Thunder Mustang

[BLR]

Sorry, a bit off topic but I was wondering if anyone knows what's happening with the production of the Thunder Mustang kit? I know the last company to produce the kit has ceased ops and has the assets up for sale, but rumour is that they may begin production again possibly at the Abbotsford Airport, east of Vancouver BC. Does anyone have any updates?

Thanks.

Brian....

[Bill Greenwood]

Brian, I don't have any info on the little Mustang, but I wanted to ask what is the info on the Hurricane and the hanger in the photo with your post, modern or period? I was fortunate due to Dave Morss to get about a half hour of flight time in the Thunder Mustang before the loss and I was impressed by it. I would much rather have one than any Columbia or Cirrus type I have read about. It really was in the speed range of a real fighter, we were at easy cruise and about 250. The stall seemed normal, and in it handled well. It is roomier inside than a 51 in some ways, and has the same great visiblity. It doesn't sound as good as a Merlin, but not bad. All the tecno gadgets hold little alure for me, a real Mustang has a lot more "right stuff" inside, but this wasn't quite the oven inside that a real one is. It does land a little fast, what it needs is a bit more wing to lower the stall speed. It has enough power and speed without the lesser reliability of a supercharger. Wish there were more little fighters, this and others.

[DCogdon1]

There was a good write-up in one of the British GA mags about the Thunder Mustang - I'm sure I still have it somewhere. I'm also pretty sure I have a couple of short videos downloaded off the net of some test-flying done with it.

The Thunder Mustang has a 75% scale fuselage, but only a 65% scale wing, to allow better penetration through the air (so the article states, from memory!).

There are quite a few flying aircraft and projects about, too.

[BLR]

Brian, I don't have any info on the little Mustang, but I wanted to ask what is the info on the Hurricane and the hanger in the photo with your post, modern or period?

Hi Bill,

The photo is circa 1939 of a Hawker Hurricane Mk.I #311 parked outside of the Trans Canada hangar at Vancouver Airport. Below is a little blurb off the net regarding the Hurricanes that were at Vancouver at the time. Interesting to note that the hangar is still there and is in use. Its one of three wartime hangar still at Vancouver International Airport.

During the fall of 1938 the Canadian government ordered 20 Hawker Hurricanes from the British Air Ministry and the first of these were released immediately. Shipped to Montreal and transported across Canada, they were assembled at Vancouver, B C., the first six being completed by the end of February 1939. All 20 of these aircraft, which were the earlier Mk.I version with the Merlin II engine and the two-bladed Watts wooden propeller., were allocated to No. 1 Fighter Squadron which had moved from Calgary to train on the new fighter. During training in the west two aircraft were lost. On 2 March while taking off at Sea Island Airport, Hurricane No. 314 swerved out of control and crashed into a Ford Trimotor transport belonging to Yukon Southern Air Lines. The Hurricane was completely destroyed and the Ford badly damaged. Fortunately no one was killed, the Hurricane pilot suffering minor injuries. However on 8 June the pilot of No. 317 was not so lucky. While on a routine training flight near Mission, B.C., his engine quit and unable to make a forced landing in this area he baled out but his parachute failed to open. Later in the summer the squadron moved back to Calgary and during September moved further east, first to Ottawa and then St. Hubert where it remained for several weeks acquiring new personnel and aircraft. On 3 November 1939 the squadron began its move to Dartmouth, N.S., where they remained until June 1940 when the squadron was shipped overseas with their Hawker Mk.I and Canadian-built Mk.X Hurricanes.

Thanks for the info on the Thunder stang. We had them flying around the city last summer but didn't get a chance to go see them close up. Nice looking and performing plane from the sound of it.

Brian...

[Roger Cain]

If I recall correctly, although only one raced at Reno in the Sport class in 2006, there were four or five of them flying around on departure day

[flyboyid]

Back in the pits at Reno, among one of the rows of hangars were 4 of 5 of them gathered together. I may be off here, but I was under the impression there was a group/company assembling Thunder Mustangs in one of those hangars at Reno.

