Warbird Information Exchange

Hello everyone,

First I'll introduce myself.. I'm Jim Lee, I work for Fighter Factory out here in Calif. We're working on putting Mustangs back in production from the original prints.

I've seemed to have inherited the data shlepping for this project, print scanning / printing and keeper of the bills of material for the differet subassemblies. (I wrote the database that all this info. is dumped into as its deciphered.)

Anyway..

We have a few sets of microfilm for this but we don't seen to have the Master lines layouts for the fuselage. (Lucly we -do- have them for the wings.)

Has anyone run across these prints? Anyone? Please? Help?

Aso, does anyone know what ever happend to the original North American drawings for this machine? I was wondering if maybe they ended up at Boeing?

Many thanks in advance!

-jim lee

Suggest you contact Westpac Restorations. They have scanned and redrawn a lot of stuff for the P-51.

I think that Boeing still has the data but won't let it go for liability reasons.

Welcome to WIX Jim. I hope you continue to provide us with updates of your company's progress.

Mike

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Do you want to find locations of displayed, stored or active aircraft? Then start with the The Locator.
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Thanks!

So, did Cavaleer buy everything Mustang from NAA? Or did they just get a bunch of stuff surplus from the military? I'm wondering if the trail would lead to Cavaleer or to Boeing. I've a contact at Boeing but he's not having a lot of luck, yet..

And man! A lot of this microfilm is in pretty poor shape! Some of the larger drawings have complete sections just scraped off. Most everything of the stuff I have was created from sources that were covered in dust and scratches. I even found a spider on one print. Well, I guess it was more a dust mite or something small.. Looked pretty big coming out if the scanner.

Does anyone have microfilm that's closer to the original source?

Thanks again!

-jim lee

For curiosity sake what model of Mustang? B? C? D?

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When all is said and done more is said than done.

It was with the Rockwell division but I believe a lot of the data ended up in Long Beach. I'll try to find out.

Hi Jim,

I'm curious. What make & model of scanner are you using?

Thanks,

Mac

The Mustang we're tooling up is the "D". Or D-25 D-30 type. Pretty much the last of the production D model. (I hear)

As for progress well.. Sheesh, I wish it would go faster!

There's not a lot of new parts here as yet. Mostly its a huge paperwork/research battle pinning down all the information that goes into tooling up for these things. There is a lot of "So, what would -this- part be called today?" For things like rivets, screws, bolts etc.

Like I said before, there's a lot of prints that are just a mess. Faced with these, there's a lot of work pulling spare bits apart from the shop, trying to recreate a complete and accurate picture.

My world is writing the s-ware (database) that all the part and assembly information is now being poured into. The antiquated part numbers are being linked to new purchasable ones, NAA part numbers are being linked to their respective scanned image files, assembly trees for the entire aircraft are beginning to flesh out. Its been a real uphill battle but its kinda' cool when you start seeing things begin to work. On top of this was setting up servers to hold the massive amount of scanned image data. Some of these drawings are over 20 feet long and at 400 dpi they are huge!!

Prints are being printed, assemblies are being combed out and now and again I see sets of this information heading off to vendors for airframe parts. My fingers are crossed but I don't know enough to even make a guess when anything will show up.

Thanks millions for the info. and tips!!

-jim lee

Very interesting Jim. What will you be calling these airplanes when you market them? Reproductions, replicas, facimiles, reconstructions etc?

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Well, if you use Carroll Shelby's logic and happen to have a few "certificates of origin" and some original parts laying around, these could be "continued" or "resumed" production models provided the serial numbers continue in proper sequence (give or take 60 years). It worked for him on the Shelby aluminum bodied 427's.

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"There are old pilots and bold pilots but few old, bold pilots."

Hmmmm,

This whole subject sounds very interesting--------new production P-51's! I sure hope Jim keeps us up to speed on how this project is progressing. Is someone going to start building new production Packard Merlin V-12's to keep up with the demand? Maybe they are already tooling up somewhere.

Sounds very exciting! Where would these be manufactured? Please keep us updated.