Army F-51 at Edwards

[67Cougar]

Picked up this little Kodachrome gem on an internet auction. Army F-51D 0-72990, seen at the Edwards AFB open house in May of 1969. Original photographer David Cleveland, according to the stamp on the slide.

[Randy Haskin]

FWIW, the serial number is 44-72990.

There's disagreement as to if that is a "0" (zero) or an "O" (Oscar) at the beginning of that serial number; one of the theories is that the "O" (Oscar) stood for "Obsolete". It's apparently because they couldn't re-use the original serial number since it had been struck off record and had a civilian registration (N6322T).

[67Cougar]

It's a zero. The USAF had that policy in effect in the mid-late 60s - any aircraft 10 years old or older had that '0-' preface instead of the FY, indeed to indicate it was 10 years old. The zeros does stand for obsolete, but the USAF didn't have letters in the s/n, so zero it was.

As many aircraft as were being built, they wanted to make sure there were no serial duplications. The serials only had the last numjber of the FY in it, hence the possibility of duplication. For instance, F-101A had 54-1455 had 41455 as the serial on its tail. When 1964 rolled around, it went to 0-41455, to avoid the potential conflict with a FY 1964 airplane 64-1455. The The policy didn't last long, and was dropped when the AF started putting the entire FY as part of the serial. 0-41455 became 54-455 (the one was included int he offical s/n, but was not displayed on the tail).

No such problem these days, when we're lucky if 50 planes a year are built ...

[67Cougar]

Handwritten notes on the back of the slide indicate this is ex-RCAF 9562, and ex- N6322T.

[JohnB]

The Army had a unmodified Mustang and two Cavalier Mustangs as a chase planes for the Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne in the 60s.
According to Swanborough & Bower's epic U.S. Military aircrafts since 1909, the Army used 44-72990 "...for several years from 1967."
The background aircraft & markings would support that timeframe. (Love the H-21).

In the conclusion of an excellent 4-part article on Mustangs published in Air International, Dec 1983, the aircraft was said to have been delivered on 23 Feb 1945 and was USAAF service before being sold to Canada in 1951, where it served as 9283. It then went on the civil register in 1961 as N6322T before being bought by the Army in 1967. After the Cheyenne program was cancelled, it remained at Edwards where it flew chase for the UH-60 program.
On Feb 7, 1978, it was flown to the Army Aviation Museum at Fort Rucker. Its last flight being the final flight of a Mustang in U.S. Military service.

One of the Cavalier mustangs was already at the museum.
Anyone know the fate of the second Army Cavalier and whether the two Mustangs are still at Ft. Rucker?

Last edited by JohnB on Mon Sep 12, 2011 10:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Enemy Ace]

If that is one of the Cheyenne chase planes it's sitting in storage at Fort Rucker. Friend of mine saw it about 6 months ago and crawled all over it, says it is hangared and looks in good.

[The Inspector]

Used to see and hear them all the time when I lived in Lancaster CA. and worked @ Locoweed on the WPA project DC-10 look-a-like. You can hear a MERLIN coming from a long way off in the desert.(or you could when I lived there in the early 70's)

[darrenvox]

thats cool...never knew the army used them

[The Inspector]

The AH-64 had a top speed of around 246 MPH so you couldn't use a regular 'off the shelf' civil airplane as a chase, wouldn't have been fast enough.

It would make an interesting and pretty easy addition to a modellers collection in any scale.

[Tom Moungovan]

It's a zero. The USAF had that policy in effect in the mid-late 60s - any aircraft 10 years old or older had that '0-' preface instead of the FY, indeed to indicate it was 10 years old. The zeros does stand for obsolete, but the USAF didn't have letters in the s/n, so zero it was.

As many aircraft as were being built, they wanted to make sure there were no serial duplications. The serials only had the last numjber of the FY in it, hence the possibility of duplication. For instance, F-101A had 54-1455 had 41455 as the serial on its tail. When 1964 rolled around, it went to 0-41455, to avoid the potential conflict with a FY 1964 airplane 64-1455. The The policy didn't last long, and was dropped when the AF started putting the entire FY as part of the serial. 0-41455 became 54-455 (the one was included int he offical s/n, but was not displayed on the tail).

No such problem these days, when we're lucky if 50 planes a year are built ...

I was stationed at Edwards from 6/66 through 5/69 and that was also my understanding of the O and a dash before the number... it was over 10 years old. I must have just missed out on that particular event in your picture as I was discharged on a Monday around the very end of May that year. I do remember a red A-20 belonging to some eastern university being in one of the OMS hangars when I first was assigned there, it could have been from Cornell University but I can't remember for certain. I asked and was allowed to bring my camera out on AFD in 1967 and found that very little was off-limits then. Next year it was a different story.
BTW, your photo is taken looking east toward the old Rocket Site.

[The Inspector]

That was Cornells U's A-26, got a picture of it somewhere in my stuff when it passed thru NooAwlunz back in the mid 70's. It was semi gloss darkish red with black nacelles.

[ZRX61]

It's a zero....

Don't be silly, it's quite clearly a Mustang

Sorry, someone had to say it..

[sledge39]

.
...990 at Chino, May 1972...when AeroSport worked on the Army 51s' in the early 70s'...



...in the registry...

http://www.warbirdregistry.org/p51regis ... 72990.html

.

[Obergrafeter]

Anyone got pictures of the Army T-28s?

[Ken]

I remember seeing the F-51 on display in this scheme at the Rucker museum around 1987. When the museum moved to its new building, the Mustang stayed in storage. Have always hoped that would get it in their new building ... they have the room.