1979: Reno, Harlingen & Oshkosh

[Sabrejet]

Late in 1979 (40 years ago!) I was given some negatives by a chap who had just returned from a visit to the USA – a trip which covered the EAA fly-in at Oshkosh; the air races at Reno and the Confederate Air Force ‘Airsho’ at Harlingen. Sadly over the decades I have lost the identity of the photographer, so if it’s you please let me know and I’ll correctly attribute these. What surprised me was that many of these aircraft are still flying four decades later, but equally many have been lost. So here goes with the first lot – all P-51s various.

 

1.    Bob Hoover’s P-51D 44-74739/N51RH "Ole' Yeller" at Reno. It is still airworthy, with John Bagley at Rexburg, Idaho.

 

2.    P-51D 44-74427/N2251D ‘Miss Coronado’ landing at Oshkosh while in the ownership of John T Baugh. It now flies with Christian Amara in France as F-AZSB ‘Nooky Booky IV’.

 

3.    P-51D 44-73683/N5551D ‘Jumpin Jacques’ at Oshkosh, at the time owned by John Steinmetz. It’s now on static display as ‘Bunnie’ in 100th FS colours at the San Diego Air and Space Museum.

 

 

4.    P-51D 44-74832/N6310T at the head of an Oshkosh Mustang lineup. At the time of the photo the aircraft was marked ‘Boomer’ on the LH side and ‘One Man’s Pleasure’ on the right. Circa 1981 it was destroyed in a hangar fire but, like many Mustangs that didn’t stop it being recreated and via a tortuous trail the identity now flies as N551TM with Tim McPherson of Page, North Dakota.

 

5.    P-51D 44-74497/N6320T, also at Oshkosh. It is now airworthy in TF-51D configuration as N51LW ‘Little Witch’ with Ariel Luedi in Florida.

 

6.    Steve Hinton’s awesome Griffon-engined RB-51 44-84961/NX51RB, which I still think is the greatest of all air racers. It was a speed record holder too, but sadly it crashed at Reno on 16 September 1979, shortly after this photo was taken. Red Baron was destroyed, though thankfully Hinton somehow survived and is still with us.

 

7.    John Crocker’s heavily-modified P-51D 44-74502/NX51VC ‘Sumthin’ Else’, also at Reno. It was the Unlimited Gold winner at Reno in ’79, ‘Red Baron’ having crashed at the same meeting. Restored after a landing accident as a TF-51D it now flies as N351DT ‘Crazy Horse 2’ with Stallion 51 Corp in Florida.

 

8.    Cavalier Mustang 67-22581/C-GMUS, still wearing its Bolivian Air Force camouflage at Oshkosh. Sadly it has lost its Cavalier tail and camouflage in the intervening years and now masquerades as a P-51D, N151MC ‘Lou IV’ with William Glover in Texas.

 

9.    Saddest of all, 44-15651/N79111 ‘Jeannie’, at Reno with Cliff Cummins aboard. Flying on the US civil register since 1946, this aircraft gained fame as a long-term air racer under names such as ‘Galloping Ghost’, ‘Miss Candace’ and ‘Leeward Air Ranch Special’. Still racing into the 21st Century, N79111 crashed into the crowd line at Reno during the Unlimited Gold heat on Friday 16 September 2011, killing pilot Jimmy Leeward and ten spectators.

 

 

All scanned from the original, quite grotty negatives on a Kodak Mini Digital Film & Slide Scanner, which I cannot recommend highly enough. It gives better results than my old Minolta Dimage scanner, at a tenth of the cost (I see to my amazement that my Minolta now sells for near-enough a grand (£), SECOND HAND!!!

 

More later...

[Malc2]

What fantastic images, thanks for posting!

 

Malc.

[stevehnz]

1 hour ago, Sabrejet said:

More later...

Yes please, those are great albeit tinged with some sadness. I have to agree re the Red Baron, the absolute awesomest.

Steve.

[Sabrejet]

Another mixed bag of emotions:

 

10.    Goodyear FG-1D BuNo 92436/C-GCWX of Canadian Warplane Heritage at Harlingen. Airworthy again after a long period of storage and restoration in the USA, as NX72NW.

11.    F4U-4 BuNo 97286/N5215V ‘Angel of Okinawa’ of Merle B Gustafson, at Reno. It’s now with Kermit Weeks/Fantasy of Flight in Florida and in basically the same colour scheme.

