-threads on the subject of the War Eagles Air Museum, mostly focused on the museum's very nice, and very stock/original, P-51D-30-NA 44-75024, posted by Clifford Bossie, though there are also a few photos of the F-84 and the other P-51D at the museum, "The Friendly Ghost". I'm not sure if I've ever seen photos of 44-75024 flying, but I have seen photos of it under-going engine runs in recent years.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/t ... der+kit%21

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/t ... 51+cockpit

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/t ... +of+P-51s-

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/t ... P-51+stuff

[Ken]

If there's another thread on this Mustang please steer us toward it - if not, please start one. The Registry says "Indonesia". Is this airplane a time capsule or a convincing restoration? Details, details!

[RV8er]

Here are a few pics of it I took a couple of years ago... a beautiful ship. I didn't get a close-up of the gun bay, oops.

[Ken]

If Mike V is lurking, I'd love to hear any comments you may have on this machine ...

[JohnTerrell]

I'm not sure if the aircraft has ever been completely de-skinned/torn-down to bare parts since original production, but the paint and primer throughout the cockpit/wheel wells/wheel well plumbing/engine compartment is new/re-finished - it all looks very nice. The cockpit is for the most part correct to the original production - a few exceptions include the spare bulbs panel/locker below the oxygen regulator (of which this specific type/design was found only on earlier variants of the Mustang/P-51D - by the time of the P-51D-25-NA and D-30-NA, there should have been a gun circuit protection panel located in that location, with a spare bulbs shelf/bracket mounted to the inside of the instrument panel shroud), the K-14 gunsight control box is missing, and the wood floor boards that span from below the seat to the rudder pedals were originally always finished in non-slide black paint from the factory, with the wood floor boards beneath the seat finished in interior green paint (though some owners have decided in the past to not replicate this, as it can tend to lead to a build-up of grit in the cockpit due to the non-slide paint, and choose instead for a nicely varnished floor, which of course looks great!). Those items are of course quite superficial to the level of 'stockness' and completeness of the entire aircraft as a whole. Although it has the radio rack and SCR-522 set installed, I don't recall it having a fuselage tank installed, though I may be wrong.

One of the items I like within the cockpit, is the center armament (bombs/rockets) control panel, which clearly has not been re-finished since original production, and still retains the original NAA ink inspection stamps.

[Clifford Bossie]

I have photographed that airplane many times, which makes sense as I see it every week. I have uploaded a good number of photos to Photobucket: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v20/j ... 20Mustang/

The museum's TF-51D is also a neat airframe. It was originally a TEMCO conversion, but Cavalier also ran it through their line, so the office is more Cavalier than TEMCO.

[Ken]

Way back when, we had a "Most Authentic Mustang" thread ... did we mention this beauty as a contender?

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