"It" will be rebuilt. It's a Mustang.
warbird2 wrote:
Other than the paperwork what is the difference in a P-51 and a CAC Mustang? Is there a physical difference?
Well, my Aussie colleagues like to suggest the CAC ones aren't rushed, wartime jobs, but better built postwar handcrafted examples...
Anyway...
Essentially the same airframe. Main
modern current difference is the removal of small magnesium castings used by CAC for the original aluminium castings of NAA, after the failure of a Mag casting cause a wheels-up forced landing in Australia. I believe items like brakes and some minor systems could differ, but the licence-built CAC example had Merlin, same gun types and main equipment, as I understand.
From the warbird point of view, US built Mustangs are worth more, and easier to certify in the US, as Mike's already touched on, resulting in the well-known but generally avoided cases of identity-swapped former CAC examples - including examples with significant, important history, now dumped for a US NAA dataplate and papers.
This Mustang, the former G-HAEC, was rebuilt in Hong Kong in the 1980s from two aircraft, one a CAC example, one a NA one. How much of which depends on who you talk to. Two facts are worth bearing in mind: it was originally registered under the CAC identity, a more recent owner claimed it was more North American. These views are not arrived at randomly.
Regards,
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