12.    F4U-1A BuNo 17799/N83782 in the colours applied for filming the TV series ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’. Raced at Reno by Jim Maloney as race number ‘0’ and named ‘The Chino Kids’ in reference to its ownership by The Air Museum. It is still airworthy and still with the renamed Planes of Fame museum.

13.    F4U-5N BuNo 122184 NX65HP, owned by Howard Pardue had only recently returned to the USA from the Honduran Air Force and in fact I suspect CAF Airsho ’79 was its first public appearance post-restoration. Re-registered N65WF it is now based at the Stonehenge Air Museum in Montana.

14.    Sea Fury FB.11 WH588/N588 of Lloyd Hamilton was named ‘Baby Gorilla’ and later went to the UK as G-EEMV with Paul Morgan of Ilmor Engineering. Sadly Morgan was killed aboard this aircraft when it overturned on landing at Sywell on 12 May 2001. It is reportedly under restoration in Sweden.

15.    Sea Fury FB.11 VR919/N232J was restored by Frank Sanders at Chino with a longer canopy so that a second seat could be fitted. It raced stateside for a number of years and then spent a number of years in the UK as G-BVOE with Aces High at North Weald. In 1996 it returned to the USA, had an R-3350 engine installed and races very successfully as N232MB ‘September Fury’, latterly with a low-drag cockpit canopy. 

16.    Bell P-39Q 44-3908/N40A owned by Ed Messick & Larry Irvine at Harlingen. This is the ex-air racer ‘Mr Mennen’ and is now statically displayed at the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum in Michigan.

17.    Bell P-39Q 42-19597/NX6968, a CAF-owned aircraft at the time (1979). Now flying with the American Airpower Heritage Flying Museum in Dallas, Texas (P-82C in the air: more on that later too).

18.    F8F-2P BuNo 122674/N7825C of Confederate Air Force. Another ex-CAF machine that now flies with the American Airpower Heritage Flying Museum in Dallas, Texas.

19.    F-8F-2 BuNo 122637/N198F owned by John Gury and raced at Reno. Flies nowadays with Comanche Warbirds of Houston, Texas as N8TF.

20.    Bell P-63C 44-4393/NL62822 was a post-war air racer and competed for many years with clipped wings as ‘Tipsy Miss’ but by 1979 after a few engine issues re-named ‘What Price Speed?’; it later took on the name ‘King Cobra’ and re-gained its wingtips, and was usually raced by Lefty Gardner, who also raced a P-38 ‘White Lightnin’ (of which more later). After a crash on 18 August 1984 it passed to the Fighter Collection at Duxford for restoration and flew on the airshow circuit until it was destroyed in a crash at Essarts-le-Roi in France on 4 June 1990. Pilot John Larcombe was sadly killed. The UK has a sad association with the P-63; its ‘other’ aircraft, G-BTWR was destroyed in a crash at Biggin Hill on 3 June 2001, also with the loss of the pilot.

 

 

I was lucky to see it a couple of times: here at Duxford circa 1989:

 

 

Ten more to go. 

[RidgeRunner]

13 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

8.    Cavalier Mustang 67-22581/C-GMUS, still wearing its Bolivian Air Force camouflage at Oshkosh. Sadly it has lost its Cavalier tail and camouflage in the intervening years and now masquerades as a P-51D, N151MC ‘Lou IV’ with William Glover in Texas.

 



Hi Duncan, 

 

I remember seeing her at Baton Rouge in 1980 in those colours. Very nice :).

 

Martin

[spruecutter96]

A lovely set of images. These racer war-birds were all very classy and evocative. 

 

Thanks for sharing with us. 

 

Chris. 

[RidgeRunner]

11 hours ago, Sabrejet said:

15.    Sea Fury FB.11 VR919/N232J was restored by Frank Sanders at Chino with a longer canopy so that a second seat could be fitted. It raced stateside for a number of years and then spent a number of years in the UK as G-BVOE with Aces High at North Weald. In 1996 it returned to the USA, had an R-3350 engine installed and races very successfully as N232MB ‘September Fury’, latterly with a low-drag cockpit canopy. 

As I remember, my friend Norman Lees ferried this machine from the US, treating us in the operations office to a low run down Gatwick's runway 08 on his return to the UK :).

 

Martin

Edited July 14, 2019 by RidgeRunner

[F-32]

Superb, what a blast from the past!

[Red Dot]

great photos. I saw the Bob Hoover Mustang in Montana a few years ago during a tour.

 

Andy