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The North American P-51 Mustang
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P-51 Who?   Case # 420
45-11546     N51JW     Closed
Solved by: Bill Lamb
P-51 Who 420
Case#: 420
Date: Mar 02 2014
By: Don Vance
Photo: Unknown P-51, Hayward CA early 70's
Status: Closed
Serial: 45-11546
Registry: N51JW
P-51 Who? Viewer Responses
John Kerr
03/10/2014 09:12
Just a guess, N51GP, 44-74483
Bill Lamb
03/14/2014 14:21
I believe this is (might be) 45-11546. A 1972 photograph as N51JW shows common antennas,non cuffed prop,and hump on canopy.
It did service with the Philippine Air Force as RP-C1046,so traces of green on canopy rail and wingtip would be consistent.
Destroyed in a fatal crash in 1982 with owner John Wright.
Curtis Fowles
03/22/2014 15:14
This one is unknown to me and Don Vance. I put a good amount of time into it before posting it trying to come up with a solution. There is not much to go on and what you can match can be changed. I have narrowed it down to my 2 best guesses.
45-11546 N51JW - came back from the Philippines in 1971.
44-74497 N6320T - restored 70/71

N51JW was located in the SF Bay Area. Both have matching parts.
John Dienst
05/04/2014 10:20
Gentlemen:
nCould this Mustang be the P-51D N1751D 44-63675? I know that it received a number of upgrades at Hayward, California in the 1970's.
Bill Lamb
06/17/2014 11:26
This does appear to have the canopy brace in it. Any pictures of 44-74497 I can come up with from that era it does not have a canopy brace, or a color scheme that would have traces of green on it. Plus, I traced down the owner of the Cub in the background, he is 106 years old now, but he remembers looking in the cockpit and seeing 45-11546 on the data plate
Case Closed!
P-51 Mustang

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