Dear All
The assumptions made here in this thread seem to forget how these planes have made it almost seventy years around the world. After WW2 these planes went all over the place and in various states of repair. I've seen wings of different marks mixed with tails of different marks. Remember during a war an air force will build a plane from whatever parts it can grab. This is no exception. I know this airframe quite well. When we first obtained this Mustang at TFC all of the paperwork from Israel and Sweden reported it as 44-63864 (Twilight Tear). The Swedish dataplate it had was "26158" and through Swedish Air Force paperwork "26158" is identified as 44-63864.
The Israeli, Swedish and UK Governments all registered it and import and and exported this as 44-63864. As I understand it, it was only after it was completely disassembled that early Mustang parts were seen in places not visible when the plane was together.
In hindsight, comparing that with the history of Bill Lear's wreck, combined with the marks I saw when I stripped this fuselage, the story comes together. I was one of the first to see the two Japanese flags on the fuselage and the "Bert Lee" name but it didn't mean that much given the Israeli paperwork and the Swedish dataplate. Now, in hindsight, I get it. What must have happened is that in Israel the tails of 44-63864 and this plane were swapped before they left Israel. There was no "masquerading" of this plane. We're all doing the best we can with fragmented, incomplete, and sometimes contradictory records.
Many governments took the US dataplate off or they were stolen, and for that reason many of the planes flying today have recreated dataplates. That is perfectly legal when the feds are aware and approve. I believe that the Bill Lear wreck doesn't have an original dataplate either. I have found a photo of the Bert Lee plane and these are the exact marks that were seen on the fuselage when it was stripped. I also know that 44-12016 was in the 5th Air Force, but not 44-12018; all I can surmise is that the yardbirds didn't have the proper stencil or just messed up. We've all seen countless mistakes made in the field.
I think it's fantastic that this plane is wearing its true colors. It took a complete disassembly to figure it out, and I actually think this might be one of the most prized planes out there, given that it's the only Pacific vet that I know and actually has a kill (a Betty onMarch 11 1945). It's neat that the owner is painting both colors on it to honor the airframe rather than a particular man. Good for them. That's all I'll say.
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