[Warren_C]

http://www.americanairracing.com/index.html

[Dave Homewood]

There is a Thunder Mustang here in New Zealand. I know Simon Gault, one of the aircraft's owners and pilots, and he very kindly took me for a flight last year. It's the fastest piston engined aircraft in NZ, and man is it a good ride.

There were indeed five Thunder Mustangs at Reno in 2006. Chris Bromley, another of the NZ aircraft's owners, wrote a very good article in a recent issue of Pacific Wings magazine about the NZ team's trip to Reno.

Simon, Chris, Rob and Bryan are planning to raise a team and take their own Thunder Mustang to Reno next year, and become the first racers to represent New Zealand there.

See their website here
http://www.kiwithunder.com/index.htm

There is also information on the current status of production on the official site here
http://www.thundermustang.com/

[Dave Homewood]

You can read my thoughts about the awesome flight I had on my forum here too

http://rnzaf.proboards43.com/index.cgi? ... 1152429121

Have a look around the forum, there are some superb photos there of the Thunder Mustang

[BLR]

Thanks for the info, reading through some of the sites provided, I was surprised to see how complete the kit offered was, usually kit planes are sold in packages and rarely include firewall forward. From a construction point, the Thunder Stang looks relatively straight forward very much a quick build kit. Would be nice to see these back in production, below is the article on the possible resumption on production. Locally there was a lot of hoopla about this but people are tight lipped about it now. Again thanks for the links and info, I'll be doing a bit more reading on the aircraft.

Brian....

August 14, 2006

Thunder Mustang Comeback?
By Russ Niles, Newswriter, Editor



A Canadian company is considering resuming production of the kit-built Thunder Mustang, a three-quarter scale replica of the P-51 that's been turning heads at the Reno Air Races. The original company closed its doors several years ago but Mike Paller says it wasn't because of the airplane. Paller said there is demand for the $285,000 kit-built plane, which is actually faster than a real P-51 (when flown below 10,000 feet). He's working to acquire the tooling and intellectual property from the existing owners in Oregon and hopes to resume production in Abbotsford, B.C., where he flew it in front of tens of thousands attending the Abbotsford International Airshow on the weekend. The Thunder Mustang is powered by a Falconer V-12 engine that puts out 640 hp, normally aspirated.

[dmx]

Looks and sounds great. If they would use a lightweight-Mustang ( F or G) shape, it would be perfect.

[hairy]

For serious style buy 2 fuselages and 1 set of wings........................

[ThinkingManNeil]

There are two other Mustang replica kitplanes still in production; Legendary Aircraft's composite TF-51 http://www.legendaryaircraft.com and the aluminum airframed Titan T-51 http://www.titanaircraft.com which could more precisely be called an advanced ultralight or Light Sport Aircraft. There used to be a very nice, all-aluminum replica Mustang kitplane available for several years called the Stewart S-51, but since production was transferred overseas to a firm in the Czech Republic http://www.speedcruiser.com/proj_mustang.html a few years ago, the project seems to have ceased according to the Stewart builder's page http://www.seas.ucla.edu/~osmith/s51.

Loehle Aircraft Corporation has produced a wood framed Mustang ultralight replica for some years that is still available http://www.loehle.com/MustangKit.htm.

It seems that the major hurdle with replica Mustangs has always been a reliable, powerful enough powerplant to fit a scaled-down airframe that still retains the Mustang's unique lines. The only piston engines available have been converted auto engines or the Falconer V-12 marine racing engine that the Thunder Mustang employed, and while small turboprops have been proposed over the years, enthusiasts continue to seek for a dependable "Merlin-in-miniature".

So it seems that the Legendary Aircraft Mustang - which is a development of the earlier Fighter Escort Wings (F.E.W.) scale Mustang is your best bet for a replica P-51.

Cheers,

N.

[BLR]

For serious style buy 2 fuselages and 1 set of wings........................

I like that idea !

[ThinkingManNeil]

Hey, that's really neat BLR! I like that!

N.