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babynuke — Fragile but Agile
#aircraft #airplane #airport #mustang #p51 #texas #waco #warbird #aviation
Published: 2015-06-17 00:01:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 567; Favourites: 18; Downloads: 6
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Description
This particular P-51 carries the nickname Fragile but Agile. Manufactured in 1944, it scored two confirmed kills during the Second World WarRelated content
Comments: 7
A very rare example indeed! I believe the sole airworth P-51K model still flying. I have had the fortune to see her a great many times over the years when she was Duxford based. then known as Twilight Tear. But we have also been lucky enough to see her fly in the UK as Fragile but Agile too. A most beautiful machine indeed!
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That's really cool! I had no idea it used to be at Duxford.
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Yes she was resident at Duxford and belonged to the Fighter Collection. She then wore the colours of Duxford based 78th Fighter Group, and named "Twilight Tear". It was believed that this was her true identity.
s291.photobucket.com/user/Biff…
However in 2007 she was shipped over to the States to participate in a mass gathering of Mustangs in Ohio, after which she stayed in the US for restoration work. During this work however, her true identity was discovered, that of P-51K "Fragile but Agile" which she was restored back to. This restoration included the addition of an aeroproducts prop which were unique to "K" model Mustangs. With no link to Duxford however, the Fighter Collection decided to move her on and she was sold to Commanche Warbirds who still own her today and flies regularly as part of the Horsemen display team. This is how she came to fly over Duxford once more, the team participated in the Flying Legends airshow in 2011, and shipped their own aircraft over to do so.
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That's pretty cool. Surprising that the history of this machine was lost for such a long time
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A lot of Mustangs were remanufactured a number of times. Often, stock surplus P-51Ds (and the occasional K) would be rebuilt at a certain time for export or later service, at which time they would be reserialled with their original identification obliterated; other times their original identity would be discarted in favour of a local identification system with secondary operators. Confusion could also arise with parts being swapped out for repairs, either on an accidental basis, or during a rebuild using cannibalised parts from a scrapped aircraft.
In the case of 44-12016, a P-51K-10-NT, she served with the USAAF before being declared surplus, and was among a lot of 161 surplus Mustangs purchased by the Royal Swedish Air Force in 1945. The Swedes designated her as a J26 (J being the local designation for a fighter, and 26 being a type number for a frontline fighter, bomber or attack aircraft), with a local serial number in the 26001-26162 range. It was already at this stage in their career that the Swedes kept poor record; only for a handful of Mustangs the correspondence between their USAAF serials and RSwAF is known.
In 1952, the Mustangs were declared surplus by the Swedes, and 44-12016 was among a lot of 25 sold to the Israeli Air Force, who again used a system of their own to identify the Mustang rather than its USAAF serial number. At one point (either in Swedish or Israeli service) she appears to have been rebuilt with parts of (Swedish) Mustang 26158 (the former 44-63864, a P-51D-20-NA) which later led to confusion.
The P-51s served with the Israeli Air Force until after the 1956 Suez Crisis, after which they were declared surplus. Eventually both 44-12016 and 44-63864 were sold surplus to new owners, and it is at this point the confusion became evident. On the basis of the swapped-out parts marked with its RSwAF service number 26158, 44-12016 was incorrectly identified by its new owner as 44-63864, meaning that there were now TWO owners who thought their Mustang was 44-63864.
The original 44-63864 (Israeli '23') - which had followed a path similar to 44-12016 - was sold, originally to William Lear of Learjet fame, however prior to export it was acquired by William Pierce of INTEXPORT. He attempted to import the Mustang into the US, but it crashed during its ferry flight at Keflavik, Iceland, killing its pilot. 44-63864's wreck was kept in storage, and was saved in the nick of time from scrapping in 1986 by two locals. They sold the wreck, and it ended up with Ron Fagen who restored it to its original state in 2005.
Meanwhile, the 'other' 44-63864 (Israeli '38') had ended up in the Israeli Air Force Museum, where she resided between 1961 and 1978. At one point the decision was taken to return her to airworthiness: she first flew as 4X-AIM in 1984. In 1987 she was exported to Sweden as SE-BKG, where she sported the original Swedish colours of 26158; in 2002 she was exported to the UK where she became 'Twilight Fear'. Following restoration work in 2007, her true identity was uncovered, and '44-63864' became once again 44-12016.
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Wow you really know your mustangs!
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Sometimes it's difficult to untangle all of their tales (or tails XD), but luckily the advent of the Internet has made it a lot easier to find out such things.
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