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What happened to P-51D-20-NA 44-63473?

Wed Dec 01, 2010 7:20 pm

You might remember a recent thread about a Mustang that recently went to Germany...
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=38765

When I started looking into what I could find documented about the history of this airframe I started to get a bit confused, but then I remembered some of the Mustangs out there have "mixed" pasts and components, swapped data plates/paperwork, etc. When I started to look at it in that light things started to make more sense. With that in mind I believe this is the Mustang (ID at least) that recently went to Germany...
ImageAerial Visuals - Airframe Dossier - North American P-51D-25-NA Mustang, s/n 44-73117 USAAF, c/n 122-39576, c/r N551TF
...and it appears that in 2005 it adopted the ID of this Mustang...
ImageAerial Visuals - Airframe Dossier - North American P-51D-20-NA Mustang, s/n 44-63473 USAAF, c/n 122-31199, c/r N5437V {1}

The question I have is... What happened to 44-63473? Was there not enough to substantiate a project? Were the remains scrapped or parted out to other projects? I would be interested to hear from anyone that may be "in the know".

Mike
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