Django wrote:
So the NASM Mustang was just a stateside bird and not a combat vet?
Correct. Here is former NASM Senior Curator Robert Mikesh's explanation of the paint scheme:
Quote:
The P-51D in the collection was never in a combat unit. It went from its place of manufacture to a training unit in the US and in its post-war markings carried the peacetime slogan "ENLIST IN THE AAF. GUARD THE VICTORY" on the side of its fuselage. If left in these service markings, this would hardly be representative of the combat role for which it was designed and brought into the collection to represent. (Some argue that an airplane should be restored to the condition in which it left the factory or was received by the museum, and to use photos and graphics to illustrate how it may have looked in combat. The right solution is the one that best suits the museum's mission, depicting the airplane for which it was brought into the respective collection.)
Referring to the same photo Jack posted, Mikesh continued:
Quote:
In the case of NASM's Mustang, a photo was selected of a P-51D to use as a pattern for combat markings depicting a unit based in England and assigned to long-range bomber escort missions. The photo was ideal because at the angle at which it was taken, the wing blocked the serial number from view. Thus, when painting NASM Mustang to match the one in the photo, there would be no potential mismatch between the real serial number of NASM aircraft and the one in the photo. No specific airman was identified with this airplane, so that aspect also fits the established criteria for selecting unit markings for a Category III aircraft. The museum's Mustang now has the nickname Willit Run? on its nose, an exact duplicate of a known typical P-51D that had flown in combat over Europe. The exhibit label explains these imitation markings.
Restoring Museum Aircraft, 26-27.
As Wade points out, however, subsequent research has thwarted NASM's intentions. The serial and pilot (Fred Lefebre) of the original
Willit Run? are now known, so the NASM's restoration is exposed as inaccurate.
Using "E" instead of "L" was not a so much a goof as a guess. NASM was not setting out to depict a specific aircraft accurately. Since they knew that the serial and nose art were mismatched, it was no big deal that the letter was also mismatched.
August
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